Journey's Weekly Homilies
October 27 (30th Sunday, Ordinary Time)
Homily by Sam
EXODUS
22: 20-26
I THESSALONIANS 1:5b-10
MATTHEW 22:34-40
"These
Words"
Imagine this room with about 100 people, filling door to front.
Imagine that we proportionately represented the population of the
entire world. What would we look like?
Only six of us, less than one pew would be Americans.
Fifty-seven of us, the entire central section, would be from Asia.
Twenty of us, including the six Americans would control 87% of all
the wealth and resources of the world. Another twenty
of us would have less than 2% That's right, for every one of
us who owns a computer ten would be hungry and four could not read
or write. We
are an island of wealth in a sea of poverty.
We are to love God with all our hearts and all our souls and all
our strength. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Today we receive from Jesus his most challenging teaching.
In Mark and Luke it is a response to friendly questions.
In Matthew it is challenge to the most religous folk of the day.
The Pharisees knew that loving God was the greatest commandment.
They kept this passage from Deuteronomy inscribed on their arms
and foreheads in tiny scrolls. They also had 613 laws which
explained how to love God. Only the wealthy and educated
could keep them. The poor who could not keep them were
always regarded as unclean. Instead of 613 laws Jesus tells
us to love God by
loving our neighbor. This summary is so somple, so clear
that anyone can understand it and everyone is challenged.
How are we to love our neighbor in the diverse world we have just
imagined? Some say "charity begins at home. Jesus
says, "Yes, it does begin at home. But it does not end
there."
In Luke Jesus is asked, "So who is my neighbor?".
And he responds with the parable of the "Good
Samaritan", suggesting that anyone in need that crosses our
path we must love as we would love God. Matthew, a few
chapters after our passage today, says that entrance into heaven
will be determined by whoever loved God in the form of the hungry,
the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, and
the prisoner. We do not get to choose the neighbor we are to
love. They choose us through their need. And if we
ignore our neighbor in need we ignore God.
So what does it mean to love? Jesus is not talking about
romantic love and he doesn't mean liking people a whole lot.
We are not to idealize the poor and we don't have to be their
friends. To love our neighbor we must be fair and we must
not take advantage of our privileged position in the world.
Today the book of Exodus reminds us, "You are not to wrong or
oppress any stranger. You shall not afflict any widow or
orphan". Last month I told you that the Bible, like the
Koran forbids loaning money at an interest. And today this
is described in the first reading: "If you lend money
to any of my people who is poor, you shall not present yourself as
a creditor, and you shall not
exact interest." Last year a student of mine said that
as a Muslim he was required to ensure that all of his business
transactions were mutually beneficial and he had to minimize any
disadvantage to the other party.
Jesus says, you shall love God with all your heart and all your
soul and all your strength. You shall love your love your
neighbor as yourself. So we must be fair to others and we
cannot exploit the disproportionate power and wealth that we
enjoy. But I think Jesus tells us to do more.
A story expresses it best. In the movie, "The Straight
Story" an elderly man travels across the country to reconcile
with his estranged brother. They had a fight and haven't
spoken in years. He can no longer drive and he will not
accept a ride. Alvin Straight figures that the road to
forgiveness cannot be easy. So he packs up his riding lawn
mower and travels for weeks, camping out at night. Every
person he meets teaches him something about forgiveness and he
teaches them as well.
In the first lesson he encounters a pregnant teenager who is
hitchhiking. He shares his food with her. But all she
will tell him is that she is running away from her family but she
doesn't know where she is going to. Alvin relates to her
something he learned from his father. He gives her a stick
and asks her to break it, which she does. He then bundles a
number of sticks together and
asks her to break them. Or course she can't. The next
day we see her hitchhiking in the opposite direction back towards
her home.
We love our neighbor by binding ourselves with them so closely
that no one will be broken, no matter how small. Pope John
Paul calls this "solidarity" and it has become a
watchword in Catholic social ethics. The National Conference
of Catholic Bishops says, "Catholic social teaching proclaims
that we are our brothers' andsisters' keepers, wherever they live.
We are one human family . . . Learning to practice the
virtue of solidarity means learning that 'loving our neighbor' has
global dimensions in an interdependent world."
As Martin Luther King said, "We are all woven together into
the seamless garment of destiny. I cannot be who I want to
be until you are who you want to be and you cannot be who you want
to be until I am who I want to be."
For this reason John Paul has opposed every war in the last
twenty-five years including the arms race. He saw his native
coutry gain its freedom from a mighty empire without firing a
shot. He believes that solidarity is the only sane way to
resolve internationl disputes in a nuclear age. Followers of
Jesus are to bind ourselves together with the poor in a commitment
to the good of all people. In solidarity we can overcome the
greatest of evils.
The greatest evil which threatens the very existence of all of us
is war. And so he has said, "Peace on earth! War
never again." And yet we prepare for another war.
In Africa they say, "When elephants fight the grass gets
trampled". There are more than twenty million displaced
people in the world. Most of them are fleeing war.
They have nothing but the clothes on their backs. They wait
in squalid camps for years hoping that some country will provide a
safe place for them to start their lives over. War in
opposite of the solidarity we are called to.
The last time our country attacked Iraq we used a new strategy,
targetting "urban infrastructure". With precision
guided missiles we destroyed over 1400 water treatment plants
along with electrical grids, sewage treatment, and so forth.
We could rightly claim that our assault resulted in few civilian
casualties. Yet in the next year over 100,000 Iraquis died
from malnutrition, disease, and lack of basic medical supplies
because of our actions. Hundreds of thousands have died
since then. Today our government refuses to provide
humanitarian agencies with permission, funds, and information to
help the thousands who will flee our next assault. We have
guided missiles and misguided leaders.
In our second reading Paul praises the Thessalonians for turning
from idols to serve "the living and true God".
Today we are surrounded by lies, fear, violence, and greed.
THese are the idols of our time. We cannot serve these idols
and serve God. We will either love one and hate the other or
hate one and love the other. We cannot love God and neighbor
on one hand and wage war on the other. We must choose
between the command of Jesus and the misguided policies of our
political leaders, and we must do so publicly. If we are
silent we give consent.
It is a tremendous joy and a tremendous responsibility to be
members of a human race where the living God has become one of us.
We must love that God with all our hearts, all our souls, and all
our strength. We must love our neighbor as ourselves.
Take into your care, these words are given to you.