Sixteenth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: Is Injustice Idolatry? 行不義與拜偶像無異
In the first reading today, the Lord pronounced punishment on the bad shepherds/rulers of Judah who destroyed and scattered the flock of the Lord (Jeremiah 23:1). The Lord would take care to punish their evil deeds because they had not cared for the people whom the Lord had entrusted them (23:3). The Lord would raise up a righteous branch for David, meaning the Messiah, as king to reign and govern wisely (23:5). “This is the name to be given him: The Lord our justice” (23:6b). We may wonder what a good shepherd as demonstrated by Jesus “When He disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34), has to do with justice and why a good shepherd should be righteous! Thus, we need to read the entire previous chapter to know the context.
After reading Jeremiah 22, we may wonder what vainglory, self-fattening, oppressing the poor, extorting the rich and shedding innocent blood etc. have to do with idolatry, worshipping and serving other gods.
Let us meditate from another perspective. In the Sermon on the Mount, the first Beatitude says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Further down Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters … You cannot serve God and mammon” (6:24). Obviously, riches and wealth can be an obstacle between our relationship with God. In fact, between God and men, there are many obstacles preventing men from approaching God. Wealth is just one of those many obstacles, such as jealousy, lust, power and sloth etc. These capital vices boost our ego at the expense our neighbours. They tempt us to take advantages of those who cannot defend and speak for themselves. Meanwhile, we no longer feel that we need God who is becoming irrelevant in our modern world. With knowledge and technology, we are better able to control the world. God is less and less able to wreak havoc in our lives. Thus we rely less and less on His mercy. When we have wealth and power, instead of serving the people, we are able to lord over the people to fatten ourselves. We do not need God as a guiding principle in our daily encounter with other souls! There is no incentive to improve our relationship with the Lord and with our neighbour. That is to say, we can afford to lead a lazy life which is convenient and comfortable. In our spirit, we replace our Creator whom we are not able to control, with more controllable objects such as wealth and power which become idols that carry us further and further away from the Lord! In our deeds, not only do we marginalize the poor, but we also marginalize God. When we start oppressing the poor, shedding the blood of the innocent, we are actually oppressing God and shedding His blood (25:45) because the King is present in them! On the contrary, understanding that we are only stewards of what God entrusts us, when we make good use of our power to serve the poor, of our wealth to relieve the needy, we are doing the will of the Lord. How can we be far away from Him?
In this light, we see why the poor are blessed because they have nobody to turn to, not their relatives, nor their neighbour, nor the states but the Lord! Let us meditate on a particular group of poor people whose life may shed light on our understanding of the blessing of poverty. Among the poor, the elderly citizens are the most vulnerable, physically, emotionally and financially. There is only one direction for their health to go. Sooner or later, they will be unable to take care of themselves and have to rely on family members or care-takers at home or in the institutions. Are the elderly able to afford such a life style financially? With the advances in medical technology, we expect them to outlive the people they know and become lonely. Depression and dementia begin to emerge and the elderly will find it more and more difficult to communicate with the world outside. Beloved brethren! Remember that the elderly are our path finders. They go before us into uncharted waters where we will go in the future. Nowadays, our society is witnessing the rise of a fast ageing population. This is anticipated but we fail to attract the young to join the caring profession. Decades of prosperity and political uncertainty discourage young couples to give birth and raise children. The society is lacking economically active young people, not to mention attracting them to join the caring professions. The future of the aged is grim. Perhaps by then we have robotic caretakers. But I doubt whether computers are able to program human emotions into robots! In short, a gloomy future is awaiting our elderly citizens whom we will surely join! Technologically, intelligent machines are able to sustain our economy and solve our financial problems. But when there can only be robotic care-takers to meet our needs in old age, are we ready to live with it? Remember, spiritual life is not a luxury reserved for a small number of enlightened elites. All of us are entitled to a fulfilled life physically, emotionally, financially as well as spiritually.
Beloved brethren! It is wise to stay poor in spirit. Then we don’t need to prove anything to others because the Lord has promised us the kingdom of heaven. We don’t need to worry about tomorrow because the Lord will provide. Helping people reconcile with their Creator is our only mission and successes or failures should not be our concern. It is God’s concern. Stand by the disadvantaged and advocate the rights of the needy. We will travel light and have nothing to rely on but we’ll have everything we need to accomplish our missions. The Father’s will be done on earth. Amen.
God bless!
Picture Credit: nightcafe.studio
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