THE MESSAGE OF TODAY'S MASS is a very important one: the attitude of Jesus and hence of his followers to the outsider.

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No outsiders

In one sense, for the Christian there is no outsider. Every single person as a child of God is my brother and sister. External differences such as the colour of one's skin, one's ethnic origins, one's nationality, the work one does, one's marital status or sexual orientation are all in themselves totally irrelevant. God loves all equally and he expects us to do the same.

The only outsiders are those who make themselves so, those who spurn the outstretched, loving hand of God and choose to stay in outer darkness. But, even for these, God's love is there waiting patiently like the father awaiting the prodigal to come back to his senses.

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A request for healing

After Jesus had finished the Sermon on the Plain (although we do not necessarily have to think it represents teachings all given at one time), he went into Capernaum, the base from which he operated when in Galilee. Almost immediately he is met with a request for healing but this one is somewhat different. It will set the stage for developments which will take place and be described later in the Acts of the Apostles (also by Luke).

The story concerns the slave of a centurion. A centurion was an army officer with - as his title indicates - one hundred men under him. This one may have been attached to King Herod Antipas' forces and to the Roman garrison in the town. He was not necessarily a Roman but he was certainly not a Jew. He was a Gentile outsider. As we will see from his relations with his slave and the local Jews, this particular man was a very good person.

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A beloved slave

His slave, who was very dear to him, had fallen seriously ill. (While rightly we denounce the practice of slavery, there is no doubt that there were masters who treated their slaves with great kindness and there were slaves utterly devoted to their masters and who were perfectly happy in their life situation. The emancipation of slaves in the United States must have been regretted by many slaves who thus lost a lifetime of security. Yet the abolition of slavery was absolutely right.)

Undoubtedly, the centurion had heard the stories of what Jesus was doing by way of healing and wondered if his slave could also be helped. However, as an outsider he did not dare to approach Jesus personally. Instead, he sent a delegation consisting of Jewish town elders. These were not necessarily from the local Sanhedrin or ruling council but more likely respected members of the local Jewish community. They apparently were only too willing to help because they said he was very friendly to the Jews and had even built a synagogue for them.

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Cultural sensitivity

While the centurion heard that Jesus was on his way to the house, he immediately sent word that it was not necessary for Jesus to come personally. As a friend of Jews, he knew that a devout Jew, and especially a rabbi, could not enter the house of a Gentile. He did not want to be a source of embarrassment for Jesus.

It could also be a confession of his own sense of moral unworthiness. "I am not worthy that you should come under my roof", he said - words which we now use every time we prepare to approach the table of the Eucharist. In the same way, he himself felt unworthy to be approached by Jesus. He believed that Jesus had only to say a word and his slave would be made whole again.

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Special authority

He recognised the very special authority that Jesus had, an authority, in some respects, not unlike his own as an army officer. He had only to say "Go" to a soldier and he went; he only had to say "Do this" and it was done. Jesus could do the same. Jesus is amazed at the man's faith. "I have never found such faith, even in Israel." When the messengers returned to the centurion's house, they found that the slave was totally well again. Even words of healing had not been spoken; the crucial element was this outsider's faith in Jesus.

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Need for faith

The key factor in this healing story is clearly the faith of the Gentile, a faith which Jesus said he had never encountered even among his own people. This experience will be repeated in the early Church as the first Christians, all Jews, begin to realise that the Gentiles too are being called to follow Christ and that their Spirit-filled faith can be as strong as that of any Jew. For us today it is a reminder that Jesus can reveal himself to the most unlikely persons and that we must never presume that a person is unfitted for the Christian life based on past behaviour or any other characteristics. God can call anyone and he does.

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Accepting Gentiles

This Gospel story clearly paves the way for the reception of Gentiles into the ranks of God's people. In the early part of the Acts of the Apostles this is a very divisive issue. The first Christians saw themselves as a continuation of the covenant history and maintained very close links with their Jewish traditions. We still find them, for instance, going to the Temple to pray, practising circumcision, avoiding forbidden ("unclean") foods and so on. But both Peter and Paul have experiences which make it clear that the Spirit of God and Jesus can enter the hearts of people regarded up to this as religious outsiders. It became perfectly clear that these 'heretics' and 'infidels' could respond to the call of the Spirit and clearly show in their lives the working of God's Spirit.

The First Reading shows hints of this already way back in a much earlier time of Jewish history. Praying before the altar in the temple he himself had built, Solomon prays to the Lord. He prays on behalf of the foreigner, who with good intentions,"for the sake of your name", comes to the temple to pray. He asks that God give such a person all he asks. "So that all the peoples of the earth may come to know your name and, like your people Israel, revere you."

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Paul and the Gentiles

Today also we begin a series of readings from Paul's Letter to the Galatians. Galatia was a Roman province in what is now Turkey. In writing this letter Paul is very concerned that Christians there are coming under the influence of some Jewish converts who want to impose on their Gentile brothers and sisters their own Jewish traditions and one gets the impression that the Galatians are yielding to that influence.

Paul is very angry about this. He feels that the Christian message is being distorted, especially that the new Christians are being forced under the straitjacket of the Law, the one thing that Christianity frees them from. Paul has no problem with Jewish converts continuing to observe many of their own traditions but he objects very strongly to these traditions being imposed on Gentile converts. These traditions are not part of following the Gospel.

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Backward step

The most controversial of these is circumcision, which the Jewish converts felt was an essential sign of belonging to the covenant. But it had been formally agreed at the Council of Jerusalem (described in the Acts of the Apostles) that circumcision would not be imposed on Gentile converts. Now here there are some Jewish converts, themselves circumcised, going around trying to persuade the Gentiles that they, too, should be circumcised as well as following other traditions.

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No outsiders

This actually is highly relevant to the theme of today's Mass: for God there are no outsiders. However, even when we are ready to accept the outsider into our group, we have to be careful not to impose on him or her obligations which, though important to us, are not of the essence of belonging. In the missionary work of the Church all over the world, huge numbers of people were brought to know Christ. In the process, though, it must be admitted that we not only converted them to Christ but presented it in European dress. In so doing, converts were often alienated from the best of their own culture. There were, of course, a few outstanding exceptions such as Matteo Ricci and his companions during the Ming dynasty in China.

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Essentials

The same applies in our outreach to other Christian churches as we seek ways to pray and worship together in Christ. Is everything we do as Catholics essential to the practice of the Christian Gospel? Are particular traditions of fellow churches not practised by us necessarily to be changed? On the road to church unity we realise that it is not a question of "them" coming to "us" but of all of us reaching a common unity amid a great deal of diversity in ritual and practice.

Within our own Catholic Church, there are elitist groups who try to impose on others what they believe to be "true Catholicism", which very often involves going back to the days preceding the Second Vatican Council. Their activities are very similar to those people who are criticised by Paul in his letter to the Galatians.

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Open to all

Today's readings teach us to be very open to all those who are seeking God in their lives. Some are not even using the word God. They may not be coming to the Church because 'church' has unpleasant and undesirable connotations for them. They want to find the truth, they want to find meaning and direction. It is for us to reach out with gentleness and sensitivity so that they can eventually find that, within a sinful Church, there is a message and a Person that does give meaning and direction. We do not know what happened to the centurion in today's Gospel. He only asked that his slave be cured and that is what Jesus did for him. There was no talk of conversion but the man's faith in Jesus was highlighted. That was and still is the necessary and sufficient foundation on which to build.