Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Exodus 22:20-26 – If you are harsh with the widow and orphan, my anger will flare against you

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 17(18):2-4, 47, 51 – I love you, Lord, my strength.

Second Reading:1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 – You broke with idolatry and became servants of God; you are now waiting for his Son.

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40 – The commandments of love.

The world has never been an equal place for everyone. There have always been people who have been short-circuited in the realm of things either by their environment or by some other socio-political circumstances in which they found themselves. There has always been those protected by the law of the land, and those who are left to fend for themselves. In the Old Testament, these people who found themselves in the “other side” of the society are referred to as “the weak ones of the society”. However, the defense and protection of the weak ones in the covenant community of God’s people is a frequent theme in the OT. This is where the covenant community differs from its neighbouring communities. Because of their own life experiences in their long and chequered history, the Israelite community took time to ensure that the protection of the weak ones of the society is adequately enshrined in their law. Three main groups constitute what is referred to as the weak ones of the society namely, the resident alien, the fatherless and the widow.

Resident Alien: The Hebrew word gēr refers to someone who for some reasons bordering on the need for security and livelihood, settles in a community other than his own. He is between the native-born (since he is indeed a stranger by origin), and the pure foreigner (since unlike the latter, he has been accepted on a permanent basis into this country. The Israelites themselves were resident aliens (gērîm) in foreign lands, especially in Egypt. Covenant law recognizes and protects the gēr by forbidding all forms of oppression against him because of the danger of insecurity since the person is far from home. Today, there are gērîm in our midst. The question is: How do we treat them? Forget about Europe-Africa dichotomy; what I have in mind here is the gērîm embedded in many of our African communities. In Igbo land of Nigeria for instance, there osu or ohu caste system is still entrenched in some communities even in this 21^st century. These people are resident aliens who, for some inexplicable reasons, are not treated as “citizens”. They are not pure foreigners, since the story of their settlement in the town dates back many centuries ago. And even those reminding them that they are not citizens cannot say from where they came because the history has been lost. They contribute to the socio-economic development of the community; yet, some rights and privileges are denied them. The example of the covenant community of Israel should spur us to rethink about the injustices meted out to such people. Our native laws should protect them because they belong to the weak ones of the society.

The Fatherless: The word yātôm in Hebrew refers to the fatherless or orphan. However, there is no Old Testament instance that makes it clear that both parents are dead. It could just mean that the person is literally fatherless (so that the mother might still be alive). In any case, the emphasis is not on whether only the father or both parents are dead. They are regarded as the needy ones of the society because, in a patriarchal system like that of Israel where the father is the bread winner, the loss of that breadwinner while one is still under-aged exposes one to a serious social insecurity. Such people don’t have any means of sustenance since they are “fatherless”. Yet, they are part and parcel of the covenant community. The law which provided for the “stranger” would very much provide for them. But in our own context, not only that many of such people in our midst are not being provided for, some of them are actually being exploited. There have been stories of how some of their inheritances have been taken from them and how some are forced into child labour and child prostitution by people who were supposed to provide for them. Many years ago back in Nigeria, I confronted and subsequently exposed one woman who had an NGO. The problem was that her purported NGO was supposed to carter for the fatherless. But what she was doing was to just gather those innocent kids and snap them pictures, and with those pictures (usually snapped in a dirty background and with the children dressed in tatters to give the maximum impression that they are indeed poor) she comes abroad here in Europe to solicit for funds. However, none of those funds ever reached those children. None of the children was being trained in school or even fed. The children were just more than glad to pose for pictures. They did not even know what their pictures were being used for. This was a clear case of exploiting the fatherless instead of providing for them.

The Widow: The place of the widow in the covenant community was a deplorable and pitiable one. To lose one’s husband in Israel (just like in many tribal communities in Africa) was to find oneself in a most disgraceful situation. The widow’s pitiable condition is evident in such touching accounts as we read in 1Kings 17:8-15 and 2Kings 4:1-7. Obviously her situation is rendered more desperate when she also has children, namely, the fatherless, as was the case in the above two texts. It was situations like this that made the covenant law to provide for them. The situation is still with us in many of our cultural societies. As the new people of God, the onus rests on us to not only speak out against such heinous practices against the widows but also to take concrete steps to ensure that as part of the weak ones of the society, they are provided for.

Apart from these three examples, the covenant law provides for the poor generally. This is why the first reading also warns against lending money and playing the usurer; or taking one’s cloak as a pledge. Imagine if you take a poor man’s winter jacket during winter. The winter cloak is an essential wear during winter and should not be used as a pledge.

Finally, Jesus emphasizes in the Gospel that love of God and love of neighbour are two sides of the same coin. One cannot genuinely exist without the other. A community that doesn’t provide for the weak ones of the society cannot genuinely claim to know or love God, no matter the number of churches they built or how magnificent those churches are.