Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - Tuesday in the Fifteen Week in Ordinary Time
[Isaiah 7:1-9 and Matthew 11:20-24]Unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm! [Isaiah] Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. [Matthew]
During the time of Pope John Paul II's pontificate, the word "solidarity" took on an important role in describing prophetic social justice movements. It remains a term of "support" and "being-with" to this day. In the Middle East, in contrast to our western individualism, the group or community is more important than the individual, and any social problem is the the problem of everyone in the community. We see this in the two scriptures for today. Isaiah confronts the community and its leadership in the face of a threat from surrounding nations. He warns them that their best defense is their faith. His warnings were not heeded and the "Northern Kingdom" (Israel) fell to the Assyrians. The "Southern Kingdom" (Judah) would fall about 200 years later to the Babylonians. The issues remained always those of a loss of religious purpose and identity for the community which sought protection in the form of treaties with outsiders. Jesus' own reproaches against the towns where he had worked "mighty deeds" reflect his own frustration with the hardness of heart that those communities displayed. Like Israel and Judah of old, these communities would suffer for their solidarity in disbelief. Occasionally we invoke this kind of solidarity in our civil patriotism, but as individuals we are quick to disown any behavior by our leadership that we disagree with. The same thing appears to be at work in our church as well. Solidarity in faith and morals seems to be absent. The word, "communion" is coming to replace "solidarity" but I wonder if we have the kind of communion that transcends the personal spirituality ot receiving communion at Mass and going no further with it. Isaiah and Jesus warn us that we are all in the same boat and will travel or sink together! AMEN
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