Though she has been spreading the gospel for more than a decade, Meg Hunter-Kilmer's love for Jesus grew even more when she immersed herself in commentaries that explained the cultural context of His words and actions. As she expresses in her recent book Eyes Fixed on Jesus, Volume 1, Meg came to believe that the ways in which Jesus affirmed people's dignity was just as important as His physical healings.
Take Jesus' healing of the woman who was bleeding for 12 years as an example. Not only was her ailment cured, but Jesus called her, "Daughter," conveying that she was a beloved child of God who should be embraced, not ostracized, by society. Why is that affirmation so important?
"This is the big question of what it is to be human," Meg observed during a Christopher Closeup interview. "Am I as good as you are by my very existence? This is something that we're still wrestling with today. Does people's immigration documentation status make them less valuable as human beings? Does people's race or ethnicity make them less valuable? Does people's status as being born or unborn make them less valuable? . . . Jesus makes it clear again and again, there's nothing [that makes anyone less valuable]. He comes to women, to the unclean. He's going to Samaritans and to Gentiles, to Roman oppressors. He's actually doing good deeds for the people who are trying to destroy the people of God. And Jesus is making it clear to us that every person is equal in dignity."
While this concept should be familiar to us today, it wasn't in Jesus' era, when a human being's value was based on status. Then along comes Jesus with His Sermon on the Mount, declaring, "Blessed are the poor." This contradicted people's beliefs that the poor were cursed; that's why they were poor. Again, Jesus affirmed that everyone was equal in dignity. Meg explained, "Enslaved pagan women are just as valuable as the high priest. That's a radical and revolutionary thing and something that continues to be a challenge for us today. . . . Jesus came in with an incredibly demanding message, particularly for those who were good Jews."
In essence, Jesus made it clear that outward religious practices were not enough to please God. The same holds true today. Meg noted, "These are the people who are doing all the right things, who are religious in all of the right ways. This is Jesus coming to us who listen to Catholic radio and saying, 'Yes, very good! But do you actually love your sister-in-law? Do you actually live a sacrificial life so that the poor can live a meaningful life? Do you actually follow the gospel?' . . . If the gospel doesn't challenge you, man, you're just not reading it." As devoted as Meg remains to Jesus and spreading His message, she encounters times of darkness in life, like we all do. How does she respond?
"For me, everything is about sitting with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament," Meg concluded. "When I am an absolute wreck, the thing that I need more than anything is just to get in front of a tabernacle and pour my mess out on Him. And there's a light that comes. I mean, that sanctuary lamp really begins to glow brighter. And even if nothing is resolved at the end of that time, I have put everything back in His hands, and I have continued to make the deliberate choice to let Him be my God."
This essay is a recent "Light One Candle"
column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of
weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current
events.
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