8 March. SEE.   3rd Sunday of Lent A. SEE.  Having been active in the liberation struggle in South Africa Fr Fidelis was conscious of discrimination   So he began by asking, “Should Jesus have spoken to the Samaritan woman? Today that might seem OK, but in Jesus’ day Jews did not speak to Samaritans, or men to women in public and certainly not women with a bad reputation. Jesus rejects norms and treats the woman with respect. Is it just to judge others who are different? 

Let’s face it there is all kinds of prejudice and discrimination in parishes and families.  How should we handle that, with the community or the persons themselves?  It can be towards the poor, or divorced people in church, or against LGBT+ persons whether they choose to form a same sex union or not. Other issues of discrimination are against a pregnant teenage girl, while young people bully and discriminate against one another on all kinds of grounds.  In traditional cultures widows may suffer from discrimination by their in-laws.  In some societies homosexuality is still regarded as a crime and punishment can be quite severe.  Pope Francis has said this is unjust and cannot be seen as criminal.      

St Francis included a chapter on mission to non-believers in his Rule, emphasizing peaceful co-existence as the foundation for every mission.  His meeting with the Muslim Sultan in Damietta during the time of the Crusades still serves as a strong impetus and example for dialogue among peoples and religions today.  Pope Francis and Pope Leo have done much in this area too.      

JUDGE, reflect and share. Scripture: The woman said to him, “Give me this water that I may not thirst.  Just then the disciples came. They marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “Why are you talking with her?” John 4:5-42.  Pope Francis: Overcoming a legalistic perspective in Sacred Scripture, justice is essentially the faithful abandonment of oneself to God’s will. FM20.   A pastoral approach, towards those in a civil marriage, who are divorced and remarried or living together, gives the Church the responsibility to help them understand the teaching of grace and offering them assistance so they can reach the fullness of God’s plan for them. The baptised who are divorced and civilly remarried need to be more fully integrated into Christian communities in the variety of ways possible, while avoiding any occasion of scandal. AL 298-9.  Pope Leo: The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice. Yet, there are those who still presume to make these claims, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty. DT14.

REFLECT-SHARE-ACT-PRAY. Prejudice is an attitude and discrimination a behaviour.  Discuss and consider what attitudes and behaviours should be rooted out in your family?  How do “the cry of the poor” and “the cry of the earth” speak to discrimination on various grounds?