I remember going to church in Norfolk, Virginia on a Sunday in late January, 1973 and hearing the outcry from the pulpit because the US Supreme Court had legalized abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision. Married barely over a year and not overly interested in news, I had never heard the word “abortion.” What was it and why was there such an outcry? I had grown up in a Protestant church that never took a stand on social issues, so I was also confused that an action of the US Supreme Court was topic for a homily. Why did the church care so much about what happened in government?
That memory came to mind Sunday night when I attended an interdenominational prayer service at Frankfort’s Episcopal Church. We were praying for our nation and the plight of undocumented immigrant families who have had their children taken into government custody. Both our Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Lexington and the Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Lexington spoke.
As a Nation
Our bishop, Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., pointed out something in Matthew 25’s parable of the Last Judgment that I had never noticed before. It begins, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and ALL THE NATIONS will be assembled before him.” (Matthew 25:31) ALL THE NATIONS.
This familiar description of what might be called “God’s Final Exam” is not about an individual judgment by God, but about a final judgment of NATIONS. Jesus said it to the disciples (not the crowds or Pharisees) on Wednesday of Holy Week.
These pictures and thoughts come to mind as I read today’s readings. Today’s first reading is the description from II Kings of when the Hebrew people were taken into exile. While it was only a week ago that we read about Ahab and Elijah, in Jewish history almost 300 years have passed. The people of Israel and Judah have heard multiple prophets tell them that AS A NATION they are disobeying God.
The people, AS A NATION, continued to worship other gods, disobey God’s laws, compromise their identity as God’s people, and mistreat widows, orphans, and strangers.
God’s People are Sent to Babylon
And so,
At that time the officials of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
attacked Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
himself arrived at the city
while his servants were besieging it.
Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, together with his mother,
his ministers, officers, and functionaries,
surrendered to the king of Babylon, who,
in the eighth year of his reign, took him captive.
And he carried off all the treasures
of the temple of the LORD and those of the palace,
and broke up all the gold utensils that Solomon, king of Israel,
had provided in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had foretold.
He deported all Jerusalem:
Prophets had been warning the people for 300 years. The Lord had saved them many times when they had called upon him. Just on Tuesday we had the story of Hezekiah and how the Lord saved the Hebrew people from Sennacherib. That actually happened about 100 years before the deportation to Babylon we read about today.
I do not like to think or pray from doom and gloom, but today’s readings lead me there. What if Frankfort and all I know was deported to China or Afghanistan or North Korea?
Whatsoever You Do. Listen and Act.
The Gospel today is not comforting. The Gospel today comes from the end of Jesus Sermon on the Mount. It is early in Jesus’ ministry. He is teaching his disciples and the people. He has given them the Beatitudes and the higher standards of a law of Love. He has taught them to depend on the Father and how to pray to him. As he finishes he describes the TRUE DISCIPLE:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
A few verses later he says it a different way:
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”
As followers of Jesus it is important for us to DO.
At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he lets his disciples know that he expects them to live the Beatitudes and obey the Laws of Love. He expects them to depend on the God and understand that living as disciples has a cost. Even in these verses he says, “the rains came, the winds blew.” Jesus was letting his disciples know that living the Beatitudes, obeying the Laws of Love, and depending on God would not give them an easy life. It would not protect them from evil.
It is easy to remember Jesus’ last words to his disciples in John,”love one another,” “I am the vine you are the branches,” “I am going to prepare a place for you.” But just the day before Jesus told his disciples the Parable of the Last Judgment, along with other parables of being ready (Ten Virgins) and using gifts wisely (Talents)–all these parables speak of what Jesus says in today’s Gospel: be prepared to build solid to withstand trouble. Just claiming Jesus as Lord is not enough.
This week, at least, this all is combining to trouble my personal spiritual waters. Beginning soon after the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973 and continuing until today, I have worked as part of various pro-life groups and various programs and agencies that serve “the least of these.” I have individually done what I can. But what about how God judges my NATION? I am a part of that nation.
Whatsoever You Do–in Our Nation
Lately, I have been rereading St. Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae—the Gospel of Life. The second chapter of it is exquisitely beautiful. It outlines God’s care from creation through Hebrew history to Jesus and through him to the Church and our current century. While reading John Paul can be tedious, he draws such clear and logical lines of thought when you read him carefully that there is a sense of solid Truth in how he puts our faith together.
By the time he says “Thus the deepest element of God’s commandment to protect human life is the requirement to show reverence and love for every person and the life of every person” (paragraph 41), there is a solid foundation in Scripture and Church teaching which leaves no doubt of our call AS A CITIZEN to live citizenship by standing up for the unborn…and the immigrant…as well as the elderly, for all who are among “the least of these my brothers”.
St. John Paul goes on to say, “To defend and promote life, to show reverence and love for it, is a task which God entrusts to every man, calling him as his living image to share in his own lordship over the world.” (paragraph 42)
God pushes me in prayer today to reread Vatican II documents. I haven’t done that yet, but memory tells me that the Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People (Apostolicam Actuositatem) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) say clearly, “The task of the laity is to transform the world into the Kingdom of God.”
It seems to me that means I need to do more to change my culture, my nation, toward the Kingdom than I am naturally inclined to do. I tend to avoid politics.
God can, has, and will judge the nations—including my own USA. Government leaders across political party lines do not lead us as a nation to follow God’s way. They sometimes do things that help build the Kingdom, as the US Supreme Court did on Tuesday related to religious liberty and pro-life pregnancy centers. But we have far to go to be in conformity to what God calls us to live as disciples—on many human fronts.
Prayer:
Lord, my prayer is sober this morning. I am uncomfortable in it. It is not that I personally deliberately go against your teachings on the value of each person, the value of all human life. But in multiple ways my nation does not follow your teachings—about human life and many, many other matters. Lord, in this next week before our national holiday, Independence Day, help me reread those Vatican II documents and pray from them, “Lord, as a citizen of a nation, what would you have me do to influence my nation? How can I serve you and my country as a citizen?”
