O God, bring Judgment to the Earth"

Today's Mass Readings

For the sake of relevance, I’d like to concentrate on today’s first reading because the message it presents is particularly relevant to the contemporary American context. In today’s first reading we are once again confronted with the subject of just judgment. To the people of ancient Israel, as to many in our own, the rich and powerful seemed to be above the law. Indeed, regardless of one’s political affiliation, the statistics on our own criminal justice system bear out the sobering truth that the poor are more likely to receive harsher sentencing than the rich. Some things never change. The cry of the poor in today's psalm response, "Rise up, O God, bring judgment to the earth," is relevant even today. However, the statistics of our world also point out another sobering truth that many of us are uncomfortable facing. That is, despite the very real economic hardships and injustices many people in the contemporary United States face on a daily basis, we in Middle America enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the history of the world. Granted, times have become tough in recent years for the middle class. However, even with this exception, most people in our nation of 300 million souls have two coats in the closet, clean water in the pipes, and a flush toilet to relieve ourselves into. We also have the benefit of living in the most powerful nation on earth. Indeed, despite the hardships, we take great pride in the fact that we are Americans, in the same way that the Pharisees took great pride in their own priestly standing. But what if, like the Pharisees, the sense of entitlement that goes along with our pride as Americans is in fact our greatest sin?

Consider another paradox. Seldom do we stop to consider the fact that we may already be rich…the very rich of whom Jesus repeatedly speaks in the Gospels. Right now, in places like sub-Saharan Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and South America, there are shanty-towns were literally millions of human beings live in conditions so squalid (imagine living on a garbage dump and you’ll get the picture) that even the poorest in America would condemn them as inhuman and unjust. Billions of people on earth live in abject poverty so degrading that it is nearly unthinkable. What if these are the poor and dispossessed of whom God speaks? What if these are the ones who suffer injustice? And what if we are the princes of the earth from whom injustice springs? What if, indeed.

For the sake of this brief reflection, I’d like to suggest that, however outlandish, discomforting, or even offensive, we read today’s first reading once in reverse. I’d like to suggest that instead of playing the part of the poor, we imagine ourselves as the rich and powerful to whom God speaks. From us, the “princes of this world,” God will demand not just charity, but also justice. To us, who have received much, much will be demanded. When read in this manner, Scripture might become a bit uncomfortable. This discomfort is good. After all, if we always identify with the just and the poor, what need do we have of Scripture in the first place? Indeed, if we read the entire bible in this “reverse” fashion we might be forced to rethink our lives. That is good too. The Gospel is not intended to be easy. It is intended to challenge the blind assumptions we make about God, ourselves, and those around us. Now, about that foreigner in today’s Gospel…

- Michael Lombardo