The first reading at Mass today is from the third letter of
John. It includes a reference to strangers that can cause confusion. So a quick
note.
“Beloved,’ writes John, “you are faithful in all you do for
the brothers, especially for strangers; they have testified to your love before
the church. Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey.”
(3 John 1:5-6)
It’s fair and proper to read the passage trying to figure
out what John thought about strangers. However, this specific passage is not
about the proper attitude toward strangers in general; it’s about a pretty
specific group – about traveling missionaries. Help them, he says.
People who want to use Scripture to justify protecting
Christian refugees in Syria while rejecting Muslim refugees can use (abuse)
this passage. John says, help these particular people, because they are ours.
That implies that there are other strangers whom we won’t help because they aren’t
ours. The passage can be used (abused) to justify building a wall, at least in
your heart, between good refugees and bad refugees.
To justify walling out Mexicans (all rapists) and Muslims
(all terrorists), you can use this passage. Grab it, if you are an abusive cherry-picker! But people who recall what
Jesus said about Samaritans and robbers might want to embrace this passage – and also look at other texts which demand that we expand our definition of “neighbor”!