Readings
LV 19: 1-2, 11-18
PS 19
MT 25: 31-46
I can't help but smile when I read MT 25 "our wedding Gospel." I know it was a non traditional choice for a wedding reading but it is so grounded in my understanding of God, faith, and Community I couldn't imagine our ceremony any other way. In the early days of Mike's and my relationship we had countless discussions and heated conversations regarding economics and the state of our country. Mike has always seen this issue from a pragmatic/numbers based vantage point. His education was centered on numbers, statistics, and practical reasoning. I have always come at it from the social justice vantage point, the idealist who sees people instead of numbers. While his argument was and is for a free trade economy, mine has always been for a fair trade economy. My senior year I elected to take an economics class in the hopes of gaining a lexical understanding of his view. 10 years later, we now laugh at the way in which we both dug our heals in and the passion in which we defended our standpoint. In truth I don't think either model "fixes" the problem, and I think both models are wanting the same result: an economy in which all participants have an equal share and opportunity to prosper. Free trade is supposed to create an open playing field, fair trade desires to balance the playing field so the "have nots" have a fighting chance against the "haves." Both of us feel that Bernie Sanders is the one candidate that speaks to both of our economical vantage points. I am blown away that people can read the laws of Leviticus and still argue that the death penalty is justice, and that immigration laws need to be stricter. That they could listen to the Gospel and still side with Trump's hateful tones toward any American who is not white and in the elite. It boggles my mind to hear people say that they fear Trump and find him crazy but will still vote for him if he is the party candidate because they are faithful to the party! We have become the blind and are willing stumbling over the blocks put in place by our own complacency and ignorance. Since when is it un-American to dream for a better America? To hope for a world where all people are equal. We as a people of God have lost sight of the Kingdom, and we as the People of God are the only ones capable of building the world in which God envisioned.
I just finished praying the readings from This Day and the Blessed Among Us for today is Walter Burghardt, SJ. He died today in 2008, but I find it hard to believe the choice to remember him today a coincidence. At the age of 85 he wrote a combination memoir/love letter to the Church entitled Long Have I Loved You in which he traced the great figures and movements which shaped him. In it he wrote: "I agonize because in this land of milk and honey, one of every five children grows up beneath the poverty line -- and our pulpits are silent." A University once named him as one of 12 great preachers in the US and the only Catholic. He has said "All too often, our people are not confronted with a word that nourishes while it challenges, heals while it bruises." I love a good homily that really inspires me, but I also believe that we need to take responsibility for our own faith and listen to the word of God in our hearts and if we really listen we can be nourished, challenged, healed and moved to compassion. I did not do a very good job of that in the office yesterday -- with the patient I was compassionate, but I was intensely frustrated and took it out on others. I think I bruised some in my path. MF
ReplyDeleteOh Mom,
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel. Living in faith is incredibly difficult but there is also a comfort in knowing that God's greatest gift is the gift of forgiveness. The strongest demonstration of this gift for me was in Mark's Gospel when Jesus rises from the dead and wants to see his disciples, "even Peter." You and dad both answered a deep calling when you became doctors and when you see patients you treat the whole person not just the disease. This community is in love with the both of you and that love is a gift that constantly overflows to Mike and I and we are so very grateful.