All, all, all. The house of God is a home "for all" (Is 56,6-7)
Riflessioni bibliche di Suor Donna McGartland* pubblicate sul sito dell’associazione LGBT+ cattolica New Ways Ministry (Stati Uniti) il 20 agosto 2023, liberamente tradotte con Google Translate, revisione di Innocenzo Pontillo
"All those who… keep to my covenant, I will lead them to my holy mountain and make them happy in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples» (Is 56,6-7).
Did I really read that line of today's first liturgical text correctly? ALL those who keep the covenant? Is God's house of prayer for ALL people? Not only for those who are baptized or who go to church on Sunday, not only for those who read the Bible or for those who have been ordained or confirmed or who find themselves in conditions that others impose on them.
Isaiah makes it clear that ALL who embrace God's Covenant, including foreigners who lovingly serve in the name of the Lord, will live on God's holy mountain.
Today's gospel reading also challenges those who think differently and who set their own conditions for the acceptance of others.
In this reading of Matthew, Jesus seems to be in a struggle. A Canaanite woman, a pagan, begs him for healing for her daughter. Jesus claims to have been “sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel“. He goes so far as to say to this foreigner: “It's not right to take children's food and throw it to the dogs.". She, however, claims her rightful place and continues to plead. “Please, Lord, even dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their masters' table".
His words deeply touch Jesus and he changes his attitude, responding with admiration: "O woman, great is your faith!” Your daughter will be healed.
I often wonder what Jesus was really thinking and experiencing at that moment. He essentially compared this woman to a dog. Did he really believe what he said? This is not the Jesus I have come to know, a God who seeks the lost and frees those who are bound. What was really happening at that moment?
I believe Jesus was really addressing his disciples when he spoke to the Canaanite woman. It was his disciples, after all, who insisted that the Stranger, the Canaanite, was not worthy of his attention. Jesus addresses the woman using the words of the disciples. The woman, however, addressed Jesus as a true Israelite. “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!”.
This woman was truly holding on to the covenant mentioned in Isaiah. It's almost as if Jesus was inviting her to embrace this truth and when she did, he responded by praising her faith. Jesus' disciples must have been confused.
It's not difficult to make the leap from the Canaanite stranger to those of us who identify as LGBTQIA+ people. I remember being at a mass where the homily was all about the evils of being an LGBT person. I was deeply hurt, not only because he belittled LGBT people, but because everyone who heard his words heard something that was contrary to Jesus' message of love. I prayed, “Son of David, have mercy on him.” I knew those words did not come from God; nor from our Gospel.
The house of God is a place where all are welcome and invited “to rejoice in [God's] house of prayer.” As Isaiah proclaims: “My house will be a house of prayer for ALL people.”
Anything contrary to this message is simply not keeping to the covenant that Jesus summarized by calling us to “to love God with all your heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves“.
May we all embrace this call to love and so dwell in God's House of Prayer here on earth.
*Sister Donna McGartland is one of the authors of the book “Love Tenderly: Sacred Stories of Lesbian and Queer Religious” published in Italy with the title “In justice and tenderness. In justice and tenderness. Sacred stories of lesbian and queer religious women” (Effatà publishing house, 2022, 272 pages).
Original text: A House of Prayer for ALL Peoples
