These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

Thursday, Week XXVIII, Ordinary Time

For we consider that a person is justified by faith
apart from works of the law.
Does God belong to Jews alone?
Does he not belong to Gentiles, too?
Yes, also to Gentiles, for God is one
and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith
and the uncircumcised through faith. (Rom 3:21-30)

Does God not belong to Gentiles too? What a rhetorical question! But right to the point. For if God does indeed belong to the Gentiles . . . then the world is no longer divided between “us and them.” God is for everyone. And that is pretty radical. Maybe that’s why Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father,” because who is not included in that “our?” The video is of the Our Father sung in Aramaic.