There’s a powerful and dramatic scene in the movie, “Becket”, in which Thomas, the Archbishop of Canterbury, surrounded by his monks, solemnly declares his friend and king, Henry, excommunicate.
For most people today this is the kind of image “excommunication” calls to mind. The word seems to have a sort of antique ring to it.
That’s curious since, whether we realize it or not, we ourselves tend rather frequently to excommunicate others.
“Excommunication” means literally “out of communion or union.”
Anytime we leave or break our union with any group of persons we belong to — not just our religious community — we’re excommunicating ourselves.
Anytime we see that another person has chosen to leave or break union with us, we have a right to consider him or her as excommunicate — out of communion by his or her personal choice.
But, anytime we treat or classify another person as lacking any solidarity or union with ourselves through no fault of his or her own — any time we set arbitrary boundaries and place another outside them — we may be excommunicating someone else.
When Pope John Paul II addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York last month, he referred to our fear of difference as we confront one another.
Sometime we’re afraid of others only because they look different from us or speak differently than we do.
Sometimes we fear them because their religion or ways are different from ours.
Sometimes we’re uneasy with them because they are from a different country.
When we’re afraid of someone, we don’t include them within the boundaries of our friends or acquaintances; we don’t feel any solidarity with them; they remain always part of “them” or “those” and never are considered one of “us”.
A lot of people believe this is a good and practical policy to follow.
In a song from the musical, “West Side Story,” one of the young lovers is urged to “stick to your own kind.”
This contradicts the teachings of Jesus.
The entire, evolving Judeo-Christian tradition challenges us to accept every other human person as our sister or brother.
The Gospel urges us to extend our solidarity, concern, and love to include everyone in the whole world.
The mission of Jesus, in which all his disciples share, is to make the whole human race one family.
One way of measuring our maturity and spiritual growth is by how much we expand the boundaries that determine with whom we have relationships and solidarity. When they reach out as far as they can go, there is no one we place outside of communion. There is no one we will excommunicate.
Alas, however, there are people who choose to reject union with God and with others. It’s hard to understand how there still can be people who choose to excommunicate themselves.
(Published in
Catholic Near East, 21:6, November 1995)