Christians have been criticized for being so concerned about heavenly things that they completely ignore the pain of suffering of this world. There have been many times when this was blatantly true in our checkered history.
For example, if the people of the church speak about the neglect of refugees and the many displaced peoples throughout the world, there will be some critic that will say, “This has nothing to do with spiritual things. Stay in your own lane!” Often, this is a very harsh criticism.
When religion is authentic it means that we are moving into the heart and concerns of God. Religion never means protecting our wealth and power. It means cooperation with the heart and the plan of God.
We know from long experience that whenever a person draws closer to God, in their prayer and their worship, they always draw closer to their fellow human being. The Christiaan faith, when it is lived honestly, has a strong concern for the plight of human beings and their sufferings. The closer that your heart and convictions are turned toward God, the closer you will draw to your sister or brother who is deprived of the necessities of life.
Jesus told the story of the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus (Lk. 16, 19-31). The story is a brilliant contrast between the very rich man and the poor man who sat at the rich man’s door-step looking for crumbs to eat. They both die (how coincidental!). the rich man ends up on Hades (i.e., punishment) and the poor man ends up walking with Abraham (in heaven).
The point of the story is not the rich man ended in suffering because he was rich, but because he did not care about his fellow human being. Lazarus lived very close to him.
When there is poverty in our society, when there is suffering caused by wars and uprisings, when there are blocks in society toward certain groups of peoples, then Christians hear the cry of the poor and they seek to respond.
Start looking around to see that many of our Church communities reach out to refugees and new-comers to our country. They try to get these people settled but also seek to become friends with these refugees (many of whom are not Christians). There can be a lot of bureaucratic hurdles to jump over to bring and settle refugees but this is one example where our Christian faith cares deeply for the well being of strangers from another country.
Today, when Church people examine and bring to government and the public’s attention that fair wages and living conditions are provided to the thousands of temporary workers we bring in to care and harvest our vegetables and fruits. Farm workers are a strong concern of the Christian heart.
In our Sunday Eucharist we have a strong symbol of our concern for the earth. When the priest breaks the sacred bread, it is to be a sign of Christ giving his life for the sake of humanity but also a sign that each person is breaking their lives and giving their life for the sake of others.
Our prayer is filled with concern for the people of the earth.
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