Freedom or Slavery

Today's Gospel, Luke 10: 13-16,  begins with strong, harsh words spoken by Jesus:  "Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you,  Bethsaida!  For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.  But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you."  Jesus is not trying to bully the inhabitants of these two cities. Rather, He is expressing His grief that they have not turned back to God. Instead they remained slaves to their sinful way of life in spite of the many ways in which Jesus revealed God's love and mercy.

To this very day, it is very easy to get caught in a lifestyle dominated by greed, immorality, lust,  resentments, envy, avarice,  and other corrupt activities.  Satan is a Father of Lies, a "professional" at conning people into choosing wrongful actions to the point that people do not even realize when they have been deceived. The scene in the Garden of Eden plays out over and over again in today's reality: Satan entices one person to sin and that person lures another, while both find ways to pass the blame onto another  person or something else, refusing to accept responsibility for the choice one has made.

All of us need to pray with the psalmist the words of Psalm 139, today's responsorial psalm:  Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way and take to heart the words of the psalm:

"O Lord, you have proved me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.  
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar."

So, I may cover up the truth from my fellow human beings and from myself, but not from God.  God knows me through and through and is deeply saddened when I make poor choices, choices whereby I become more and more a slave to sin and less and less a slave of the truth that makes me free.

Weeping, Repenting, Acknowledging our Need for Mercy

In today's second reading, James 5: 1-6, St. James challenges those who have become wealthy by corrupt, deceitful ways:  "Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvest your fields....[you who] have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure [at the expense of the poor]...[who] have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have  murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance."

This passage brings to my mind those who, to this very day, have accumulated wealth unjustly or illegally: in the sex trade industry, in dealing in illegal drugs, or who have coerced young boys and girls into forced labor; those who, in fact, have withheld wages from their employees, filed bankruptcy and left those to whom money was owned without being paid for their labors and who have engaged in other corrupt practises.

James goes on to invite those who have gained wealth by engaging in unjust practises to grieve:  "Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away,  your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire."

We know from the Gospels that God does not rejoice in those who choose evil over good and who, for that reason, risk eternal damnation. No, God rejoices more over the one sinner who repents than over 99 persons who are in right relations with their God.  Let us pray for that one person whom we know is making millions and billions of dollars in unjust, illegal, deceptive ways. Because of your prayers and mine, my this one person weep and wail over the miseries he/she has caused and return to the Lord repentant of their sins. And may you and I recognize that for which we, too, need to weep and wail in repentance! God knows that for which we need to repent. May we be open to knowing what God knows about us!

Heeding the Voice of our God

In today's first reading, Isaiah 58: 9b-14, the Lord says to us through the prophet Isaiah:  "If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for  you like midday; then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails...."  In the responsorial psalm we acknowledge our human situation, saying to the Lord: "I am afflicted and poor....Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call upon you all the day....[Y]ou are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you...[A]ttend to the sound of my pleading" for all enslaved by sin, selfishness, greed, lust, leveling false accusations at others, engaging in malicious speech, and oppressing the poor and needy of this land --all who are enslaved in Satan's lies, who have fallen into his traps!

In the Gospel Acclamation, God says to us through the prophet Ezekiel, "I take  no pleasure in the death of the wicked,...but rather in his [her] conversion, that he [she] may live!"  May each of us be open to being converted by God's grace to abandon evil and do good and to know when we are being deceived by Satan and embrace the truth.

Living the Gospel: Fighting the Oppression of Human Trafficking

As disciples of Christ, who reached out to the poor and oppressed, we, too, are called upon to create just conditions for all, especially for our children.  That means that we do not support slavery in any shape or form.  The following article, entitled "Take Slavery out of Shopping," from FL Logus November 2016, was published in my religious community newsletter. I am sharing parts of  it with you for your information, as you strive to follow  Christ more closely and bring your will in harmony with God's.

The relationship between our everyday purchases and modern day slavery seems improbable. But the connection is very real. It just remains hidden from public view.

In poor regions of the world impoverished families are targeted by traffickers with promises of a better life for their children. Unsuspecting parents give up sons and daughters who end up in forced and abusive work situations on farms,  factories and brothels.

A look inside the chocolate industry illustrates the problem.   Cocoa beans, from which chocolate is manufactured, are encased in heavy pods that hang from trees.  Their harvest is back-breaking work for adults; brutal for children.  Yet 284,000 children, 64% of whom are under 14 years, work in forced and abusive conditions on cocoa farms in West Africa.  An investigative report details 13 hour work days on the plantation--filled with harsh physical labor, punctuated by beatings, and ending with a night of fitful sleep on a wooden plank in a locked room filled with other slaves. Most of the 15 billion dollars of chocolate that we consume in the United States each year is tainted with this forced and abusive child labor.

Parallel stories of both child and adult exploitation are found in the supply  chairs of coffee, tea, sugar, bananas, jewelry, clothing, and the list goes on.

But it doesn't have to be this way.  Fair Trade, the business model that monitors and assures that small producers are treated with dignity, is changing the lives and futures of millions of small farmers, producers and their children.....

ASK FOR FAIR TRADE. BUY FAIR TRADE.
YOUR GUARANTEE THAT  IT'S FAIR TRADE AND SLAVE FREE!

God at work in an imperfect world

In today's first reading--the story of how Jacob stole the blessing that was intended for his brother Esau.  His own mother Rebekah assisted him in deceiving his father.  How often does our salvation history take turns that we do not understand. "How could God allow that to happen?" we ask.  Or we say: "That was not fair. I am not staying in this situation.  It's deceptive. It's scandalous. It is not right." If Jesus had used those exuses, He would have abandoned His Father's plan of salvation. "A Messiah who would ascend the throne of the cross, not a throne of glory here on earth? He might have asked His Father.  "Salvation," by way of ridicule, rejection?"   "A mission that encounters a lack of faith in my own home town?"

Jesus was given authority to transplant the Old Covenant with a New Covenant. God the Father did not promise that on the way to making something New that Jesus would not encounter deception, self-willed individuals who would do it their way or insist that God's way was wrong in their opinion. Jesus understood that justice, mercy, and love would prevail. So, too, in our lives. Justice, love and mercy will triumph. Darkness will be turned into light. Deceptive ways will yield to truth. Hatred will  be overcome by love. "See I make all things new," says the Lord through the prophet Isaiah (Is 43: 1-20).

The "You-Don't-Really-Believe-That,-Do-You?" Trap

In today’s first reading, Gen. 3: 1-8, we are given the story of the fall of Adam and Eve.  The serpent, “the  most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made, asked the woman, “did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”  How often does Satan not say to us: “Is that really true that…?” We can fill in the blank easily!  “Does the Church really say that?” “Are you sure that that is what the commandment means?” “You don’t really believe that, do you?” And on and on.  It is so easy to get trapped or to be the one setting a trap for another.  Satan is cunning, no doubt at all!  Imagine, Satan telling Eve and Adam, who was also present, that God lied to you, telling you that you shall die if you eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. “No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.”   How clever! Whenever we go contrary to God’s will, whenever we sin, our eyes are opened but not in the way that Satan suggest. No, we become aware of our nakedness, our shame.  Satan’s play on words is phenomenal and how often do we not fall for his trickery!

Adam and Eve fell into a hole from which they could not climb out by themselves.  “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she…ate it; and …gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he [also] ate it.”  How many times are we not lured by that which appears “pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.” In that deception, humans kill babies in the womb, the Supreme Court legalizes abortion and gay marriages, the Congress passes bills that make the rich richer and the poor poorer without enough money to support their families, government deficits are reduced by cutting education and healthcare access for the minorities, and on and on and on! Yes, Satan, “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

By God’ grace may we not be that someone! May we remain alert and recognize our dependence upon the Lord’s mercy and unconditional love. Left to ourselves we cannot climb out of the holes into which we fall. How gracious of our God to have saved us by the death of His only begotten Son.