Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - 2nd Week of Lent - Tues
[Isa 1:10, 16-20 and Matt 23:1-12]Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow. [Isaiah]
Isaiah thunders and pleads! His words often reflect exasperation with a people who have received a precious covenant that they invoke at their convenience and cover over with elaborate worship, when they should be caring for the most vulnerable and needy of the land! It is not that worship is wrong, it is the fact that it has become disconnected from the rest of societal life. If we but pause and think a minute, Isaiah's words may be more modern than we might have first thought!
How many of us can claim to be well-acquainted with the social justice teachings of our Catholic tradition - especially with the great social encyclicals of the popes, beginning with Leo XIII in the late 19th century? Isaiah's words: "Make justice your aim!" come through loud and clear. Yet, when Pope John XXIII wrote his great encyclical on social justice, MATER ET MAGISTRA, a famous Catholic columnist, William F. Buckley, dismissed it with the words, "Mater, si, magistra, no!" Perhaps as a step toward making "justice our aim," we could give Lenten attention to this teaching? Or, if such reading is not possible, perhaps we could become more aware of the many efforts (or lack thereof) in our community to address the lack of decent housing, food, health care, etc. for the most vulnerable members of the community. Can we justify a Lent in which we "have time" to give up booze or candy but don't "have time" for the "widow and orphan?" At the end of Lent, it could be a very worthwhile thing to say, "I made justice my aim (and will continue to do so)!" instead of looking for whatever I "gave up" so I can start doing it again. AMEN