Homily
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time A
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
30 October 2011
Daily Readings
The Church dared to scold Wall Street this week. It's not that the Holy Father appeared in Zuccotti square as an occupier. You would have heard about that, I'm sure. No, a little Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice put out a note for discussion. Most of the world didn't see it. If you did, it was probably a media headline like POPE SIDES WITH OCCUPIERS or CHURCH AGAINST CAPITALISM or CHURCH WANTS UNITED NATIONS TO RUN THE ECONOMY none of which accurately describe the discussion the note was trying to foster. The Church is better at putting out notes than at being a spin doctor.
The note reminded Wall Street and the world economy of two important things from the Church's 2000 year history of thinking about justice. Those two things that every Catholic should know about are solidarity and subsidiarity. The document simply says that when these principles are ignored, the economy will be unstable. The document explores the creation of an authority that might make these principles universally respected in the world economy. The note realizes that such an authority is only a distant possibility.
The Church herself is no expert in how to run an immensely complex international world econom. Yet she can observe with her traditional wisdom that even as free trade and the explosion of financial transactions leads to the creation of great wealth, that every trade and transaction that can be made should not be made. The Church cautions the world that the word 'should' is more important than the word 'can', that knowing the good is more important than knowing the possible. What is problematic is that a few players in the economy can take immoral risks that endanger the economic fortune of billions, while always landing on their feet themselves. The Church sympathizes with occupiers who see that Wall Street lacks solidarity with the poor in the real economy, and reminds Wall Street that the principle of subsidiarity which puts real economic decisions at the local level is being constantly violated. Jesus for his part railed against the Pharisees who were far removed from their fellow man and who would not lift a finger to help them. The principles of solidarity and subsidiarity in the economic realm correspond to Jesus' commandments to love your neighbor as yourself and to love one another as I have loved you in the moral realm.
Communism and socialism themselves are perhaps more evil that immoral capitalism. They are failed experiments of the government playing Wall Street, and stifling growth of the real economy that relies on the private interest of real people making accurate local economic decisions for themselves. St. Paul out of love for the Thessalonians worked day and night so as to not be a burden to them, and might well have joined the tea party when he admonishes Christians that those who do not work should not eat. The solution suggested by the Church's note is not a government that runs the economy, but one that promotes the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity as the bedrock of an economy that can work for all people.
The note is a point of discussion, and the Church's contribution to justice. The Church's greater contribution to society, as we should know, is not as mediator between occupiers and tea partiers, or between socialist and capitalist nations. The Church exists not to be moderate, not merely to broker compromise, although she might at times bring people together. The Church exists primarily to produce saints. The Church is a radical institution not formed by men but borne from the side of Jesus Christ to produce men and women of heroic virtue. The Church is useless if she is not producing men and women who love God with all their heart, mind and soul, and engage with God in the untiring pursuit of the goodness, beauty and truth that leads to real human flourishing. Saints are those who not only know how to do things, but are experts in showing the world the one necessary thing that must be done. Saints are interested not merely in an economy that works, but in a society where man has a chance to realize his highest asperations of giving and receiving love. Because saints love not money or politics but God above all things, saints show the world that in pursuing goodness, truth and beauty that alone makes man ultimately happy, knowing what should be done is more valuable than knowing what can be done.
The prophet Malachi in tonight's first reading rails against priests who have scandalized their vocation by using a vocation of service to selfishly serve themselves. Jesus gets after the scribes and Pharisees for their pathetic moral leadership, and tells us his disciples to look for people who are worthy of the title teacher, father and master. Jesus in telling us to call no one on earth our teacher, father or master, exposes a vacuum of moral leadership in religion, law, business and politics that must be filled. Those of us who are disciples of Jesus should want to fill this void, knowing that if we become the saints we desperately want to be, we will affect the world more than Wall Street or Hollywood or the UN or NATO ever can. Jesus reminds us not to be idolatrous, but only to follow with our heart and mind and strength, those leaders who are worthy of God, who alone is true and good and beautiful. May we accept his invitation to become saints, and to become the teachers, the fathers, and the masters of heroic virtue that our world desperately needs. Amen.
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time A
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
30 October 2011
Daily Readings
The Church dared to scold Wall Street this week. It's not that the Holy Father appeared in Zuccotti square as an occupier. You would have heard about that, I'm sure. No, a little Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice put out a note for discussion. Most of the world didn't see it. If you did, it was probably a media headline like POPE SIDES WITH OCCUPIERS or CHURCH AGAINST CAPITALISM or CHURCH WANTS UNITED NATIONS TO RUN THE ECONOMY none of which accurately describe the discussion the note was trying to foster. The Church is better at putting out notes than at being a spin doctor.
The note reminded Wall Street and the world economy of two important things from the Church's 2000 year history of thinking about justice. Those two things that every Catholic should know about are solidarity and subsidiarity. The document simply says that when these principles are ignored, the economy will be unstable. The document explores the creation of an authority that might make these principles universally respected in the world economy. The note realizes that such an authority is only a distant possibility.
The Church herself is no expert in how to run an immensely complex international world econom. Yet she can observe with her traditional wisdom that even as free trade and the explosion of financial transactions leads to the creation of great wealth, that every trade and transaction that can be made should not be made. The Church cautions the world that the word 'should' is more important than the word 'can', that knowing the good is more important than knowing the possible. What is problematic is that a few players in the economy can take immoral risks that endanger the economic fortune of billions, while always landing on their feet themselves. The Church sympathizes with occupiers who see that Wall Street lacks solidarity with the poor in the real economy, and reminds Wall Street that the principle of subsidiarity which puts real economic decisions at the local level is being constantly violated. Jesus for his part railed against the Pharisees who were far removed from their fellow man and who would not lift a finger to help them. The principles of solidarity and subsidiarity in the economic realm correspond to Jesus' commandments to love your neighbor as yourself and to love one another as I have loved you in the moral realm.
Communism and socialism themselves are perhaps more evil that immoral capitalism. They are failed experiments of the government playing Wall Street, and stifling growth of the real economy that relies on the private interest of real people making accurate local economic decisions for themselves. St. Paul out of love for the Thessalonians worked day and night so as to not be a burden to them, and might well have joined the tea party when he admonishes Christians that those who do not work should not eat. The solution suggested by the Church's note is not a government that runs the economy, but one that promotes the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity as the bedrock of an economy that can work for all people.
The note is a point of discussion, and the Church's contribution to justice. The Church's greater contribution to society, as we should know, is not as mediator between occupiers and tea partiers, or between socialist and capitalist nations. The Church exists not to be moderate, not merely to broker compromise, although she might at times bring people together. The Church exists primarily to produce saints. The Church is a radical institution not formed by men but borne from the side of Jesus Christ to produce men and women of heroic virtue. The Church is useless if she is not producing men and women who love God with all their heart, mind and soul, and engage with God in the untiring pursuit of the goodness, beauty and truth that leads to real human flourishing. Saints are those who not only know how to do things, but are experts in showing the world the one necessary thing that must be done. Saints are interested not merely in an economy that works, but in a society where man has a chance to realize his highest asperations of giving and receiving love. Because saints love not money or politics but God above all things, saints show the world that in pursuing goodness, truth and beauty that alone makes man ultimately happy, knowing what should be done is more valuable than knowing what can be done.
The prophet Malachi in tonight's first reading rails against priests who have scandalized their vocation by using a vocation of service to selfishly serve themselves. Jesus gets after the scribes and Pharisees for their pathetic moral leadership, and tells us his disciples to look for people who are worthy of the title teacher, father and master. Jesus in telling us to call no one on earth our teacher, father or master, exposes a vacuum of moral leadership in religion, law, business and politics that must be filled. Those of us who are disciples of Jesus should want to fill this void, knowing that if we become the saints we desperately want to be, we will affect the world more than Wall Street or Hollywood or the UN or NATO ever can. Jesus reminds us not to be idolatrous, but only to follow with our heart and mind and strength, those leaders who are worthy of God, who alone is true and good and beautiful. May we accept his invitation to become saints, and to become the teachers, the fathers, and the masters of heroic virtue that our world desperately needs. Amen.
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