Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
These are very crucial times. Numerous things stare us in the face. First the super storm, ‘Sandy. I am sure that most of you like me are immensely saddened by the devastation. Second, two days from today is the presidential elections and we find ourselves to be an increasingly divided nation. Some have proposed that we are now two nations within a nation. And third, we have the readings for today. Perhaps we are not impressed by the radicalness of gospel reading because we are so far away from what Christ did. Christ radically transformed the meaning of the Torah when he brought the 613 laws of the Jewish tradition under two seemingly similar commandments – Love God and love your neighbor.
These are crucial times. If God’s word is alive and active, we have got to interpret these words as a people of faith.
a) The super storm. We know by now that “Sandy” was an unprecedented natural disaster for our nation. In recent times only the tsunami in the Indian Ocean was any worse than this storm. The grief, the loss of life and property, the despair and the anxiety sadden us beyond imagination. However, as a people of faith we are compelled to make meaning of such tragedies.
In spite of natural disasters such as this, I think of the world as being a good place. I also think of God who created the world to be supremely good. Nature will continue to evolve in the way that it is meant to evolve. All of creation, as Paul says, groans with eager expectation toward its fulfillment in Christ. We are part of that creation. We also groan with eager expectation toward our fulfillment in Christ. Sometimes, though, we are inclined to think that we are above creation; that we can fashion our own immortality; that our technology will make us invincible; that we can fashion our own destiny. I think these tragedies help us to reflect on the deeper realities of life. I have learnt, for example, that ultimately our destiny and the destiny of the world are in the hand of God. And I must trust that eternal destiny. I have learnt that we must be humble about our achievements and capacities. No matter how technologically advanced and scientifically sophisticated we become, one day we will die and one day the world will cease to be. On that day we must be ready to surrender all that we are and become one with God. I have learnt that instead of trying to conquer nature we must respect it and take care of it. I have learnt that I need not be without hope in the midst of the most tragic of circumstances because God in Jesus Christ embraced tragic suffering and made it a way to salvation; that God is closest to us when we suffer. I have also learned that tragedies are an opportunity for us to be the face of God to those in pain; that it is time of tragedies that we can best understand that we are in it together, that we need one another, and that we are a human family.
b) The Elections. For most part I have refused to use the pulpit to endorse any candidate. Many of you have commended me for this and others have castigated the stand that many other priests and I have taken. For those of us who took the non-partisan stand, the experience of one of my theologian friends best summarizes how we feel. She was called both a flaming liberal and a zealous conservative within the same week. But what meaning shall we assign to this election as a people of faith? Ironically, it was ‘Sandy’ that provided us an opportunity to look beyond politics. When President Obama and Gov. Chris Christy came together to focus on the rescue and recovery of a people in peril, the entire nation got a glimpse of what politics is all about. At the forefront during those days were not differences but rather service to the affected irrespective of wealth, race, religion or political affiliation. And the question I am asking is why this could not be the norm rather than the exception. For me it is hard to see a divided nation but it is even harder to see a divided church. I am saddened that some Catholics have often chosen to let politics inform their faith rather than faith inform their politics. I am saddened to see the entire Catholic teaching reduced to a few non-negotiable principles in this way sacrificing the comprehensiveness and beauty of the Catholic faith at the altar of politics. Unfortunately, even some bishops have contributed to the narrow interpretation of Catholic theology. I certainly have refused to be part of such partisan politicking.
As president Obama and Gov. Chris Christy showcased in their working together, I think that politics must first serve the most vulnerable among us. After all, we believe in a God who came to call not the righteous but the sinners; a God who called not the strong but the weak; a God to came not to be served but to serve. When public policy is such that the most vulnerable are taken care of then we know that everybody is taken care of. Many a times, the most vulnerable person is in the womb, other times he or she is walking homeless on our streets, and many times he is man on death row. The Catholic teachings are broad enough to take care of them all. I think that the only non-negotiable principle is love - all the way from the womb and all the way to the tomb.
c) Love God and Love your Neighbor. I think the gospel reading offers us critical insights in light of the two realities that we have reflected upon. I am afraid that when all the attention from the tragedy created by ‘Sandy’ subsides that we will get back to our own individual lives and life will be back to what it was before. I am afraid that after the elections there will be a call to forget our differences, only for them to resurface again at the 2014 mid-term referendum and the 2016 elections. Meanwhile, the call of the gospel will be read in churches throughout the world. Christ, who lived in an equally divisive society, did something so radical that it ultimately led him to the cross. He deprived human beings the pettiness that they can assign to Divine Law. He refused to allow the 613 laws of Judaism become a tool for manipulation, oppression and control in the hands of the Pharisees. Christ set the people free by asking them to focus on just two things – love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. To the lawyer who agreed with Christ, he said, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.
In think that when we stand before God in eternity God will not ask us how much we have in our bank, what the color of our skin is or what the political ideology we professed. He sure will ask us if we loved God will all our hearts, mind, soul and strength and if we loved our neighbor in the same way that he loved us.
- Fr. Satish Joseph