Who is your "Them?" Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, we hear the story of Jonah and the Ninevites.  Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh to persuade the Ninevites to repent, change their ways, and follow Him.  This was no small task.  For the Jew of the 1st century BC, Nineveh was the heart of godlessness, immorality, corruption, and crime.  Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire that had conquered and colonized the kingdom of Judah, looted and destroyed the Temple, and carried the Jews into exile.  It was a big metropolitan city where the social and economic law of the “survival of the fittest” reigned supreme.  Materialism was the order of the day in Nineveh.  For pious Jews like Jonah, Nineveh was the godforsaken city populated by lost souls without any hope of change, or of regaining God’s favor.  No wonder Jonah objected so strenuously to God for being sent there.  As far as he was concerned, the mission to Nineveh was nothing but an exercise in futility.  But, as we heard in the first reading, the people who Jonah despised--the sworn enemy of the Jews of that time--heard God’s message as delivered by Jonah, repented, and were saved by God.  No one, especially Jonah, expected that to happen. 

    The first reading is really the story of two calls:  the call of the people of Nineveh to repent and follow God, and the call of Jonah to go out to people he despised to preach God’s message to them.  Them.  The Ninevites were “them” to Jonah.  Enemies.  Heathens.  Low-class citizens.  A people undeserving of God’s love and forgiveness--or even His attention—and most certainly undeserving of Jonah’s time and energy.  Why should he go to…them?

       There are basically just two groups of people, right?  Us… and… Them.  Them.  Certainly our “them” includes our enemies, like with Jonah and the Ninevites.  But, what about the people who we don’t agree with; those we don’t understand; people who don’t look like us, or talk like us, or think like us, or pray like us…they’re them too.  So my question for you today is:  Who is your “them?”  Who is it? Or, who are they?  Republicans if you’re a Democrat?  Auburn fans? People who were born someplace else and who may or may not be documented, like our Spanish-speaking parishioners here at Holy Spirit?  We just celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Sadly, there are still a lot of people whose “them” are those whose skin is a different color.  Or could your “them” be people who are much worse off than you?  The homeless.  The poor.  The mentally ill.  Or, could they be people who are better off than you?   The very rich.  Politicians.  Elected officials.   Just who is your “them?”

     Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have our “them.”  We all have our people we can’t believe that God wants us to talk to…to lend a helping hand to…to…love.  But He does.  He absolutely does!  In fact, our “them” is just who God wants us to help the most.  What did Jesus say?  “You have heard it said ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you … For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?’”  What Jesus calls us to do sounds really hard.  So, how do we do it?        

     First, unfortunately, I’ll bet we don’t have to travel very far to find “them.”  Many are right here.  I’ll bet some of our “them” are seated in this very church, right now.  Well then, let’s start here.  Let’s make them…us.  Let’s bury the hatchet.  Let’s let bygones be bygones.  Let’s focus on our similarities instead of our differences.  Let’s try to understand what makes them who they are, and then try to love them—if not because of it, then in spite of it.  When Kyle was being a rebellious teenager, her mom used to tell her:  I love you, but I sure don’t like you very much.  We are all human.  We can do things that get under people’s skin—sometimes intentionally (although I’m sure that was never the case with Kyle and her mom), and sometimes quite by accident.  But because we are all human, we must forgive each other.  If we don’t, and the hurt is left to fester, then someone who is an “us” could turn into a “them”—and that would be a shame.  It’s ok to disagree.  It’s ok to have our own opinions and to voice them in a respectable manner.  But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t love and respect one another, even in the midst of our disagreements.  From time to time, people are going to make mistakes, or say things without thinking, in the heat of the moment; things that they regret later and wish they’d never have said--I do, a lot more than I care to admit.  That doesn’t mean they’re bad people, and therefore a “them.”

God is calling each one of us to be Jonah; to reach out to a person or group of people who we may not particularly care for, or who we may not understand, or agree with, or know much about, and to spread His Good News to them—the Good News of His  Kingdom.  For the past two Sundays we have heard about “calls”—Samuel’s call in his sleep, to which he answered:  “Here I am Lord;” and Jesus’ call to everyday fishermen—to follow Him.  These men literally gave up everything—job, home, family, security—and answered “yes”—not merely by their words, but by their actions.  That is what God wants from each one of us.  He wants a commitment.  A commitment to love.  And we can start with the people we see the most or know the best:  the person we pass on the street every day and try to ignore; the person at work who we avoid rather than speak to; the family member we have not spoken to in months or even years.  Our “them” doesn’t have to be people shooting at us, or even shouting at us.  They don’t have to be “bad” people.  They could be sitting across the aisle from us—or even right next to us.  For most of us, God is not asking us to change an entire city like Nineveh, or even a school or a neighborhood--at least not all at once.  So… let’s try, say over the next week, to reduce our “them” by just one.  Let’s take someone from our “them” list and put them on our “us” list.  And then maybe a couple more the next week?  And the next?  Before we know it, our “them” list will have shrunk substantially.  It can happen--when we move from being self-centered to being God-centered; from being self-seeking to seeking the will of God, from doing things for our benefit to doing things for the glory of God, and the benefit of humanity.  God didn’t create our “them,” we did.  God hasn’t populated our “them” list, we have.  God says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  And, He also says that everyone is our neighbor.  Simple, but not easy.  But nothing worthwhile is.  And life in heaven, with God, and all the angels and saints, is certainly worthwhile…worth the effort. 

     The season of Lent is a little over 3 weeks away.  Let’s us get a jump on it, shall we? Let’s us start heading for our Nineveh, with open minds and open hearts; and trust me, if you’re like me, you won’t have to walk very far to get there.  Catholic means universal.  Well, you can’t be universal if you’re excluding someone.  So let’s begin our journey to Nineveh today…one step at a time; one smile at a time; one I’m sorry…or I forgive you at a time.  In a few minutes, when we offer each other the sign of peace…let’s mean it.  And at the end of Mass, when we ’re commissioned to: Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life… let’s actually do it.