Word to the Wise
Monday, August 11, 2025 - Monday in the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
[Deut 10:12-22 and Matt 17:22-27,1037]"Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and ge no longer stiff-necked. For the Lord your God, is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the wiedow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt." [Deuteronomy]
AUGUST 11 ST. CLARE
Every preacher knows that there are times when the revealed Word of God in the sacred scriptures will present a clear conflict between that Word and the political realities in whatever society it is preached. He or she will be accused of "preaching politics" when it is not the Word of God that is political but the human behavior which that Word is challenging. The martyrdom of St. Oscar Romero in El Salvador is a sobering example.
The words from the Book of Deuteronomy, today, certainly appear to be challenging the anti-immigration socio-political realities of our nation and other nations, for that matter, in which presumably much of the population would claim to accept the Bible as the rule of life! The words of Jesus in the Gospel According to Matthew in the vision of the Last Judgment [Matt. 25:31-45] are often at odds with the political policies and realities facing legislators and voters alike. Can faith be "checked" at the door of Congress or the voting booth?
These are uncomfortable questions which leaders and followers alike would prefer not to hear from the pulpit. But if they are not heard from the pulpit, where else will they be heard? A famous journalist, Peter Finley Dunne, wrote that journalism must "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Can that be any less true of the preacher of the gospel? God's Word is a challenge to all of us from Pope to pewperson. How shall we preach and live it? AMEN