Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found.
Was blind, but now, I see.
This is one of the most popular hymns in Catholic and Protestant churches alike. It is sung at most reconciliation services, funerals, and anytime we reflect on repentance. Perhaps, the context of the song is less popular that the song itself. John Newton, the author, was a slave trader. During his 1748 voyage, a destructive storm struck his ship. This was the moment he reached out for God’s mercy. The storm spared the ship and he survived. This began a process of conversion that ultimately led him to become an abolitionist. Just before his death he was fortunate enough to see the abolition of the African slave trade in the United Kingdom in 1807.
Today’s scripture readings invite us to evaluate our relationship between God and mammon. Here are my three points for today.
1. The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor. There are a few reasons I began my homily with a reference to John Newton, slavery, and abolition. First, for this week and next, our first reading is from the Prophet Amos. Amos preached almost 2300 years before John Newton. God appointed him a prophet to speak against every kind of oppression. In today’s first reading he preaches against those oppressors who say to themselves, “We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals.” The wealthy and powerful in Amos’ time were buying and selling people. Does that sound to you like slavery? Second, there is an anniversary that is being passed off without much attention in our nation. 2019 is the 400thanniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves to the United States. Twenty slaves arrived on August 16, 1619 in the British colony of Virginia. The rest is history. The third reason I began with the story of John Newton and oppression is that God has something to say about this. In today’s first reading, God says, “Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land!” The reading ends with God vowing, “Never will I forget a thing they have done!” Our God is a God who cares for the poor.
2. The Power of Mammon. John Newtons conversion was slow. He did not stop slave trading immediately. Although he continued to work in the slave trade for a few more years, he gained sympathy for the slaves. It was not until 1754 that he gave up slave trading. Soon afterwards, he studied theology and became an ordained Anglican minister. It was then that he wrote “Amazing Grace.” He finally realized, “No servant can serve two masters.He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Lk 16:13). The entire slave trade was about economics. What will people not do for money, for wealth? The steward in the Gospel reading betrayed his master’s trust, manipulated the accounts, and even made vulnerable debtors to be dishonest. What will people not do for money? Today, Jesus is making us evaluate our relationship with mammon. Do we control mammon or does mammon control us? Here is the deal. Our relationship with wealth has eternal implications. As Jesus says, “If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?
3. Oppression Today. Whether it is forced labor, child laborers, or human trafficking, the value of the human person continues to be reduced to a pair of sandals. Besides all that, the economic woes that our families have to endure is brutal. We have families in our parish who are one sickness away from debt and bankruptcy. We have families who are one mortgage payment away from financial ruin. We have families to have to work two or more jobs to make ends meet. We have many single parents who live paycheck to paycheck. Healthcare is not easy to maintain these days. For many people unemployment and homelessness are real possibilities. This is not always because people do not work hard. Often, the odds are stacked against the poor and the middle class. There is something wrong when the top 1 percent of households own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. I think God is saying that same thing that God said through Amos thousands our year ago, “Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! Never will I forget a thing they have done!”
Fr. Satish Joseph