Extra, Extra Six: "I've Never Felt Like A Stranger at Home", Luke 19:28-40

The Ordinary Times

In a letter to the editor from 1992, a Japanese-American guest columnist told how he never felt like an outsider on the small farm in Utah that he was raised on. His parents were first and second-generation Americans and they raised all of their children as Americans. As far as the author was concerned, he looked, acted, felt and was perceived as 100 percent American. That is great for him. But it is not universal for everyone. I know this because the letter to the editor was in response to an earlier article by another Japanese-American writer. It was an April 29 Op-Ed entitled "Bashed in the U.S.A."

Sometimes people can technically be in the same group, yet their similar experiences can be recorded differently depending on their perspective. But this phenomenon isn’t only a racial one, but it can also be religious. That difference in perspective can affect your fidelity to your faith when there is friction between you and fellow believers.

We can see a similar thing happening in this Palm Sunday’s Gospel reading of Luke 19:28-40. All four Gospels share a version of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem before his Passion Week. Yet, the different details and their foreshadowing on future events by the end of the week show similar experiences can be recorded differently depending on the perspective. Luke tells how his followers praise Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem as a triumphant king, while criticized by his enemies the Pharisees. Other Gospels pictures it as a generally jubilant crowd. Yet this image will be juxtaposed later with that of crowds who called for him to be crucified, in chorus with his enemies the chief priests. Jesus’ experience takes the ethnic and nationalistic experience of the two Japanese-American writers and expands it to be a religious experience as well. Today we will explore that area even more with my friend Dr. Ansel Augustine. He is the author of the new book, “Leveling the Praying Field: Can the Church We Love, Love Us Back?” In it he explores the contemporary and historic experiences of Black Catholics in their relationship to the Church at large