The
readings the Church gives us for today call us to proclaim that, in
fact, by our grace as the baptized, we are prophets. We have received
and continue to receive God’s Spirit, God’s breath, deep within us.
When
I first read the readings for this weekend on which the Area Directors
are gathered with the Provincial Team and some of the St. Louis Area, I
couldn’t help but note the parallel! Moses the leader complains that
the burden of leadership is too much. God gives him a solution: Share
the burden! Trust the Spirit in each one.
In the book of Numbers, Moses has been complaining to the Lord,
“I
cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me.
If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor
of killing me at once, so I need no longer face this distress.”
God hears Moses’ prayer. God invites Moses to choose 70 of the elders to assist him. “They shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you do not bear it all by your self.”
Then the same Spirit that was on Moses was put on the 70 elders. Their
prophesying was a sign to the people of God’s presence in them, a
one-time sign of confirmation, because they did not prophesy again.
The
Lord gives a solution: share the burden. The Spirit of God is with
others among us. Perhaps each of us here needs to learn—over and
over—to trust this reality. Actually our government documents reflect
this characteristic: authority and responsibility are lived
collaboratively. Discernment and co-responsibility belong to all the
members of each Area. But surely each of us, whatever authority or
responsibility we carry (whether in the Society or in other situations)
sometimes feels the burden of the task: At those moments, let us
remember this vision, so deeply rooted in our Judeo-Christian
tradition: “not to bear the burden all by yourself.” This service of leadership is not a strain, but a grace, empowered as we are by God’s Spirit.
And
to whom is the letter of James addressed today? How are we to hear
these words, to receive them? Whose voice is this in our world today?
They are very threatening images.
This word
of the Lord today is clearly addressed to the rich, a scolding, a
condemnation, a word of warning, a call to conversion. And how is this
done: by pointing out the contrast and calling people to Listen!
The cries of the poor have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
Listen to these cries. Listen! Is there any way in which we –with our
positions(s) of privilege—have an obligation to speak this word in the
name of the Lord of Hosts, in the name of the most vulnerable? Where do
I stand? Where do we stand? As the gap widens between “the rich people” James is addressing and “the laborers who mowed your fields”
to whom James is calling attention, where do we stand? Can we join with
others who will not allow the plight of the defrauded to be hidden? Do
we join the cry of the poor?
On the one hand, have we heard this prophetic voice in our own lives and let it challenge us?
On
the other hand, can we, in truth, speak this word to our culture, to
people we know? Is this text so harsh, while so true, that we could
never communicate its substance? If we do not, who will speak this word
to people of our culture? With whom are we allied, whom do we join to
be this prophetic word?
This challenge to
the rich and powerful is not new with James. Amos stood in the same
place centuries before: the challenge is embedded in the
Judeo-Christian tradition. It seems, however, that in our culture it
has been buried deep under the myths of success, with more layers now
in the name of national security and economic development.
These
words are not exaggerations today: on the one hand, we know the
excesses of wealth being reaped by some corporate leaders. The images
of rust and rot, of excess cloth and gold, and even food, are familiar
to us. On the other hand we know that the cries of the most vulnerable,
immigrants and minimum wage workers, women and children, are rising up
together with those who advocate for them.
Can we, in truth, receive this word? Can we speak it to our culture, to people we know?
This challenge feels to me like a great burden. It scares me and I don’t want to do it.
But we are not alone. Even Moses was not alone!
“Would that the Lord might bestow the Spirit on all!”
All true conversion is the work of God’s Spirit working deep within
hearts. Can we rely on the faith that God’s Spirit is also at work deep
in the hearts of many people whose riches are rotting, whose abundance
is emptiness. Are they ready to hear the word?
“Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!” The good news is that we are:
God’s
Spirit is already on us, in us, around us to the measure we need. Like
Madeleine Sophie Barat all we are required to do is to faithfully
respond to that Breath deep within us. In the challenges we face, let
us rely on the Spirit of Jesus so that each of us may be Jesus, here –
now – together.
*Area
directors are RSCJ who, in addition to their ministries, assume a
variety of administrative responsibilities related to the common life
of the membership in a given geographical area.
The readings were for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B
