“God is just too busy loving us to have any time left for disappointment,” writes Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J. The Jesuit priest has spent more than 20 years working with gang members in Los Angeles and has a different perspective than many of us. The heart and the genius of his ministry is that he sees each person he works with, not as a member of a certain gang, but as a human being worthy of a deep love – the same love God showers on us. He founded Homeboy Industries as a place where the gang members find jobs and work side by side with former rivals. As these new co-workers are introduced, the initial wary looks at each other are usually replaced with companionship and even friendship over their mutual work and their shared humanity. Boyle’s immeasurable love for each of them as individuals sees beyond their past actions and straight into their humanity. The image of former gang members sharing jobs and friendships with each other reminds me of today’s feast of Sts Simon and Jude. We know very little about either of them, only that they were one of the 12 called by Jesus, as Luke’s Gospel tells us, after “Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” It was then that he came down and chose the 12. And what an eclectic group it was! Look at the names in today’s Gospel, the chosen ones: Peter was bombastic, impulsive and full of fear, and Jesus chose him to lead. James and John quarreled over who would sit next to Jesus in the Kingdom they misinterpreted. Matthew was a tax collector. And today one of the saints honored is Simon the Zealot. The zealots were a sect of Jews who believed deeply that God’s promise to them meant freedom from oppression. With all of his heart, he would have believed that paying taxes to an occupying force – the Romans – was wrong. Whose name is listed three above Simon’s in the Gospel? Matthew the tax collector, the man who would have been despised for helping the Romans to collect money from the Jews. We can imagine their initial meeting, at some gathering with Jesus. Their hostility and suspicion of each other could only be healed by the great and unstoppable love Jesus offered to them as individuals. They were not Matthew, the hated Roman Helper or Jude the Zealot. They were two men, deeply loved by Jesus and his presence must have helped them see beyond the insurmountable barriers and to gaze deeply into the humanity of each other. Today’s first reading sums it up neatly: Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, |