Deacon Tom writes ©
"The Road to Recovery"
Today’s reading from the Book of
Exodus challenges us to reflect on our own deeply personal family experiences and learn from them. In that reading, God cautioned the Jewish people to remember what it was like when they were foreigners
and living in a society where they were strangers, unwelcome, exploited, and abused. God wanted them to remember
their past and how they were mistreated, so that once they had power and
influence, once they were restored and came into their own, they would not victimize
and abuse others who were weak and powerless and who lived among them. What a
timely message for us today with the diversity of opinions on how to resolve
the illegal immigration problem or how best to improve the quality of life for
those living on the margins of society.
No matter what difficulties we face,
individually or as a society, Jesus’ centermost teaching contained in today’s gospel
provides the solution. “You shall love
the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
mind…AND, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
We can reasonably disagree as to
the right course of action in providing a solution to the problem of illegal
immigration or how we are to care for our less fortunate neighbors living among us but rest
assure, the name calling, the violence, and other visible signs of our anger show
how little regard we have for these two “greatest” commandments of God. If this
problem is to be solved, it must be done in ways that reflect the inherent
dignity of the human person. This is the basis for all the social justice
teachings of our uniquely Catholic church. Indeed, the social justice teachings
of our church are a distinguishing characteristic of our Catholic faith. They
have their roots in the Mosaic Law that go all the way back to the Book of
Deuteronomy that Christ cites for us today in the gospel.
We will not find permanent
solutions to the problems we face or that plague our country and our world:
war, hunger, disease, violence, poverty, greed, corruption, drug and alcohol
addiction, other forms of escapism, yes, these so called social sins, until we
begin to recognize the root cause of these horrific conditions…the lack of
justice. Without justice, there is no peace, no prosperity, and no respect for one
another. Jesus gave us the cure. It was the same cure given to and ignored by
our ancestors. Perhaps it is time to consider the medicine - loving God and
loving each other. Or, we can continue our journey along the same path and, in
our collective delusion, believe that we are indeed on the road to recovery,
until the next crisis brings us to our knees.
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
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