Welcome: Lent XV

 . . . the Galileans welcomed him . . . 

 - From John 4

The "Other." There's so much talk about "the Other."

But we all have an "other." Even the "politically correct" of our time, that preach about our irrational "fear" of "the Other," fear an "Other" of some sort.

The detestation that a Trump hater has of Trump backers, is exactly the same as the feelings of the worst kind of racist. It derives from the same part of the brain that drives us to mistrust whatever is different.

We come into the world, as a part of a family. Members of a family share DNA, immutable traits. They resemble each other. They talk like each other. And even if they end up in disparate political camps, they behave like each other. And these DNA components of a person are more important that something superficial like political leanings.

At the end of life, these hard-wired commonalities of families is what brings them back together. As friends pass away . . . the ones you called "family," we are left, more and more, with family that, by default, is there for us . . . if we're lucky,

We do prefer the familiar. It's how we're made. Yes, we're born that way. And it's good that we are. We need to belong. We need to know that we are not so distinct as to have no place on the earth. When a person chooses to leave the familiar, and home, and family (notice that "family" and "familiar" are from the same root), then it represents a failure on the part of families, and the Church.

And yet, Christ was not accepted by His own. (Isn't that the point). Strangely, and ridiculously, families operate to pull down someone with remarkable gifts. You would think that Jesus' family, his neighbors growing up, in Nazareth, would support and encourage Him! Isn't it good for all of us, if one of us succeeds?

And so, too often, the gifted person has to go outside his own home, and family, to find success. And more often than not, when he succeeds, he still ends up sharing his bounty with those that rejected him.

 . . . which brings us full circle. This is why we are supposed to embrace aliens. A person with great gifts, and value, gets rejected by his own; and then wanders until he finds a place where he can succeed.

Be the ones that welcome such people. But before you do that . . . make sure you do not drive away that dreamer, that slightly odd person, from out of your own family, and town.