Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

A Feast of Solidarity

“Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.”  The religiously good people of Jesus’ day may not have had that saying, but that was surely what some of them felt towards Jesus’ association with the “sinners” of their society.

For them, no self-respecting Jew would have spent so much time in the company of tax collectors and prostitutes. But these were the very people Jesus spent time with and broke bread with.  Such a strange attitude was there right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, at his baptism.

John the Baptist asked Jesus, “Why are you here with all the sinners? You don’t belong with them.” But Jesus told him that he knew what he was doing.

In effect, Jesus was saying, “I am part of the human family, and if human beings have turned against God or each other, I won’t distance myself from them. I won’t claim immunity, even though I might have a right to. The human family is my family and I’m part of them.” (St. Paul was getting at the same thing in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote that Jesus didn’t regard divinity as something to be held onto but was willing to empty himself to be like us.)

This season of the year when the Church celebrates the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, you might find some value in thinking about how you see Jesus standing with you, not just at your best but also at your worst, and about how you stand with others at their best or their worst.