Be Tolerant

𝐒𝐄𝐏𝐓. 𝟑𝟎, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓. 𝐉𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐄, 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐙𝐞𝐜 𝟖:𝟐𝟎-𝟐𝟑

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟖𝟕:𝟏-𝟕 “𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐮𝐬.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐋𝐊 𝟗:𝟓𝟏-𝟓𝟔

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒃𝒖𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎.” (𝒗.55) 

To understand this Gospel today we need to go back in time and know the great divide between the Jews and the Samaritans as the people in Samaria are called. This enmity between these two races contradicts the image that we have of the Samaritans as good on account of the parable.

         And this apathy was not without reason and Scriptures tells us that the Israelites themselves brought this culture of hatred upon them. In 𝟐 𝐊𝐠𝐬 𝟏𝟕:𝟐𝟒-𝟒𝟏 it describes how God allowed other nations to invade Israel because of the sins of the people at that time.

         The Israelites were exiled to Assyria, and the Assyrian king brought his people to settle in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. In time, mixed marriages gave birth to a mixed race that were labeled as Samaritans and the Jews hated these so-called half-breeds and the Samaritans in turn also hated the Jews.

         But to go from Galilee to Jerusalem, the Jews needed to pass through Samaria being the shortest route but because of the dispute between the two races, the Jews have to go around Samaria to go to and from Galilee and Jerusalem. This will explain why Jesus had to send an advance party to Samaria to seek their blessing that he and his disciples will be passing thru.

         In effect, what Jesus did was extend an offer of reconciliation, but this was not only refused but rejected as well which was what prompted James and John to seek divine intervention to retaliate against the Samaritans.

         The rejection that Jesus and his disciples suffered at the hands of the Samaritans is no different from our situation today as there are many in the world that we are in who still aren’t prepared to meet Jesus. They will simply reject him because of their unbelief and or because they are not ready yet to give up the world operating in their own lives.

         That Jesus had to go around to go to Jerusalem is what some of us also do when we see or spot a person with whom there is enmity that separates us with the other person. We either take a different path to avoid the person and simply ignore the person as if he doesn’t exist. What we don’t know is that this unforgiveness or apathy that we harbor in our hearts is a form of rejection that is like that which Jesus suffered in Samaria.

         In refusing to forgive we are rejecting Christ because our response as Christians shouldn't be anger and hostility that we harbor as these attitudes use up too much energy that can only damage our hearts.

         Instead, our response should be to do good when and where we can, and when we are rejected we move on to the next open door as what Jesus and his disciples did because there will come a time when that closed door will open and many will come to know Jesus when the time in their hearts is right as what happened to the Samaritans (𝐉𝐧 𝟒; 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝟖).        

Jesus also remained focused on his mission and that not even this rejection by the Samaritans nor by the Pharisees will stop him from going through his passion and death because he knew that this is the only way that the world can be saved from eternal damnation.

         When his disciples followed Jesus to another town after he rebuked James and John for wanting to bring down fire from heaven gives us an example of what true discipleship is all about. Scriptures will tell us that Jesus had to suffer and die before he ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father to reign in glory and the message is that we too have to follow Jesus on the road to Calvary and live a life of sacrifice and die to ourselves before we can also reign with him in glory.

          What James and John learned and what we all must also learn is that we must not be afraid of taking our own journey to our own Jerusalem because to follow Jesus gives us no other choice but to model our lives after him.

If we seek a secure life and shall so decide to return evil for evil as what James and John wanted to do or, surround ourselves with luxury in the face of human need that is around us we will lose our life. And we can only save our life if we follow Christ on the road to Calvary onto the Cross.

          In this Gospel, Jesus teaches us to be tolerant which is a virtue that has long been lost as the people of today have become so uptight probably because of the pressures that the world bring. And intolerance at times moves us to a conviction that our beliefs and methods alone are correct and unknown to us this attitude has become the cause of so much distress and dissension in the church.

          As no man has a monopoly of the truth of God, the kind of tolerance that Jesus is showing us in this Gospel must not be based on indifference but on love which means that we have to look at others with love. Many times we disabuse the word fraternal correction as taught in the Community and we tend to focus on the word “𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐱-𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫” when the process fails.

         But even that passage is not what it seems because for Jesus it simply means there is hope even for a Gentile and a tax-collector to enter the Kingdom of God (𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝟐𝟏:𝟑𝟏) and fraternal correction merely tells us not to lose hope and be tolerant of others by looking at them with love. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘵. 30, 2025)