Coffee With God

Reflection: Luke 8:1-3

This passage follows immediately from yesterday’s gospel about the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus is accompanied by the chosen Twelve, and Luke mentions also of many women in the group of Jesus. They helped Jesus and his disciples with their material needs. Luke must have been challenging his community to recognise the significance of the role of women as partners in the life of the Church. Perhaps the early Christian community was fighting a number of social imbalances and discriminations on the basis of religion and gender. Acceptance of non-Jewish people as members of the Church – the Gospel for the gentiles – was also a focal point of Luke. Luke would go on to record in detail the conversion of Cornelius, the gentile soldier, in the Acts of the Apostles. It was a patriarchal society where women had no voice in the society. But Jesus challenges the unjust social system. In the plan of God, he created humans as equals and partners. In this passage, by raising the point of many women accompanying and supporting Jesus and his disciples by providing them with material support, Luke acknowledges the significant role the women had in the mission of Jesus. In fact Jesus was introducing a revolution – against all kinds of discriminations and rejections. He dared to be a guest of the tax collectors and public sinners. Chose a tax collector to be one of his apostles. Defended even prostitutes from public trail and execution. Travelled to the gentile territories to bring them healings and liberation. He has called his disciples to the freedom of the children of God. And in today’s Gospel, there is a special mention to Mary Magdalene – a sinful person. In the Church, there’s no space for any sort of discriminations – on the basis of religion, gender and sexual orientations, ethnicities and nationalities. Unfortunately, the situations have not changed even today from the time of Jesus. People in our communities face a lot of discriminations and rejection because of their nationalities, colour, language and religion. Church has always been accused of being patriarchal, with practically little role for women in the scheme of things until recent times. Pope Francis has called for greater roles for women in church leadership, noting in “Querida Amazonia” that “women have kept the Church alive…through their remarkable devotion and deep faith.” In January this year, he modified the canon law to open the lay ministries of lector and acolyte to women. Let us consider one another as partners and not as superiors or masters against slaves and servants.