Shikrot Mpwi - Sunday Synopsis
with Fr. Justine J. Dyikuk
30th Sunday of the Year, C – October 26, 2019.
Readings: Sir 35:12c-14; Ps 34:2-3.17-18.19 & 23 (R.7a); 2 Tim 4:6-8;
Gospel – Luke 18:9-14.
Theme: Standing
for the Vulnerable
Introduction
Beloved in
Christ, at the heart of the Church is a preferential option for the poor. Canon Law stipulates that: ““The Christian
faithful are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept
of the Lord, to assist the poor” (Can.
222 §1). The poor here stands for those who are materially
and spiritually disadvantaged. This is because the bible teaches that the justice
of a society is tested or judged by how treats the poor. Time and time again,
the Church has urged every Christian to make a deliberate choice of lifting the
poor from their disadvantaged position to concrete ways of living fulfilled
lives. Seen as a major achievement of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) in the
20th century, preferential option for the poor mandates the people
of God to demonstrate unwavering support for the poor and vulnerable.
Background & Summary of the Readings
Our first
reading (Sir 35:12c-14) maintains that the Lord is no respecter of
persons especially those who discriminate against the poor. It rather instructs
that He listens to the cries of the injured party especially orphans and widows
who petition heaven by pouring out their supplication. It further notes that the
prayer of those who serve the Lord wholeheartedly tears the cloud as the Lord
hears their plea. Because they are resolute and inconsolable, God does not
delay in answering them.
In the second
reading (2 Tim 4:6-8), St. Paul maintains that his life
is a libation. He narrates his ordeal stating that having borne all trials,
what awaits him is the crowd of eternal glory which the righteous judge would
give him as well as to all those who await His appearing. He stressed that the
God who delivered him from the lion’s mouth would indeed bring him safely to
his kingdom.
The Gospel (Luke 18:9-14) narrates two parables presented
by Jesus to those who prided themselves as virtuous while despising others. Jesus
reveals that two men; a Pharisee and a Tax Collector went to the temple to
pray. While the former praised himself for not grasping, being unjust and
adulterous like other human beings especially the Tax Collector, the latter
stood at a distance and dared not look up to heaven said: “God be merciful to me,
a sinner.” Jesus disclosed that the Tax Collector went home aright with God but
the Pharisee did not. He concluded that:
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
Biblical Examples of Standing for the Vulnerable
1. Elisha: In heroic witnessing, we are told that, the Prophet Elisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah (1 Kings 19:20). Also, the Prophet helped to save the lives of a poor widow and her two sons by performing the miracle of oil (2 Kings 4:1-7). This attests to the teaching of the Old Testament that “God's covenant with Israel was dependant on the way the community treated the poor and unprotected - the widow, the orphan and the stranger” (Deut. 16.11-12, Ex. 22.21-27, Isa. 1.16-17).
2. John the Baptist: We are told that
John the Baptist lived in the wilderness feeding on milk, honey and grasshopper until
when he appeared openly to Israel. He lived an austere life of humility,
docility and poverty of the spirit so as to show people the Christ. Although it
was mostly the lowly that heeded his all, we are told that soldiers too came to
him. Indeed, he was a friend of the meek and the lowly.
3: Jesus: In the bible, Jesus stresses that He
was anointed to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4.1-22). The New Testament presents
the poor as agents of God’s transforming power. Little wonder, Jesus loved
little children; he chose the poor widow as a model of charity, he gave the parable
of Lazarus and the rich man and reiterated that the last judgment would be
based on how we respond to the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoner and the
stranger (Matthew 25.31-46).
Contemporary Examples of Saints Who Stood for the
Poor
1. Oscar Romero: Oscar Romero remains a shining example
of one who made a preferential option for the poor. In El Salvador, he stood
against an oppressive regime’s brutal civil war with the FMLN which was funded
by the United States of America. He used his Sunday homilies at the Cathedral
of San Salvado which were broadcast live on radio to the Salvadoran population
as a tool for his campaign by announcing the names of victims of torture and brutal
murder which the government denied. He urged the Church to live out the Gospel
in the name of the poor. As a result, Archbishop Romero was killed by an assassin’s bullet on March 24, 1980. After his
beatification, he was declared a Saint by Pope Francis on October 14, 2018.
2. Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Also known as
the “Saint of the Gutter” or “Angel of the Slums,” the
Albanian Mother Teresa demonstrated solidarity with the unwanted, unloved and uncared for who were dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis in the slums of
Calcutta by joining in the
struggle for social justice. Following her beatification, she was canonised in St. Peter's Square by Pope Francis
on September 4, 2016 at a ceremony in Vatican City.
3. John Paul II: In his life and teachings, St. John Paul II made a preferential option
for the poor. For instance, in his encyclical Centesimus Annus, which
celebrated the 100-year anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum
Novarum (On Capital and Labor) which was published in 1991, Pope John Paul
II moved the concept of option for the poor out of liberation theology by elaborating
on it to include both spiritual and material poverty. In that document, he
said: “Love for others, and in the first place love for the poor, in whom the
Church sees Christ in himself, is made concrete in the promotion of justice”
(St. John Paul II, On the Hundredth Year [Centesimus
Annus…], No. 58).
