The three readings we just heard in our Sunday Masses call us to justice in different ways. The words of Isaiah speaks to those who are visibly are visibly wounded and those at the margins of life, as he proclaims: “Say to those whose hearts are frightened, be strong, fear not. ... The eyes of the blind will be opened the ears of the deaf be cleared.” The words of James are even more direct, speaking of the division between the rich and the poor in the Christian community of his day.
These words are just not directed to the Christians in the early Church; they speak to us in our reality. And we can certainly learn from those who came before us. As I heard these readings, I thought about a documentary that I watched a few months ago from the Public TV station on the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire that took place in New York City. In March 1911, a fire started on a factory of garment workers. Due to unsafe working conditions in this high-rise building where the factory was located, with many exist doors locked and no sufficient fire escapes, 143 workers lost their lives. Most of these workers were Italian and Jewish immigrant women in their late teens and early twenties. Some of these workers were as young as 14 years old. When I was visiting my sister in Boston recently, she wanted me to help her go through a box of old family photos. In that box, I came across photos of my grandmother from her days of working in a garment factory as a seamstress in Chicago. She was born in 1894 in Chicago to German immigrant parents. She started to work full-time as a seamstress after finishing the 7th grade, so she would have been working in a similar type factory in downtown Chicago when that shirtwaist factory fire took place in New York in 1911. That fire had a large impact at looking at the working conditions for laborers and workers in the United States in the early 20th century and at child labor laws that had children and young teens working in order to try to support their families. There was also a big outcry from the public at that fire in New York, as the owners of the factory only got richer from the insurance proceeds they received from the fire damage, and did not receive any jail time or have to pay any significant fines due to their negligence or the working conditions at their factory.
It is not an easy task looking at social justice in our society, is it? I had texted a friend when I was in Chicago during my layover on my train trip a couple of weeks ago; he responded that I should be very careful, since in the media we hear about the terrible violence and shootings in neighborhoods all across Chicago every week. During the pandemic, social justice issues such as poverty, unaffordable health care, a living wage, and racial division in our country came to the forefront. Just as James and Isaiah had to bring up those matters of justice to the Catholic faithful in their day, so it is my responsibility as a Catholic priest and our responsibility as the Catholic faithful to not ignore these issues as well.
Perhaps one of the reasons we do not want to look at the social ills in our society is that it is easier to accept the status quo and to fear change, even though change is one of the great constants of life.
The famous Catholic author Flannery O’Connor addressed this in one of her letters: “All human nature vigorously resists (God’s) grace because (God’s) grace changes us and the change is painful.” We hear of a big change in the life of the deaf mute in today’s Gospel, as Jesus touched his ears and tongue, crying up to the heavens: ““Ephphatha!” “Be opened!” The deaf mute wanted change in his life. He wanted to be able to talk and to hear. He wanted to be a part of his community in the fullest sense possible. Thankfully, the deaf mute was not on his own; his friends that brought him to Jesus, as they encouraged him to be open to change and be open to Jesus’ healing presence in his life. After this healing, his ears were not only opened to hear, but they were opened to the reality of Jesus in his life, to the reality of the salvation and redemption that Jesus freely offered him.
Last Wednesday, on September 1, we commemorated the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which Pope Francis established back in 2015. In words the he spoke recently in reflecting upon Doctor the Church and moral theologian St St. Alphonsus Liguori, Pope Francis called for a mature Church that is able to respond to our contemporary moral predicaments with the formation of “responsible and merciful consciences.” There are so many issues that our modern world faces today, but often, these issues intersect with each other and should not fall off the radar of the Church. Pope Francis states:
‘In these times, society is facing countless challenges: the pandemic and work in the post-Covid world, the care that is to be guaranteed to all, the defense of life, input from artificial intelligence, the protection of creation, the anti-democratic threat, and the urgency of (the) brotherhood (and sisterhood of mankind). Woe to us if, in this evangelizing effort, we were to separate “the cry of the poor” from “the cry of the earth.”’
There are many things about the Catholic Church that drew me to her. The sense of community that I always felt being in the Catholic Church, the sense that all were welcome, the sense of us working as a community toward justice & toward proclaiming the values of God’s kingdom here on earth were things that moved my heart each time I was present at Mass, each time I received the Eucharist. We are called to be true brothers and sisters in Christ.
In the spirit of James’ message of not being exclusive in our community of faith, of Jesus’ call of opening up the life of the deaf mute, I wanted to share with you a quote from the Good Leaders, Good Shepherds workshop that we had in our Diocese about five or six years ago: “Authentic Catholics in the 21st century not only accept responsibility for their own faith journey; they also contribute to the journeys of others. They are unselfish in their efforts, charitable in their pursuits, and giving of their time.” Let us be open to the way our Lord is calling out to us today in his Holy Word, a call to be community and to practice justice, not only in our own journey of faith, but as we interact with the journeys of our brothers and sisters.
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