Prophetic Voices from the Periphery

by Joseph Stoutzenberger

Have you ever felt like an outsider? In my early thirties, I was still single. Most of my friends at the time were married or in an exclusive relationship. I was invited to a New Year’s Eve party at one of their homes. I went by myself, and all was fine until midnight. At that point, my married friends and those with significant others hugged and kissed their partner; and I realized that I had no significant other to kiss and wish “Happy New Year” to. There were a few other single people there, but I didn’t know them. In time, friends came to me and wished me Happy New Year as well. I soon left the party and vowed never to place myself in that situation again. Perhaps the experience gave me a sensitivity to outsiders, but it was a painful lesson to learn. So many people in America have no significant other in their lives and feel lonely; it’s a societal epidemic that is easily overlooked. No one wants to admit that for them most weekends go by without having an intimate connection with anyone else. There are plenty of other ways besides loneliness to feel like an outsider.

I tell that personally embarrassing story because of Pope Francis. When elected pope in 2013, he was keenly aware of being an outsider. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first non-European in centuries to hold the office, someone associated with people who are poor and from poorer countries, and a pope willing to take chances in his pronouncements about moral and theological matters. After his comment “Who am I to judge?” about men at the Vatican who were gay, he made the cover of a leading gay magazine. Vatican insiders tried to explain away his comment. Francis was speaking to and for outsiders. Francis has often said that we see more clearly from the periphery. He has made his mark on the church by appointing cardinals from countries and dioceses not at the centers of power. He has appointed a number of women to positions of authority at the Vatican, traditionally a club for celibate men. He has called for a synod, a vehicle for people from all factions of the church to air their concerns and express their points of view.

Do we find the same sensitivity to outsiders in the words and actions of Jesus? Where do we even begin? Jesus wants little children to come to him, even though his leading disciples want to shield him from them. He commissions a many-times divorced Samaritan woman to go preach the good news. He recognizes the faith of a Roman official, and chooses to go to dinner at the home of a tax collector. He gains a reputation for dining with “sinners and prostitutes.” All of these actions run counter to what was considered proper at the time. A centerpiece of his teaching are the beatitudes. Who are the blessed ones in his view? Those who are poor, the meek and humble, even those in prison. Isn’t including peacemakers among the blessed also siding with those on the periphery of power? In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 25, he explicitly identifies with people who are hungry, thirsty, lacking adequate clothing, or in prison.

So, who are those voices from the margins today, and what do they have to say to us? I recall a Ziggy cartoon in which Ziggy is outside holding a paint brush and paints in front of an easel. Above him are open skies criss-crossed with electric and phone lines. The caption reads: “See, even God does not stay inside the lines.” Pope Francis clearly has a sensitivity for people who fall outside the lines of what is considered the straight and narrow. When he travels to different countries, he often includes a visit to local prisons. On his first Holy Thursday as pope he washed the feet of inmates at a Rome prison for youthful offenders, including women and at least one Muslim. Some bishops and priests restrict foot-washing to men only, and most often to pillars of the community. He congratulated a gay couple for having their children baptized. Again, some Vatican insiders were quick to reassure Catholics that his well-wishes to these two men did not represent a change in church teaching about homosexuality. Francis didn’t let “the law” stand in the way of reaching out to them, considered on the periphery by many insiders. So often, Francis has shown that he does not stay inside the lines when painting the canvas of God’s love. He understands that the God of the bible, and Jesus himself, demonstrated particular affection for the lowly, the outcast, the outsider. His message to the church and its members who seek to know the one, true God: “Go to the margins!”