The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Eph 3:6)
R. You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation. (Is 12:3)
How is it that we can draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation? Because God has called us all, Jews and Gentiles alike. We are all invited to drink freely of salvation in Christ Jesus. For those who want a “smaller, purer church,” well, they are bound to be a bit disappointed. But indeed, the question about the Gentiles was an issue in the early church that threatened to destroy the church itself. Perhaps, when the scriptures talk about Jews and Gentiles, and the issues of circumcision and food laws, we can feel a bit lost. But for anyone who has ever walked into a Tridentine Mass by accident can attest, the divisions between the “saved” and the “damned” are real and very ugly in this church of ours. Of course, there are people who want to go back to the “old ways” and live in the past, thinking that the security of rules and regulations of the past will save them from this terribly confusing modern world in which we find ourselves. But going back to the "way things used to be" is a fiction, there’s no time machine that will take us back to some perfect past. No matter how appealing, we can’t live in the past. We are called to be missionary disciples in this very divided and infected world. And the question comes again to the church, “What will we do with the Gentiles?” Perhaps, we all need to be reminded that charity invites us to accept the “Gentiles” as “coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” We are called not to the waters of Marah, the waters of bitterness (Exodus 15:22-27). We are called to draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation which is Christ Jesus.
The picture today is of the baptistery of the Cathedral of Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
