Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Sunday October 26, 2008

To live justly is to love in Christ

Watching the daily news provides more than enough frustration without having to get socked by and soaked in it by the Scriptures at worship!

For several years, CNN news commentator, Lou Dobbs, has had a thing on border control and the invasion of illegal aliens as well as on free trade agreements and their devastating effect on the American economy. His basic thesis is that illegal aliens are taking jobs away from American workers and free trade agreements are closing hundreds of American factories.

More recently you and I have watched with millions of other viewers across the world as the erosion of sub-prime mortgages rolled into the crisis in credit and securities with daily market volatility adding to the mix of bad news getting worse. Everyone seems to agree these days that deregulation has not worked. Moreover, the ‘trickle-down’ theory applies to water but not to money.

I am not a sociologist and surely not an expert on the economy. However, it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to cry about gaps in the border and the loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign government subsidized markets if Americans insist on high paying jobs in trade towers but on rock bottom prices at the counter, both in the same breath. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a sociologist, for that matter, to understand that purchasing power is ultimately determined by income for the ordinary citizen.

As I reflect more and more on our theological tradition, I’m coming to the conclusion that there is indeed something to be said for the natural law. We ought not dismiss it too quickly whether it applies to social dynamics or to economic ideology. We may be able to construct a huge market economy based on supply and demand but over the last several decades we have moved from an economy based on work and wages to one that is based on paper and artificial weights and measures that inflate not the value of work but the value of paper.

But you didn’t come here for a lesson on the economy from someone who knows so little about economic theory as to be dangerous. I’m not into ecclesiastical hegemony. My intent is not to harass or harangue about the gross national product or the consumer price index, taxes and related issues but to establish a contemporary frame of reference for the ancient inspired readings assigned for this weekend.

The first reading was pretty strong. Were you listening? The Gospel was more subtle but the implications and applications are no less severe. Discipleship has its privileges but “there are no cheap graces!” [Dietrich Bonhoffer] Nevertheless, no one walked out in protest at the readings and that’s a good sign. Hopefully there will be no boycott during the offertory collection.

Last Friday, in chapter 12 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus used a still timely metaphor: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say immediately that it is going to rain – and so it does; you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?’” [Luke 12:54-56] This would be an appropriate preface or forward to the readings for this weekend.

We may construct large fences and protect our borders against terrorists and with preemptive strikes, fighting fire with fire; we may build firewalls and purchase anti-virus protection plans for our assets against the invasion of taxes, but if we avoid reading the signs of the times – the law of justice will prevail and there is no force that can silence the voices of hunger and thirst or withstand the rage of the oppressed.

I recall several years go making the comment that when the middle class is treated as the lower class or as second class citizens, there will be a bit of noise from the gallery and voters will make their will voices heard.

Though violence can never be legitimized as an effective response to a sagging economy, it has often served as a warning of global warming that pertains less to ominous storms than to an overheated imbalance in the distribution of the world’s resources and in the application of the rule of justice.

Lou Dobbs is not entirely wrong to call the question on border patrol and challenge our government to attend to the needs of middle class America because if we loose the middle class, there will be no one to care for the poor. And that’s precisely the point.

However, Christians are challenged by the gospel to take it a step further not by exclusionary measues to keep people out but on a global plane. We are citizens of a global village. We are challenged by the gospel to walk the extra mile and to do it with grace, to put the gospel to music and dance.

Contemporary spiritual teacher and writer, Matthew Fox defines life as justice and prayer as that, which upholds justice and sustains life. He ties this to Hildegard of Bingen’s definition of God as life, which in her vocabulary is another name for divinity. This is why we need mystics and poets to keep our focus clear. [Cf. Matthew Fox, Radical Prayer, CD Lecture published by Sounds True, Boulder Co. 2003,]

Mathew Fox challenges his readers and listeners to move from an excessive rationalism so characteristic of the left-brain and of the west to the poetic ingenuity of the right brain, so characteristic of the east that shows up in our heartfelt response to human need.

Actually, it takes both the right and the left-brain to develop new and ingenious ways to solve the problems of the world economy. In fact we have the technology. We just need the heart to empower us to action knowing full well that when we reach out beyond our boundaries and borders, we render ourselves vulnerable in the same way as Jesus became vulnerable when he crossed the boundaries of Pharisaic prescriptions of the law. There is no way that we can have it all and there is no way that we can protect ourselves from the sacrifice of true love.

Patrick Marrin, editor of ‘Celebration – A Comprehensive Worship Resource,’ presumptuously scripted a draft as a proposal for Benedict’s first encyclical and entitled it: “Tempus Agere” (A Time to Act). He proposed the liturgy as a model economy: “The Church has relatively little power, wealth or influence in the temporal realm. What it does have is an ancient voice of human experience, a comprehensive tradition about the meaning and purpose of human existence and a profound ritual life that can serve as a model for the just economy. The liturgy of the Church, the first work of the People of God, mirrors the altar of self-sacrifice and table of life that are also the center of the global economy. In its structure of shared communion and mission, the Eucharist stands as a stunning model for the just economy seen in the vital exchange typified by the primitive church: ‘from each according to their means, to each according to their needs.’ (Acts 2:45). In the Church’s liturgy, Christ presides at the altar-table embodied by the whole baptized assembly. Formed in love, the body of Christ is bread to the world, broken and shared to feed the hungry, restore hope and transform human structures to effect peace and justice for all.” [Celebration, NCR Publishing Co, Kansas City, Mo Oct. 2005, p 3 www.celebrationpubs.org)]

Now, that wasn’t so bad. We have the bread and wine on our table, the bread and wine of our lives and the will to do good. We are more than half way there.

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