Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Saturday September 25, 2010

The “American Dream,” a utopian flaw?

I reviewed all of the commentaries and scanned my imagination for the most creative words to soften the blow of these readings and make the point that the Scriptures are not as much about personal charitable giving as about unjust institutionalized economic systems.

At the same time, the Scriptures are indeed about money and its personal use. Amos and Jesus spoke often about the risks of riches and how easily our wealth and possessions can make us feel self-sufficient to the neglect of what is important in life. The wealthy Israelites in Amos’ time didn’t have a clue about the real world in which they lived and the rich man in the Gospel parable walked past Lazarus every day without ever seeing him. Their sin was culpable blindness.

The people of Israel were a ‘covenanted’— a favored people not because they were better but because they were chosen to be a model for other nations.

An uneducated shepherd from Tekoa, Amos was one of the more outspoken prophets in the northern Kingdom of Israel just prior to the invasion of the Assyrians. He not only challenged individuals who misused their wealth, he also challenged the Israelite people as a nation. It was not only the responsibility of individuals but also of the entire nation to care for the poor.

In our own time, capitalism has created a market system for the production and distribution of goods and services that has raised he standard of living for first world and second world and increasing numbers in the third world. (The fourth world is still waiting in desperation). Despite ideological wars over what economic system produces the greatest good for the largest number, there seems to be little doubt that the right use of capitalism still holds the greatest promise for the world’s population. However, the Church’s social doctrine has been quick to point out that ‘unbridled’ or uncontrolled capitalism can too easily exacerbate the economic problems it was designed to solve.

I have found it amusing of late to hear critics of the health care plan suggest that we are moving toward a socialist state. Is not the system of group insurance a form of socialism? After all, even those who have been insured through the years have not paid their medical expenses. They pay their annual premiums – a form of taxation to the insurance companies for coverage, in many cases minimum coverage at best.

In a Moyer’s interview several years ago prior to the financial crisis, John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Fund and a strong believer in capitalism had this to say:

“Ultimately, the job of capitalism is to serve the consumer without promoting consumerism or materialism; to serve the citizenry. You’re allowed to make a profit for that. But, you’ve got to provide good products and services at fair prices. And that’s what reputable businesses do in the long term. The businesses that have endured in America have done that and done that successfully.”

“But, in the short term, there’s all these financial machinations in which people can get very rich in a very short period of time by creating highly complex financial instruments, providing services that can be cut back easily, basically not measuring up to their responsibility.”

“We all know that in the professions, the idea has been service to the client before service to self. That’s what a profession is.” And with increasing buy outs and mergers, ownership of commodities and serves have blurred making it very difficult to know who is in charge. Services are cut back for the sake of short-term profit, people loose jobs and the consumer pays more for less while a small percentage of those at the top get richer.

We are called as a Church to preach the authentic Gospel. No, we are not expected to be biblical or theological experts nor are we expected to be expert economists for that matter but over time we can get a ‘sense’ or a ‘feel’ for the Gospel through the tradition of the Church and its social doctrine and how it applies to the marketplace.

The readings today challenge us as Christians in the Catholic tradition to do more as a people. We must interpret and reinterpret the Word of God and our traditional teachings in the light of current events but we dare not deviate from the essence of the teachings of Jesus who was neither a Democrat nor Republican; neither a capitalist or a socialist. He was a Jewish peasant who embraced every man, woman and child with the compassion of which only God was capable.

We are living in a time of grave crisis of the highest moral proportions in which it is too easy to replace true religion with patriotism. Loyalty to the state is measured by adherence to its own definition of justice.

Our Church’s social doctrine has evolved through the ages but it continues to challenge Catholics and people of good will everywhere to get serious about global justice through individual works of justice, mercy, compassion and generosity. But it has challenged us to go beyond individual works to lobby for changes in unjust economic systems.

In the words of one prophetic preacher, “We must pray for wisdom for our leaders. But wisdom comes only with honesty and truth and accountability.”

But what power do we have as little people with little clout to make a difference?

The preacher continued, “In a democracy we do participate in the choices our country makes, by calling our leaders to be accountable. We must be part of the national debate that will shape these decisions. If you feel you agree with the choices our leaders are making, that’s OK. And if not, if you feel they are taking us down the wrong road, you must speak out; that’s OK, too. That’s the way democracy works. But we must listen to one another; we must search together and not drown each other out. To stay out of the debate in the search for wisdom is to abdicate our responsibility. If we abandon the dialogue, we throw away our best heritage as a nation.”

“But if we dialogue honestly, we must allow God to remove our blinders, to see that there is only one world family, that our actions as a nation have global consequences and we are accountable for them, that we can’t continue to ignore the rest of the world to go it alone.”

We need to read and discern the signs of the times by keeping ourselves informed of current socio-political and economic trends in the light of global justice and this includes the poor within our own borders as well as the poor beyond our borders. The pursuit of the American dream is a utopian goal and the incessant promise of prosperity that does not include a partnership with the poor is an empty promise for all.

John Bogle concluded his remarks: “We have problems as a society. And we don’t have to surrender to them. But, we have to have a little introspection about where we are in America today. We’ve got to think through these things. I mean, these are societal problems for us that don’t have any easy answers. We’ve got to develop a political system that is not driven by money.”

“But you don’t have to be an economist to know that a great deal of or a minimum in our economy is coming from borrowed money. People are spending at a higher rate than they’re earning, and we’re starting to pay a price for that now, particularly in the mortgage side. But, eventually, that could easily spread and people won’t be able to do that anymore. You can’t keep spending money you don’t have. It gets a lot of it, you know, and it wasn’t that many years ago — maybe a couple of generations ago — that if you wanted something, you saved for it. And when you completed saving for it, you bought it. Imagine that. And that wasn’t so bad. But, now, we know that we can have the instant gratification and pay for it with interest payments, of course, over time, which is not an unfair way to do it. We’re going to pay a big price for the excessive debt we’ve accumulated in this society both in the public side and the private side.” The cost of the war in Iraq and now Afghanistan is over a trillion dollars!

In a recent interview by CNN commentator, Wolf Blitzer, Donald Trump said that the rich will move to another country if the Bush tax break is allowed to expire. And Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell made the outrageous statement two weeks ago that the rich suffered the greatest financial hardship from the recession. What’s wrong with this picture?

I predict that in the long run, the long-standing principles of social justice espoused in the social encyclicals will prove the test of time and are as valid today they were when written by Leo XIII, Pius X, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and most recently, Benedict XVI.

If we don’t listen to the words of Moses and the Prophets, let us listen to the words of Jesus. If we don’t listen to the words of Jesus, let us listen to the words of the Church. If we don’t listen to the Words of the Church, let us be attentive to the lessons of history and be attentive to the voice of common sense resonating loudly within the core of being.

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