Sunday of All Saints of Rus’-Ukraine; The Holy Hieromartyr Theodotus, Bishop of Ancyra.
Apostle’s Fast.
Romans 2:10-16; Romans 8:28-39; Matthew 4:18-23; Matthew 5:1-16.
Read Romans 2:10-16
Sometimes we may shy away from social situations we don’t think we’re good at. Anticipated awkwardness can prevent us from engaging in relational encounters that we feel may be difficult for ourselves or the others involved. Other times we may be so confident of our ability to navigate a social situation that we may be oblivious of how ineffectively we are doing so. When that interaction is with someone very different than us, it can be especially challenging. But we are called by our Lord to love, especially those beyond our already established circles of love.
What gets in the way of connecting with people who are different than ourselves? We may think we have the best of intentions to do so but there can be a barrier that we are unaware of because that barrier can be as dear to us as the call to love itself and we may consider it to be a part of it. That barrier occurs when we put others in a different moral category than ourselves.
One of the most unity threatening challenges the Apostles faced was how Jews and Gentiles – both Greeks and “Barbarians” – could be in the same church. St. Paul understood that an error on that matter would distort the truth of the gospel. He addressed that in writing the Letter to the Romans. Paul’s heart-piercing revelation is that it isn’t that other people are just like us, it’s that we are just like them, and that the possibilities in God’s impartial judgment of us all shifts our perspective, opens us to empathy, and provides the opportunity for a more reciprocal posture toward others as we live the gospel until “that day when God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”