My
daughter posted the following on Facebook today:
“I frequently wish that we would all just stop, look
around, and realize we're all in this together.”
I agree with her to this point, but to make things better, we must go further.
Here is a little food for thought:
We
live in difficult times with many of our brothers and sisters suffering around the world because of
unemployment, inability to pay monthly bills, and failure to afford either a
decent education for our children or adequate health insurance for our
families, to mention just a few of the many issues resulting in despair
and hopelessness today. I think my daughter’s statement above was prompted by
the Holy Spirit Who dwells within her (as He does in all of us who are baptized
in Jesus Christ)simply because of the timing of it. The first reading at Mass for All Saint’s Day provides
encouragement to individuals, families, and whole communities experiencing such
difficulties. John has a vision (Revelations 7:2-4, 9-14)
of a multitude of people, impossible to count, “from every nation, race,
people, and tongue… These are the ones who have survived the time of great
distress.” John’s vision of the salvation of many who experienced difficult,
nearly unbearable suffering is also a message for us today. Suffering is not the
end: God promises that all suffering will come to an end! His son sacrificed
his life so that we may live.
I
realize that at times, such a message can be misunderstood as a cheap
consolation, giving hope for a joyful afterlife without addressing the current
suffering and working towards a just society modeled after Biblical and
Christian values. Karl Marx criticized religion for exactly this reason and
called religion the opiate of and for the people: religion serves to dull
people into acceptance or their fate because of a belief in a perfect
afterlife; people need religion to survive extreme suffering and those in power
promote religion to prevent the marginalized from rising up against the sources
of suffering and those who benefit and profit from such circumstances. As
Christians, we have to admit that our faith communities and their leadership
have often been and are even today at times guilty of accepting social
conditions that are contradicting Biblical and Christian values. We, as
Christians, often failed those who are suffering and ultimately Christ when we
are schmoozing with those in power, defending unjust social structures that
privilege some and disadvantage others and avoiding translating our faith
values into policies.
However,
John’s vision clearly states that active involvement here and now is crucial
for salvation. One of elders in his vision says that those who survived great
distress “have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the
Lamb." In other words, they not simply accepted their salvation through
“the Blood of the Lamb,” through Christ’s sacrifice. They “washed their robes,”
they became actively involved in their salvation. Salvation is not passively
accepted. Action and involvement are crucial for salvation. Or, as the second reading
for All Saint’s Day says, God’s children are what they are because they made
themselves pure. (1 John 3:1-3) The Gospel (Matthew 5: 1-12a)
very explicitly states what this means. Christ, in His sermon on the
mount, praises the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, the merciful, those who are the clean of heart, and
the peacemakers. The Beatitudes make it clear that we are called to become
involved in our communities, in our society, and in the affairs of the global
community. This is perhaps best expressed through Christ’s reference to
“righteousness,” which in the Sacred Scriptures refers to serving the
marginalized, weak, and poor; to speak on behalf of those who have no voice;
and to work for a fair and just society modeled after the teaching of Christ.
This is what many of the saints, who we remember on Thursday’s Solemnity of All
Saints, did through their prayer and action.
Let
us pray for ourselves, our faith communities, and our Church that we may not
betray those who are in need. I submit that those most in need in these
troubled times are the unborn children who are ripped apart in their mothers’
wombs. How many productive, faith-filled
brothers and sisters were lost to that horror!
Let
us pray that our communities may never be the opiate of and for the people but,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, identify ways to transform our society through
Christ’s teaching, become engines of promoting fairness and justice in our
society and globally.
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