The world has its own agenda.
An agenda driven by a culture of death
and social structures that protect and encourage inequities and injustice at
every level of society.
This is nothing new. It is part of
human condition played out in the dynamics of power.
Subtle or oppressive, it is always the
haves, who want to stay the course of entitlement and privilege and the have
nots who yearn for a measure of fairness, justice and dignity.
The book of Wisdom tells us the powerful and
wicked attack the just one because he gets in the way.
To the wicked, the righteous and the
upright are obnoxious and annoying and they disturb the status quo.
The wicked hate the righteous because
they cry out at the injustice and shed light on their darkness.
Wisdom tells us the wicked revile and torture
the good. They will breakdown (one way or another) the righteous person and if
that fails, they will condemn them to a shameful death.
That death could be the slow death of
marginalization, lack of opportunities and resources or dignity or even hope
itself.
It could also mean brutal and merciless murder
done in darkness and silence.
Because the culture of death and the
society of injustice has one agenda item – to protect itself at all cost.
But this is not God's way and God never
turns his back on the righteous.
God's love, made concrete in acts of
compassion and mercy, shines its transforming light on the cruel meanness of
the world.
God's Spirit enlivens those who seek to do his
will, God's work - doing what is right and just.
The responsorial psalm says the Lord
upholds and sustains a life that struggles do the Lords will rather than the
worlds will.
And what is the world's will? It
certainly seems not to care for the well-being of all living creatures, or to
offer opportunities for a meaningful and secure life for every person.
It seems to care for its own survival rather
than the well-being of the least and the most vulnerable among us.
We often speak of the world (its
cultures and societies) as if it were somehow out there beyond us,
unchangeable, affecting us with impunity. Secure in the knowledge that the
individual can do nothing. And this is the great lie.
St James tells us in the second reading
that we are not only in the world we are the world.
We haven’t done such a good job of it. He says
jealously and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every foul
practice, including envy and murder. All this comes from an inordinate desire
to have and to keep, to use and use up for our own benefit.
This is what the world calls freedom.
And the world wants us to silently buy
into this self-centered individualism and make the best of it by caring for no
one but ourselves.
But, Jesus shows us that it is love of
neighbor not self, that makes us more human and it is love of God not wealth
and power that brings us closer to each other and to God and finally to
salvation.
Where the world shows us envy and
hatred, oppression and death; God, through Wisdom, using people of good will,
and his prophets and most clearly in Jesus shows us; peace and mercy,
compassion, and love.
These are choices the world does not
want us to make much less think about.
The darkness or the light, St John
would say.
It is only by solidarity with persons
of good will, building up of the family and the local community, acting in good
faith and Christian virtues at the state and national level can we affect
culture and society. Through our work and the grace of the Holy Spirit we have
this power.
We are not condemned to be slaves to
culture and society. We can affect change by our lives. This is the secret the
world doesn't want us to know and what Jesus emphatically was telling us. The
old reality, the old world, was passing away making room for a new reality,
which Jesus called the Kingdom of God.
And Jesus, was and is, this new reality,
breaking into the world to confront the world with its own delusions of
grandeur. Jesus was not showing the world an alternative, but showing the world
the only Truth, the only Way, and the only Life.
It was as radical as it was threatening
in its simplicity and love.
We know that Instead of being open to
this new light, the powerful strove to hide it, ignore it, ridicule it, and
finally in desperation bury the light.
And yet we know they failed.
Jesus told his disciples the harsh
truth that day- those in power will kill me.
He also tells them that death will have
no power over him and he will rise again on the third day bringing into the
world a light that can never be buried or hidden again.
A new light, a new way of life, that
says greatness and glory is not measured by gold, prestige and power, but by
goodness, compassion and love.
A new world where love of God is
measured in the generosity and kindness shown to others,
especially those most in need.
A new world where those wishing to be
first in the eyes of the world will be last in the eyes of God. And those
wishing to be first in God's eyes will be happy to be last in the eyes of the
world and they will be joyful servants of all.
This is what Jesus did. He broke bread,
in fellowship, with the outcast and the sinner.
He healed the sick, he set the prisoner
free, comforted the broken hearted and most of all he forgives our sin.
We must remember that Jesus, knowing
his father's will and knowing the world, as it is meant to be, did not say bring me the powerful; Herod, or
Pontus Pilate, or even Caesar himself.
Jesus, the Son of God, simply took a
child (weak and vulnerable) and said, whoever receives one such as this, in my name, receives me and
whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me.
This is light shed on the dark world,
this is a true society, this is a culture of life, and when we embrace it as
Jesus did, this is surly is the Kingdom of God.
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