Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors Program

Inclusion in Worship

Inclusion Awareness Day Workbook 2004

Creating Congregations Where People of All Abilities Participate

Roman Catholic Congregations: Homily Hints

Some years ago a friend of mine who happened to have a physical disability talked about an experience she had with someone who was completely oblivious to her situation as she struggled to open a door to the man’s own store.   “He was,” she said with a wry smile, “severely able-bodied!”  I’ve often thought about that phrase--chuckling a bit at its irony and well aware of its truth.  Some of us can be so caught up in our own world that we are totally unaware of other people’s hopes and needs.

This, I think, is the fundamental message of the scripture passages that are assigned for this twenty-sixth Sunday of ordinary time, particularly the gospel and the first reading.  It also happens to be the powerful message of Inclusion Awareness Sunday.

The searing words of the prophet Amos (Amos 6:1a, 4-7) leave no doubt about the lack of awareness on the part of those Israelites who were content to lay upon their beds of ivory, feasting on lamb and wine while the poor of Israel and the whole nation were on the verge of collapse.  Amos was a firebrand sort of prophet, called unexpectedly, as he says, from being a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores to speak the truth to Israel.  The strong rhetoric of this reluctant prophet has inspired champions of justice for all of Jewish and Christian history.  Martin Luther King drew on Amos’ words in his famous “I have a dream speech” that ignited the civil rights movement.

And could any parable of Jesus be more pointed about the need for “awareness” than the famous story of the rich man and Lazarus found in Luke 16:19-31?  The rich man, who “dressed in purple garments (the scarce and expensive purple die was the mark of wealth in antiquity) and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day,” steps right over poor and starving Lazarus who is on his doorstep.  Only when it is too late does the rich man come to his senses and realize his terrible spiritual blindness.  Luke’s Gospel is very concerned about the poor and many of Jesus’ sayings and parables in Luke are directed to those with resources—forcefully challenging them to be alert to the needs of others.  In God’s eyes Lazarus is not someone to be ignored but a treasured child of God.

Although the Lectionary selections focus on the Bible’s perennial concern about care for the poor, the point of Inclusion Awareness Sunday is broader than that.  Here the concern is for “awareness” of the beauty and potential of others, no matter what their economic status is.  Respecting others as human beings and sons and daughters of God, being aware of their needs just as we would want others to be aware of ours, and working for justice to insure that the gifts of every member of the community are appreciated—this is the underlying gospel message for Inclusion Awareness Sunday.

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P.

           Catholic Theological Union