Emmanuel
EUCHARIST: LIVING & EVANGELIZING
With Whom Does Jesus Stand,
With Whom Do We Stand?
by Peter Schineller, SJ
Jesus was known by the company he kept, those with whom he spent time and
those who were the focus of his ministry.
W
e come to know a person by what he or she does and says. We also
Father Peter
Schineller, a
native of New
York City, has
taught theology
in Chicago,
Illinois, and
Cambridge,
Massachusetts,
and served in
administrative
and teaching
posts at the
Catholic Institute
of West Africa in
Abuja, Nigeria,
and Hekima
College in
Nairobi, Kenya.
He is currently
assigned to The
Jesuit Center in
Amman, Jordan.
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know a person by the friends, companions, and associates and
those with and for whom he or she stands.
This is very much true of Jesus Christ. We have his words and actions
in the Gospels, and we also have those companions and persons he
chose to be near and associate with. As we will see, it is a remarkable
group, and not the normal group that a great leader would choose.
But Jesus was no ordinary great leader. He was also a great teacher,
teaching us not only by his words but also by his example.
To examine who Jesus associated with — who he stood with and for
— we could turn to any of the four Gospels. But here we will turn to
and focus on the Gospel of Luke, which has been called the Gospel
of the poor and for the poor. As we will see, there is good reason for
that. As portrayed by the evangelist Luke, Jesus is giving a direction
to his followers and disciples. He is also setting or giving a direction
through them to the church, namely, that it is to be a church of and
for the poor.
Pope John XXIII, in 1962, wished that the Second Vatican Council
should be concerned with making the church recognizable as the
church of all people, but especially a church of the poor. One of the key
documents of the council, Gaudium at Spes, the Pastoral Constitution
on the Church in the Modern World, echoes this view with its oft-cited
opening words: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties
of the men and women of this age, especially those who are poor or
in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and
anxieties of the followers of Christ” (1). Pope Francis has continually