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Tag Archives: Catholic Social Teaching
Gospel Reflection for August 18, 2019, 20th Sunday Ordinary Time
16 AugSunday Readings: Jeremiah 38.4-6,9=8-10; Hebrews 12.1-4; Luke 12.49-53
“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” – Luke 12.51-52
Our daily news often immerses us in divisions that can slice through families, friendships, and neighborhood bonds. We live in polarizing times. Older folks hint their political leanings in whispers to new acquaintances, testing whether to say more or less.
Young people disclose their pronouns on their name badges at meetings in support of non-binary and transsexual friends. I cringe at how frequently out of enthusiastic friendliness young people address me and rooms full of women as “you guys.” Does using inclusive language belong only to my generation? So easily we differ and in what agony we struggle to understand.
To reckon means to count, calculate, consider the cost, to settle accounts. Reckoning is a key word that civil rights lawyer and advocate Michelle Alexander explores in a recent New York Times column, “Reckoning with Violence” (02/19/2019). The USA has 2.2 million persons in prison, the New Jim Crow Alexander names it in her book by that title about mass incarceration.
Her column calls for survivors of crime and perpetrators to meet and work out repair for the wrong, face to face. Ninety percent of the perpetrators of nonviolent crime choose to have survivors shape the repair.
In her book Until We Reckon, Danielle Sered finds imprisonment counterproductive. Reckoning is a pathway to accountability. In restorative justice circles, a perpetrator not only answers to a survivor but can put a life together and stay out of prison. She urges us as a nation to break our addiction to caging human beings.
In Sunday’s gospel Jesus is reckoning the cost of discipleship to himself and to those who believe in him. He asks, “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the Earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
The gospel anticipates dividing fires will persist. Every election season lights fires and puts Catholic social teaching to work. Who includes the least in their vision of economic life? Who values the family and puts people to work? Who will help people with pre-existing conditions afford their meds? Who can negotiate for the common good?
When have you experienced faith as a source of division? What value do you experience in talking about difficult, even divisive questions?
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Gospel Reflection for August 4, 2019, 18th Sunday Ordinary Time
29 JulSunday Readings: Ecclesiastes 1.2; 2.21-23; Colossians 3.1-5,9-11; Luke 12.13-21
“You fool! This night your life will be demanded of you. To whom will all this piled up wealth of yours go?” – Luke 12.20
In Jesus’ parable a man builds bigger granaries for an abundant harvest and keeps the surplus for himself. These blessings in reserve will allow him to relax, eat heartily, drink well, and enjoy life for years to come.
From God’s point of view a surplus harvest is not to provide one person with secure access to food, drink, and merriment in years to come but to benefit all in the present. The rich man gives no parties for friends, no feast for villagers, no supplies for those in need but plans only self-indulgence.
The gospel regards using wealth in one’s own self-interest as foolish, a profoundly un-American perspective. Sunday’s gospel urges us to see ourselves within a web of social relations with those in need rather than alone like the rich fool. Like God wise believers hear the cry of the poor and do their part to empower those left behind or left out to participate in our economic life. For Luke wealth is not a sign of favor but faces the person with a choice to do good or evil.
What wealth do you share with ease? What do you tend to protect? When and how has your giving connected you with others?
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World Day of the Poor
14 Nov
Pope Francis has named this coming Sunday, November 19, 2017, the first World Day of the Poor. The Sunday gospel invites us to reflect on how to invest our talents in the world community. The pope’s namesake, Francis of Assisi, models building relationships with people who are poor. St. Francis attributed staying with lepers in Gubbio as a turning point in his conversion. Pope Francis hopes that our volunteer service and impromptu acts of generosity “lead to a true encounter with the poor and a sharing that becomes a way of life.”
The pope’s announcement is a retreat in itself as we prepare for Thanksgiving and Advent. He encourages “believers to react against a culture of discard and waste and to embrace the culture of encounter.” This is a Sunday to create moments of encounter and friendship, for volunteers and people who are poor to take part in Eucharist together, for parishes to make the poor honored guests at table.
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Gospel Reflection for June 25, 2017, 12th Sunday Ordinary Time
23 JunSunday Readings: Jeremiah 20.10-13; Romans 5.12-15; Matthew 10.26-33
“Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” – Matthew 10.32
Jesus’ saying turns on the principle of reciprocity. Jesus will treat us the way we treat others. We recognize this principle every time we pray the Our Father, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The saying challenges us to be public witnesses of Jesus’ way.
The early Christians lived in the shadow of the Roman Empire, which considered their faith illegal. Today Christians live in a capitalist economy gone global that considers religion irrelevant. The revenue of many multi-national corporations rivals the gross national product of nation states. Yet, corporations have no obligation to uphold Christian values or human rights as nations do, only to profit stockholders.
Catholic social teaching challenges us to live Jesus’ message in our public and corporate lives. People are not commodities. They have dignity and rights, including the right to a living wage and health care. Are our senators and representatives in the 117th Congress thinking about treating people who need Medicaid the way they want to be treated? Do they realize people like my sister, diabetic since she was 22 for whom the cost of insulin has skyrocketed, face being unable to afford the medicines that keep her alive even with insurance?
If you enjoy this Gospel Reflection,
please visit the Sunday By Sunday page
to order a subscription or request a free sample.
please visit the Sunday By Sunday page
to order a subscription or request a free sample.
Start a small bible study. Be a leader.
