Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free person,
there is not male and female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:26-28)
We spend so much time in our lives trying to categorize people.
Generally, we do so in order to determine who “belongs” and who does not belong. We use the categories to reward people as well as to keep people down. We place them into all sorts of areas. We categorize according to height, weight, sex, color, political persuasion, ethnicity, ability . . . the list goes on and on.
We make people know whether or not they belong.
If they belong, we greet them cheerfully. If they do not belong, we exclude them and tell them to leave our presence.
And then we have St. Paul who tells us that there are no categories. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. There is only unity in Christ.
We are one!
While this should be good news, to many people, these are words by which to fight. They do not want equality. They do not want to think that everyone is a brother or sister in the Lord. Why? Because if they agree that is the case, they will realize that they have a responsibility to all people. They cannot put people down. They cannot categorize. They cannot claim to be superior.
However, the truth is the truth.
The only one superior to us is God.
We are His children.
Therefore, we are brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Let us celebrate that reality this day.
FAITH ACTION: Reflect upon the words of the song, One Bread, One Body.