By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski's - intended- homily at St. Malachy Church on September 25, 2016. Due to traffic issues Archbishop Wenski was not able to deliver this homily; nonetheless, he had the opportunity to speak with parishioners after Mass.
As Catholics we must continue to be involved in the issues that touch on the life and dignity of the human person. That’s why we speak out in defense of the unborn. I applaud the work done in this area at Saint Malachy parish – and of your pastor, Father Dominick O’Dwyer. In recent years, Pope Francis has been a tireless advocate of the poor and has criticize our “throwaway” culture and what he has called the “globalization of indifference”. A few weeks ago, he canonized Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an icon of mercy, who tended lovingly to the Lazaruses of our day.
The Church – in a variety of ways and through multiple ministries addresses the challenges of world hunger, human rights, peace building and justice promotion. And each one of us is called upon to exercise the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. But, these works of charity or mercy, as Pope Benedict XVI warned, must be rooted in the truth about the human person, lest they are distorted on one extreme into mere sentimentality or on the other into “a false compassion.” As Catholics, we must continue to oppose those policies born of a defective anthropology like legal abortion, euthanasia or so-called same sex marriage. (cf. Caritas in Veritate)
For Catholics, spirituality must be more than an exercise of navel gazing (or what Pope Francis would call "being self-referential.") Too often, the adjective “parochial” - even when used in reference to a parish - means narrow-minded: concerned only with narrow local concerns without any regard for more general or wider issues. We are called to the margins: to go forth encountering Christ in the heart of the world.
This social ministry has us engaged in Pregnancy Centers, in soup kitchens; it has us helping those imprisoned and providing assistance to the new comer. The Archdiocese of Miami has done exemplary work in welcoming the Cubans in the 1960’s and in receiving Haitians, Nicaraguans and others in the 1980’s. And this work continues today. We are to witness to the gospel “in season and out of season”.
Now, to be involved in these social issues doesn’t make the Church “conservative” or “liberal”. As Catholics we must transcend such political or partisan labels. Nor is such involvement in social issues is opposed to the ultimate spiritual and transcendent destiny of the human person. It presupposes this destiny and is ultimately orientated to this end. If this earth is our only highway to heaven, then we must seek to maintain it – as Catholics we are concerned about ecology - both natural ecology and human ecology. In other words, we have to make sure to the best of our abilities that this highway is cleared of the obstacles which sin - both personal and structural - has placed in the path of those traveling on it.
In commenting on the gospel parable we have just heard proclaimed today, Pope St. John Paul II wrote: “…How can we exclude anyone from our care? Rather we must recognize Christ in the poorest and the most marginalized, those whom the Eucharist – which is communion in the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us – commits us to serve. As the parable of the rich man, who will remain forever without a name, and the poor man called Lazarus clearly shows, ‘in the stark contrast between the insensitive rich man and the poor in need of everything, God is on the latter’s side’. We too must be on this same side.”
Solidarity as Saint John Paul II once said is another word for justice in our day. It is “a firm and preserving determination to commit oneself to the common good.” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis#38)
Today, in a world of increasing inequality, as Catholics we must struggle against what Pope Francis termed the "globalization of indifference" as well as that tendency in American society "to blame the victim" for his or her ills.
In the gospel parable, the rich man goes to hell – but not for anything he did. Jesus doesn’t tell us that this rich man was corrupt, or that he stole, or that he had many women. He is lost not for what he did but for what he didn’t do. Lazarus we are told was full of sores; yet, the rich man was sicker – for he suffered from a terrible “blindness”. He does not see Lazarus at his gate. He cannot look beyond his world – made up of banquets and fine clothes –to see where Lazarus lies, because what is happening outside does not interest him. He does not see with his eyes, because he cannot feel with his heart. This is a “worldliness” that Pope Frances says, anaesthetizes the soul.
In today’s second reading, St. Paul tells Timothy: “Keep the commandment unstained and free of reproach.” Jesus’ new commandment is that we love one another as he has loved us. To love as Jesus loves is to resist those forces that would anaesthetize our souls that would make us self-absorbed, indifferent and spiritually blind to the poor Lazarus who lies at our gate. Jesus tells us, “Be merciful as the Father is merciful”.
There is a true story about the famous mayor of New York. You might have heard of him – there’s an airport named for him. He would often serve as a judge at the night court – and one night during the depths of the Great Depression, he presided over the court in one of the poorest precincts of the city. A poor old lady was brought before the court charged with stealing a loaf of bread. “Did you steal the bread”, he asked her. She admitted she had but explained that she lived with her daughter and her two grandkids, her son-in-law had deserted the family and they had no money and nothing to eat. The mayor looked at the shopkeeper and asked him that given the circumstances did he really want to press charges. The shopkeeper said that he felt sorry for her but it’s a bad neighborhood and woman needed to be punished to set an example for everyone. LaGuardia was in a dilemma – the law was the law but to punish this old woman would be a miscarriage of justice. What would you do? – the penalty was $10 or 10 days in jail. What did LaGuardia do? He took ten dollars out of his wallet and gave it to a bailiff to pay the fine.
Then he looked out at the crowded courtroom and fined everyone there 50 cents for living in a city in which a grandmother had to steal a loaf of bread to feed her grandchildren. He directed the bailiff to collect the fines and hand the money to the defendant. The total collected came to $47.50 including the 50 cents willingly paid by the shopkeeper.
Again in the words of St. John Paul II, "in the stark contrast between the insensitive rich man and the poor in need of everything, God is on the latter’s side. We too must be on this same side."
