Word to the Wise
Saturday, February 9, 2008 - Saturday following Ash Wednesday
[Isaiah 58:9B-14 and Luke 5:27-32]If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for you like midday...... If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight, and the Lord's holy day honorable...then you shall delight in the Lord....
Is it encouraging or discouraging to read a biblical text that dates from the period after the Babylonian Exile (700's BCE) and discover that the relationship between religious observance and social justice has been around a LONG time and is still with us? Isaiah makes it clear that religious observance is worthless if there is no social justice. At the same time, he makes it clear that religious observance is also very important. As the old song says, "You can't have one without the other!" The church is the Body of Christ. Jesus asked St, Paul, "Why are you persecuting ME?" Why should we allow persecution in the form of social injustice to occur within or even outside the church? What does the Eucharist mean if we are consuming the body of Christ and turning a blind eye to injustice to that same body? It is a source of amazement to me that some folks who consider themselves very Catholic consider anything outside sacramental or devotional practice to be simply a matter of politics or individual choice! The gospel leaves little room for choice, as I noted yesterday. Read Matthew 25: 31-46. The range of possibilities leaves little room for avoiding some activity. National programs such as Habitat for Humanity or JustFaith are good examples, but private efforts are good too. The thing to remember is that devotion and justice are two sides of one coin and not separate compartments. Ask Isaiah! AMEN
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