While we were still sinners, Christ died for us<\/i> (Rom 5, 8)<\/i><\/p>\n
Jesus lives the true religion.\u00a0 Those who follow his example adore the Father in Spirit and truth.<\/p>\n
The worship the Father seeks, according to Jesus, crosses geographical lines.\u00a0 It does not have to be tied to the temple in Jerusalem or to the temple in Samaria.<\/p>\n
It also crosses gender and ethnic lines.\u00a0 It is for women and men.\u00a0 It does not belong exclusively to a racial group; otherwise, it would be proven false for denying the true God who shows no partiality, but accepts rather, without regard to nationality, anyone who fears him and acts uprightly.<\/p>\n
But this impartial God shows a clear preferential option for those in the \u201coutskirts.\u201d\u00a0 He rescues the weak from the strong and the poor from the oppressor.\u00a0 He demands that orphans, widows and foreigners not be oppressed and that their rights to things they need in order to live be respected.\u00a0 And he swears by his life that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather in his conversion, that he may live.<\/p>\n
This God, of course, is revealed by Jesus who is at the Father\u2019s side.\u00a0 He reveals him through words and deeds:\u00a0 he teaches in synagogues and proclaims the Gospel, he cures every disease and illness; he eats with tax collectors and sinners, and makes it clear that he has not come to call the righteous but sinners, and to offer himself for the forgiveness of sins.<\/p>\n
In effect, Jesus teaches that there is opportunity to render worship to God where there is need.\u00a0 If we know, by God\u2019s gift, who is asking us for water at the hottest time of the day, we will end up asking him and he will give us living water:\u00a0 he will lead us to true worship, tell us everything, things that pertain to peace and justice as well as to sexual morality (to which, unfortunately, we tend to reduce the Good News); he will conscientize us, reveal himself as the Son of Man, for whom it is enough to use as basis for final judgment the question of whether we shall have ministered or not to the least of his brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
The pure religion is near us, which consists in caring for orphans and widows in their affliction and keeping oneself unstained by the world that fosters greed, which, in turn, gives rise to divisions, wars, miseries and injustices.\u00a0 It is practiced by the poor who, in contrast to those who grumbled in the wilderness, do not complain amidst their afflictions and needs, as St. Vincent de Paul knew by experience (Coste XI, 201; XII, 171).\u00a0 Nor do they despair when they are left unattended, for example, in the Land Transportation Office, in the Philippines, because they just have 584 Philippine pesos, enough to pay for the license to drive a motorcycle, and they lack the 1,416 demanded as a bribe.<\/p>\n
It would be hard to flee from the marginalized.\u00a0 If we reconcile with them to form one body through the cross, our offering, our religion, will be undefiled before God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"