It is the 26th of September and the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - that is easy to remember, isn’t it? It is hard to believe that we will be starting the month of October. It is harder to believe that it has been 19 months that we have been dealing with the harsh reality of the pandemic. I don’t any of us thought we would be dealing with it for so long.
This is the last of 5 readings from the Letter of James that we will hear in our Sunday Masses. I love these messages we have been hearing from James. It gives us good practical advice on how to live out our faith. It is good advice for all of us. In particular, I see it as really good advice for young Catholics: for youth, college students, and young adults. The message that we’ve been hearing from James is that we need to be doers of the Word, not just hearers of the Word; that our faith is just not be something that should remains in our hearts, but rather our faith is to bear fruit in the world.
I keep a blog with homilies and reflections. I actually started that blog about 10 years ago when I was pastor of St Mary parish in Yazoo City up in the Delta. I was looking at the blog last night - I have more than 4,500 entries in it so far. I don’t think I could have imagined that when I started it. I was looking at an entry I made for this week six years ago- it was the week of the Pope’s visit to the US. Do you all remember when that happened? Our country was so excited about his visit. It is interesting that we have been hearing from James these past five weeks coincides with what we have heard from the Pope on his visit to the US, as he stressed how we as disciples of Christ are obligated to be good stewards of the environment, of how we are to treat the poor and the stranger in our midst with dignity and respect. Pope Francis showed this with his actions, not just his words - very much in harmony with what James tells us - the Pope visited a shelter for the homeless run by Catholic Charities in Washington DC, where he told the residents that he saw the face of St Joseph in them, a man who had no shelter and no home in which his child could be born. The Pope also chose to visit a poor inner city Catholic School in East Harlem, New York. Back six years ago, many people who heard the Pope’s address to Congress were impressed with the four Americans he mentioned as people of faith and doers of God’s Word: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. Though many Catholics are familiar with Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, two very vibrant Catholics who lived in the 20th century, many in the secular media did not know much about them, and were scrambling to find out who they were. Unfortunately, the media can be a bit myopic and closed minded in what they know and what they don’t know. What is interesting is that both Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton were individuals who lived very secular worldly lives as young adults, lives very much apart from God. However, once they had conversions of heart, they devoted their lives to living out God’s call for them in their lives, very radical lives indeed. Pope Francis praised Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, for her social activism, her passion for justice, and her love for the poor and the oppressed. He singled out Thomas Merton’s work toward greater respect and dialogue between different cultures and religions, in the way he challenged the assumptions of his day. Merton did this while living as a Trappist monk in the Abbey of Gethsemene near Bardstown, Kentucky.
The Pope’s actions, and the examples he gave, are in contrast to those whom James points out in his letter, of the rich who store up their material wealth and possessions, but who do so on the backs of the poor whom they disrespect and oppress. They have great material rewards here on earth, but will not find their reward in God’s Kingdom. We can use our influence and riches to help others, in works of kindness, mercy, and goodness, we can earn a good living and still follow the values of the Gospel, or we can use our wealth and riches in ways that do not proclaim God’s Kingdom on earth.
We see many examples of this in our present day. We know that prices of so many things have gone up in the pandemic. I was looking to purchase a new personal printer for work. First of all it is hard to even find the type of printer I want to buy. And then they are selling for more that twice the price compared to what they were before. Someone is making a big profit on those printers, that is for sure. And have you gone to a grocery store lately? Many of the shelves are rather bare. I wanted to buy some bacon the other day. The package of 12 oz of bacon that I used to buy for $3.50 on sale is now $9.00. Needless to say, I went without bacon. I heard that farmers are losing more than $100 on each pig they sell, but that the huge meat packing companies make more than $1,000 on each pig. Talking about taking advantage of the poor - both the poor farmers who are producing the food and the consumers who are trying to make ends meet.
I also look at how our human tendency is to fear those who are different from us. Often, we want to exclude them from our group and marginalize them in our society. Often, we are offended by individuals who rock the boat or who challenge what we think or what we believe, who challenge the norms and assumptions of society. In the Gospel today, we see the disciples wanting to exclude those who do good works in Jesus’ name but who are not part of the group of disciples. We see in Pope Francis a desire for us to dialogue and work together, to find common ground and to care for the well-being of all. So many people in the world today see our reality as the insiders vs the outsiders, as the liberals vs the conservatives, as one country vs another, as us vs them. Pope Francis sees it differently. Our Catholic faith sees it differently. This is one quote from Pope Francis that I took away from his address to Congress: "Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples." That quote was relevant when he said it six years ago. It is relevant today. It is a message that brings us together, that does not conquer or divide. And we have seen American society become more divisive year and year. May we talk to heart the message that the values of faith and the values of the Gospel bring to us in the midst of our reality.
