August 13, 2011
Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
"Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD…As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:14, 15c
Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:13-14
Piety
Father, help us to recognize and respond to your challenge and make the words and prayer of Peter Maurin come to life as we strive to create a new society within the shell of the old with the philosophy of the new which is not a new philosophy but a very old philosophy, a philosophy so old that it looks like new.
Study
We have not wandered through the desert as long as the Israelites searching until we were delivered to the promised land. We have not relied on the Lord to bring water forth from stones to quench our thirst. We have not begged for our bread to rain down from the skies in hunger. So, when we hear the challenge Joshua speaks today, are we ready to serve the Lord completely and sincerely?
For what are we searching? For what do we hunger? For what do we thirst?
As a Church people, some of the answer lies in the recent encyclicals of Pope Benedict XVI and some of the commentary on these letters.
In a homily at the Mass at the Caritas General Assembly on May 22, 2011, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone emphasized from Deus caritas est how the exercise of charity became established as one of the Church's essential activities. Love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, he said, is as essential to the Church as the ministry of the sacraments and the preaching of the Gospel (No. 22, Deus caritas est ).
We are asked to respond to the needs of the poor (especially widows, orphans, children and prisoners) in the same way that Christ welcomes the children in our Gospel today.
In analyzing what is happening, Catholic Workers Mark and Louise Zwick from the Houston Catholic Worker recently wrote in the newspaper from Casa Juan Diego: "Catholic teaching does not separate justice and charity, in fact insists that they are inseparable. A unique concept in the encyclicals is that "Justice is the primary way of charity." In the words from Charity in Truth:
"Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is 'mine' to the other, but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is 'his,' what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot 'give' what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity." ( Caritas in veritate , No. 6).
Action
In the same way the trials of the desert led Joshua to challenge the people to serve the Lord completely, the challenges in our modern world spring forth the same challenge for us.
As the economic, political, social and spiritual forces collide, we will continue to face many stark contradictions. Yet rather than responding in a materialistic/selfish fashion, how can we respond in a manner that shares all we have?
How can we fashion a new way out of the problems we encounter -- a way so old that it appears new? Perhaps in a week when we have watched our bank accounts, retirement accounts and mortgage values bounce around on a bungee cord, maybe stepping up our charitable giving is one way to do that. We can serve Him completely by serving each other completely.
