Give to God What Belongs to God...Even in Politics!

 

Deacon David Previtali · Give to God What Belongs to God...Even in Politics!

Homily for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 18, 2020. Gospel of St. Matthew 22:15-21. Theme: Give to God What Belongs to God…Even in Politics! 

How timely today’s Gospel is for us as we approach Presidential Election Day! I don’t think we could ask for a better Gospel passage to be heard as we prepare to cast our votes for the leadership and direction of our nation! Even the two groups mentioned in today’s Gospel have relevance to our contemporary situation. 

 The Pharisees were the staunch conservatives of Israel. Their very name means “Separated Ones” and they did not associate with anyone whom they considered outsiders. The Pharisees were a very hardcore by-the-book party within Israel. 

 The Herodians were the polar opposite of the Pharisees. As their name implies, they were supporters of King Herod and thus cooperators with the Roman Occupied Forces. The Herodians were the liberal socially connected party who watered down their religion for the sake of political correctness and power. 

It seems to me that we can see traces of these groups in the political parties and platforms of today. 

• We can see them in those who think themselves so highly educated that they despise others who do not share their “Ivy League” points of view. 

• We can see them among the social elite who ridicule the common person, especially the rural population of our nation, as ignorant and uninformed. 

• We can see them in those who compromise religion for the sake of gaining votes, even if it requires the killing of the unborn and other assaults upon human life. 

• And we can see a reflection of them in those who publicly exile God from having any authoritative presence or influence in political and social life, even being so arrogant as to banish his name from our public assemblies and deleting it from the pledge of allegiance. 

In today’s Gospel Jesus is saying that we have an obligation to both God and the government, but that these commitments must be prioritized according to reality. It is God who gives us life. It is God who keeps us in existence. It is God in whose image each and every human being is made. Jesus points to the image of Caesar on the coin and asks, “Whose image is this?” We could very well point to a human being and ask, “Whose image is this?” And the answer would be: God’s image. Therefore, give to God what belongs to God. In other words, people have priority over profit and therefore our political choices must first of all take God and the good of the human person as their non-negotiable starting points. 

But sadly, the temptation to ignore God and the good of the human person for the sake of the power, prestige and position that comes with political gain is nothing new in our world. That is why Jesus of Nazareth was such a threat to the hopes and plans of the Pharisees and Herodians. And it is why he and his Gospel still seen as a threat to many politicians in our own times. His teachings and his whole life are a proclamation of the priority of God and the human person in every aspect of life, including politics.

• Jesus speaks God’s Word of Truth that exposes lies and reveals the motivation in our hearts. 

• Jesus preaches the way of the Beatitudes and love for one’s enemies which upsets our agendas and turns our priorities upside down. 

• Jesus teaches justice for the poor and protection of the vulnerable calling into question many of our wealth-driven laws and profit-driven principles. 

 

As Christians, we must exercise our political responsibilities with choices formed by the Word of God, conscious of our dignity as his children, and realizing that “giving to God what is God’s” means that our primary allegiance is to Him. To this end we must ask ourselves: 

 • Have we considered the various candidates and their policies in the light of Christ’s teachings or are we allowing the secular social media to be our teacher in making our moral political decisions? 

 • Do we approach the issues blindly based upon a political party platform or are we guided by the light of faith given to us at baptism, enabling us to choose good and reject evil? 

 • In carrying out our political responsibilities do we have the self-identification that “I am first of all a Christian”? Or do we give what is God’s to Caesar by declaring that “I am first all a Democrat or a Republican or whatever my political affiliation?” 

 • Do we realize that our political actions are an important way by which we fulfill Jesus’ commission to build a civilization of love and life, of justice and peace on planet Earth? 

 Today’s Gospel should be our guiding principle when we go to vote. It reminds us that even in our social life and politics, our commitment is first of all to God, who alone who is the Source of our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is why we Americans have as our official national motto: “In God we trust.”  Let’s go forward towards Election Day with God’s Truth in our minds, the common good of human beings in our hearts, and the motto of our nation ringing in our ears.

Invited and Chosen

 

Deacon David Previtali · Invited and Chosen

Homily for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 11, 2020. Gospel of St. Matthew 22:1-14. Theme: Invited and Chosen 

Today’s Gospel gives us another one of Jesus’ parables. As is common to these moral stories, we cannot get the heart of what Jesus is teaching unless we decipher the symbolism he is using. 

 • The wedding feast is the Kingdom of Heaven. Throughout the Bible festive abundant banquets are frequently used as symbols for life with God and one another in Heaven. 

• The king hosting the event is God the Father. He is extraordinarily wealthy in mercy and grace, finding joy in bestowing gifts on his people. 

• The guest of honor, the groom, is the king’s son, Jesus. The New Testament calls Jesus the Bridegroom of the Church, which means us. And it calls the Mass the wedding feast of the Lamb of God. 

• The A-list of invited guests are the Chosen People of Israel. They were the first to be called by God to the wedding of his Son. Even though individuals of Israel chose to come to the wedding feast, overall as a people they refused the invitation. 

• The B-list are Gentiles, that is, those of us whom the Jews considered sinners, cursed by God and outcasts among his people. We are like those everyday people mentioned in the parable, a mixture of good and bad. 

But you know, what really grabs people’s attention in this parable is the man who gets kicked out of the party for not wearing the wedding garment. He accepted the invitation but did not come properly dressed. That particular detail contains the main moral of the story and it expresses a very important word of caution to us.  But to understand why, we first we need to know that in Jesus’ culture when a king gave a party he not only supplied food, drink and entertainment. As a sign of his wealth and generosity, he also provided each invited guest with a party robe, in this case, a wedding garment. To show up at the party dressed in your own clothes instead of in the gifted garment would be very much like giving the host a social slap in the face! So, what might all this symbolism mean in regard to the teachings of Christ? 

We can interpret and apply this parable as saying that in the generosity of God all people are invited to come to the wedding feast of his Son, which means to live in a relationship with Christ. By faith and through baptism, God gives each invited person the “wedding garment” which is a symbol of his sanctifying grace, a share in his redeeming love. Following this symbolic train of thought, it can be said that we change out of our own clothes and into the robe supplied by the king when we turn away from our sins and selfishness and put on the way of Our Lord Jesus Christ, striving to live and to love as he has taught us and shown us. 

This parable is reminding us that accepting the invitation to the wedding feast means much more than simply showing up in church on Sundays. It warns us against having a complacent attitude based on the idea that since God is good and loving we have nothing to fear about how we think or live. These are examples of a very spiritually dangerous approach to God that is called “cheap grace”. This was a term coined by the courageous German Lutheran minister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was killed by the Nazis in World War II. 

 

Cheap grace means that we want God without his commandments; Christ without the cross; Heaven without repentance for sin; Christianity without intentional discipleship. In other words, this cheap grace means that we want a god and a savior and a religion that is fashioned according to our own likes and desires. But the parable warns us that our refusal to wear the wedding garment of Heaven in favor of the cheap grace of our own clothing, will not only get us kicked out of the party but cause us to be cast into the torment of Hell. 

On the other hand, transforming grace, the real kind of grace that costs a great deal, that was purchased by the Blood of Christ on the cross. Real grace means that we accept the invitation, put on the wedding garment, and do our best to keep it clean in God’s sight. It means that we actually change our attitude and our way of living so that it conforms to the Gospel teachings of Christ. Real grace is tough and challenging because it means that we are willing to say “no” to ourselves and “yes” to God. 

The parable ends by reminding us that all called to the wedding feast of Christ, but only the Chosen accept and truly respond to that call. And the thing is that anyone can be among the Chosen simply by putting on the wedding garment given at Baptism and keeping it on. It’s telling us that it is the living out of our baptismal promises to reject sin and live for God that counts, and not simply the fact that we have a baptismal certificate tucked away somewhere in our files.

The invited guest is ejected for not wearing the wedding garment.

An Experience in Assisi

Homily for the Solemnity of St. Francis of Assisi, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. 

Click here for the Audio Version of this Homily

Today I am going to do something I really never do in a homily. I am going to talk about myself. Better put, I am going to share with you a life-changing experience I had about 12 years ago when I was blessed to be able to go to Assisi for a couple days. I think God will forgive me for being a bit self-focused in this reflection since it is, ultimately, in honor of the Saint of Assisi, the patron of our archdiocese whom we are honoring today and who has, for over 800 years, been called the “most Christ-like man to walk upon earth.” 

 I was in Italy to visit my son and was traveling in the company of 4 other family members. We had a free weekend and so we took a vote as to where to spend it. I was the sole dissenting voice against going to Assisi. And I was adamant about not going there! I had absolutely no interest whatsoever for St. Francis or his preserved medieval town of Assisi. I did not want to waste time that could be better spent, in my opinion, seeing the beauty and tasting the deliciousness of my family homeland! Needless to say, the vote was 4 to 1 and I lost! 

 Sitting shotgun in a Fiat I glanced out the window as we approached the walls of ancient Assisi. And that’s when it hit me, completely unexpected and totally out of the blue. I was overcome with an interior force compelling me to be silent. If you know me then you know that “silent” is never ever a word anyone uses to describe me! But I could not help it. I could not speak. I did not want to speak. For the next 2 days I hardly spoke to anyone even my own family, who at first thought I was a bit ticked off. But they soon came to realize that this was something so much more than a person not getting his way! They could tell that something had come over me. 

 I spend my time in Assisi walking throughout the town from sunrise to sunset meditating at the various places that were sanctified by St. Francis. And as I did I learned many and various things about this amazing saint. 

 • I went to the site where Francis was born and then to the dungeon where his father imprisoned him 20 years later because he thought his newly-converted son has gone mad. They are both located in the massive house which was their family home. 

 • I stood in the town square before the very spot where Francis and his father had it out with one another in front of the Bishop and citizens of Assisi, culminating in Francis being disowned and causing him to proclaim that God alone would now be his father. 

 • I knelt before the famous San Damiano Crucifix that spoke to Francis, giving him his mission of rebuilding the Church. And I had the gift of being there almost all by myself which is very unusual in the popular pilgrim site of Assisi. 

 • I walked out into the fields on the outskirts of town where Francis and his growing band of companions began to live among lepers and the outcasts; where they began their common life of poverty and simplicity, dressing in the robes with knotted rope belts that would forever become the distinctive sign of a Franciscan. 

 • I hiked the trail from the main streets of Assisi out to the Convent of San Damiano where St. Clare and the first Poor Clare nuns lived. Since it was early in the morning, I was able to spend time alone, kneeling in prayer upon the tiles where the body of St. Francis was brought so that Clare could pay her last respects. It was also the place from where she passed from this life. 

I ended my 2-day walking pilgrimage at the tomb of St. Francs in the great Basilica of Assisi. And it was so appropriate that this is also where my gift of silence ended. But the question that remained to be answered was: What did God want to teach me by this experience? Well, I learned first of all that St. Francis is so much more than a nature lover or a stone statue decorating someone’s garden, which is all he was to me before I arrived at Assisi. 

 I came to understand that Francis was a flesh and blood man and not just some kind of religious super hero from Catholic storybooks. He was exactly like you and me and absolutely no different by nature. He had to fight against his selfish tendencies in order to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. He distrusted himself as the best source of wisdom and turned instead to the Gospels, to Christ, for light and direction. And when he heard the Word of God, he lived it to the best of his ability. He didn’t make excuses allowing him to pick and choose his own style of Christianity. 

 Shortly before he died St. Francis said, “I have been the most unholy of men and if God can work through me, then he can work through anyone.” Francis was not a virtuous or exemplary man before his conversion. But he was totally won over to Christ by the fact that God had become human. And even more deeply moved by the fact that Jesus freely gave up his life for him on the cross. He was head over heels in love with Christ in the Eucharist because through this sacrament he was able to become one with the God who became flesh out of love for us. And that, really, is the message of St. Francis. 

 I did not know it at the time, but God had one more surprise in store for me as a blessing from Assisi. You might know that St. Francis was not a priest, but was a deacon; and it was soon after returning to the States that I was asked to enter formation to eventually be ordained, like St. Francis, a deacon of Jesus Christ. I had gone to Assisi with no interest in St. Francis, but I left there with a devotion to the Poverello (which is his nickname in Italian, it means “Little Poor Man”) that has never decreased. I hope to one day meet him in Heaven and say “thank you!”

A view of approaching old town Assisi

Front entrance to the family home of St. Francis

Chapel of the Miraculous Crucifix of San Damiano

San Damiano Convent, First Home of the Poor Clare Nuns

Basilica of St. Francis with statue of him when he was a knight before his conversion.

Tomb of St. Francis in his Basilica at Assisi

Have the Same Attitude as Christ

Vincentian Appeal Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 27, 2020. Reading: Philippians 2:1-11.  Theme: Have the Same Attitude as Christ

Today is the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, the famous 17th century saint whose name has become synonymous with charity and service to the poor. A very curious and interesting fact about St. Vincent is that, while his body has turned to dust as one would expect after several centuries, his heart remains incorrupt. Perfectly preserved without any intervention of science and without any scientific explanation.  

Miracles are meant to make us stop and think and so we must ask, “Why would God do this?” It seems to me that one possible answer is quite obvious:  the heart is a universal symbol of love and Vincent had cultivated within himself the same kind of love that was in the Heart of Christ. I think that maybe God is directing us, through this miracle of St. Vincent’s incorrupt heart, to imitate his tremendous love for and service to those who are in need.

St. Vincent took seriously the words that we heard in today’s second reading where St. Paul says: “Humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others. Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” Vincent had that same attitude that was in Christ Jesus. The burning desire and motivation of St. Vincent’s whole ministry was to become the face and presence and touch of Jesus for all who were suffering in any way, In other words, he had a heart that was very much like the Heart of Christ Jesus.

St. Paul goes on to tell us that this humble attitude of Christ, moved God the Son to leave the glory of Heaven and become a human being, emptying himself of all power and loving us literally unto death.  This truth about Jesus inspired St. Vincent to give up a lucrative ladder-climbing position as chaplain to the French royalty.  He also emptied and humbled himself and became a slave, the servant of the poor, the sick, the suffering and the vulnerable. St. Vincent spent his life showing concrete mercy and tangible compassion to anyone in need. And ever since he died in 1660, there have been thousands of Catholics throughout the world who have caught a spark of that same fire from the Heart of Christ, from the heart of St. Vincent. They are called Vincentians, that is, members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  

Several of them today are here among us today at St. Sebastian’s parish. As a matter of fact, we have been blessed to have had a group of Vincentians in our parish without interruption for that past 50 years, ministering to the poor and needy who live within our parish boundaries.  They meet together every month to pray and review the requests they receive for help from the needy.  They take turns going out in pairs to the homes of the poor so that they, like St. Vincent, can engage in direct personal service. 

Allow me to share with you some of the ways in which these Vincentians strive to love others with the Heart of Christ and the heart of St. Vincent. 

• They go to the elderly who in addition to being fearfully isolated in their homes these days, have to decide whether to buy food or medicine with their limited budget because they can’t afford both…Vincentians bring help with both food and medicine.

• They engage with families whose members take turns sleeping on the one mattress that they have in their tiny over-priced apartment…Vincentians bring help with furniture and bedding.

• They minister to the unemployed and the under-employed who are literally just dollars away from being homeless every single month and who have the stress of living constantly under this pressure…Vincentians bring help with rental supplement assistance.

• They bring help and consolation to the sick poor who have serious medical conditions and are often unable to pay for or arrange transportation for on-going medical care…Vincentians arrange transportation or even drive the people themselves if necessary.

These are all true scenarios from their Vincentian records and the good works I just described were all made possible only by your generous financial support. But right now, we are looking to the immediate future when the COVID restrictions end.  Our Vincentians will have a plethora of needy people who will have no clue as to how they will get by when several months-worth of back rent become due and delayed bills need to be paid. And I am not talking here about bills for frivolous things or recreational pleasures. I am talking heat, water, sanitation, childcare and medicine. For example, we actually just recently helped one poor woman, 101 years old, who had her garbage cans taken away and had to live with her trash because she was behind in her bill. Vincentians brought help by paying her bill.

Today is our once-a-year appeal from the pulpit for funds to finance these life-saving works of our Vincentians. The needs of the poor, sick and suffering within our parish boundaries can often require several thousand dollars a month. And amazingly, for 50 years and counting, our parish has always met the need because of your generosity. We have never had to say “no” to a genuine request for help. And I confident that your contributions will continue as the number and needs of the poor grows especially in the immediate post-COVID times. I realize that many of you are not prepared to donate to the Society today, but please take an envelope with you. You can find them out on the entrance table where there is also a basket to receive your donations. Makes check payable to St. Sebastian Society of St. Vincent de Paul. You can mail them in or drop them off at the parish office or bring them with you to Mass next Sunday. 

For the sake of the voiceless and the vulnerable, I pray that sparks from the Heart of Christ and the heart of St. Vincent will enkindle your own hearts, inspiring you to also become slaves of mercy and servants of compassion through your generous donations that make the relief of suffering possible. We honestly could not do it without you. God bless you!

The Call to the Vineyard

Homily for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 20, 2020. Gospel of St. Matthew 20:1-16. Theme: The Call to the Vineyard

When people hear today’s Gospel most come away thinking, "That sure doesn't sound very fair to me! The guys who put in an hour's work ended up getting as much money as those who sweat it out in the sun all day long!"  Now, if Jesus had intended to give us a course in business ethics and hiring practices, then these people would be right!  But we must remember that this story is a parable, that is, a story told to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Parables were the main teaching tool that Jesus used because they make people stop and think.

So then, what is the lesson of this story? Well, to begin to understand it, we have to look at the symbolism used by Jesus. In this parable, the landowner is God. The vineyard is the Kingdom of Heaven. And the workers are you, me, and everyone on planet Earth. Now, it is also important to realize that Jesus told this parable while on his way to Jerusalem, where he knew he would be arrested, tortured and crucified. The reason why the time and place of the telling of this parable is important, is because it has to do with our ultimate destiny: salvation, eternal life, a right relationship with God.

So, with all this in mind I think we can say that the meaning of the parable is actually threefold.  

First, we have to realize that the call to the vineyard originates with God, it is his initiative. This is important to remember because it teaches us something that, it seems to me, most people I meet - including many Catholics - seem to forget: that we have no right to Heaven, to eternal life. We often hear people speak as if Heaven is something we earn or something we deserve because we lived a "good life".  I'm sure some of you have encountered this when hearing about someone who has died. People might say something like, "He was such a good man, surely he’s in Heaven." Or "She was always so good to others, if she’s not in Heaven I don't know who is!" 

But we humans, as a result of the free decision of our first parents, Adam and Eve, said “no thanks” to God's original invitation to Paradise, to the Vineyard.  They chose to live life on their own terms and according to their own desires instead of in obedience to God. And we cannot simply blame Adam and Eve for this loss, because each time we personally choose to sin, we show that we are in agreement with their reply.

And that brings us to the second point I would like to make. God gives each one of us a second chance - or in reality many chances - to think about and change our reply from that which was given by Adam and Eve. He calls each one of us in a particular and individual way and at a particular time in our lives when we might be most open to saying “yes” to his invitation. He does this because he is so very eager for us to say yes and RSVP with all our hearts!

We see this marvelous mystery of God’s selection all the time, even within our own little slice of life. I have seen it in my own family.  My wife was called as an infant, born into a practicing believing Catholic family and raised to live life daily in awareness of God. On the other hand, I was called a bit later in life as a young adult, influenced by my Evangelical Protestant classmates and following a round-about route to becoming a practicing Catholic Christian. And there are still those who are called at the eleventh hours, such as my father at 86 years of age, just a month before leaving this world for the next. That’s one of the great mysteries of salvation, of the free and unmerited call of God. So, it shows me that we must never give up on anyone! The last sentence, of the last chapter, in the story of their life might be a real game-changer!

Deacon David Previtali · The Call to the Vineyard

70 x 7

Homily for the 24^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 13, 2020.  Gospel of St. Matthew 18:21-35. Theme: 70 x 7

 

The theme for today’s Liturgy, echoed in our readings and prayers, is something so important that the Church knows we need to hear it over and over again: forgive, forgive, forgive!  I think this repetitive emphasis comes from the fact that extending mercy and an olive branch to someone who has hurt us is probably one of the most difficult things for a person to do. And the deeper the wound, the harder it is to forgive.  But it’s vital for us to realize as humans and as Christians that we should forgive, we need to forgive and we can forgive.

 

First, we should forgive because if we don’t we are actually rejecting God’s mercy for ourselves. I honestly think that most of us do not keep in mind the reality of this pre-condition for our own forgiveness which Jesus clearly laid out before us. He says it several times throughout the Gospels and in various ways. Today he puts it like this: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.” Referring back to the parable in today’s Gospel what Jesus is saying is that, we will receive only the amount of mercy and forgiveness that we ourselves give out.   This is just another way of expressing what the great St. Augustine called the “terrifying petition” of the Our Father, in which we ask God to only forgive us to the extent to which we ourselves forgive others. So, you see, for our own good, we should forgive.

 

Secondly, we need to forgive otherwise we will destroy ourselves. Can you imagine a world or better yet a family in which everyone refuses to forgive? How cold, callous and cruel it would be to have to live out our days in such an environment.  There would be no meaningful expression of love. No inner serenity. No laughter or contentment. Actually, that’s a pretty good description of Hell, isn’t it?  To refuse to forgive is to condemn ourselves to a slow and emotionally painful death by allowing past hurts to remain like radioactive material within us, gradually poisoning us from the inside out. We need to forgive is we want to live life to the fullest both here and hereafter.

 

Forgiveness might seem nearly impossible for many of us to accomplish. But we have to remember that to forgive is not to condone a terrible thing that someone has done. It does not mean, “What you did to me was OK, let’s just forget about it.” No, forgiveness means that although we recognize the damage done, we freely choose to move beyond it.  We intentionally refuse to take revenge because we know that this will in reality make us worse off and damage us further. The anger, growing resentment and seeds of hatred that accompany the decision to get even will become a spiritual cancer in our lives. We become entrapped in a toxic attitude that reaches out and poisons all our relationships in one way or another.

 

Lastly, we can forgive because Jesus gives us the power to do so. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is like a great river of forgiveness that keeps flowing through all centuries and generations until the end of time. Its supernatural power is made available to us especially at every Eucharist. When we discover the need to forgive someone and find it hard to do so, we can ask Christ in prayer to pour out this water upon us and soften the hardness of our hearts.  This persistence in prayer can transform us from bit by bit from being a victim into being a healer. It might be very hard to do at first, but if we humbly persevere God will enlighten us to see the perpetrator as someone who has also been hurt and is in need of healing.

 

Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist that we celebrate, worship and receive can empower us to become healers and peacemakers from the inside out.  Through our frequent and faithful communion with him, he will show us how to love as he loves.  He will enable us to make our forgiving an act of genuine mercy toward the offender. Christ, living in us, will give us the strength to overcome negative attitudes of retaliation and to become a person of compassion because we ourselves want mercy from God. So, you see, we should forgive. We need to forgive. And we can forgive because with God all things are possible.

Speak, Respect and Heal

Homily for the 23^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 6, 2020. Readings: Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13:8-10; Gospel of St. Matthew 18:15-20.  Theme: Speak, Respect, and Heal

The three readings of today’s liturgy remind me of a famous saying that is the most frequently quoted of the modern era: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”  It means that we all, each one of us, have ownership of the world we live in.  It means that we all, each one of us, have a responsibility to confront evil in our culture and promote goodness.

And yet so few people really do. It goes against the grain of those who say they just need to mind their own business and not get involved in the lives of others. Yet they are usually among the first to whine and complain about the state of things in our nation today, be it COVID or economics or politics or the riots taking place in various cities. But as Christians we have an obligation to speak out, to be respectful while doing so, and to promote healing based on truth and love in our society. It seems to me that this is the message that are readings are conveying to us today.

First, as disciples of Christ, we have the responsibility to speak. The prophet Ezekiel in our first reading calls us to be like watchmen, who were the ones who alerted the people to approaching danger. We are to speak out and warn others of dangers than lie ahead, of lies being spread in the name of political power and social manipulation. Being bearers of the light of Christ and recipients of the unerring Word of God, we have a moral duty to speak the truth about right and wrong, to point out error and deceit.

How can we, as disciples of Christ, say nothing when the safety of the unborn and the welfare of the poor and the vulnerable are being attacked?  How can our consciences applaud us if we remain quiet while our society distances itself more and more from our Creator who has given us the inalienable rights we cherish as Americans?  As disciple of Christ, how can we fall silent when we hear politicians adamantly declare themselves to be “good Catholics” and then in the same breath advocate for public policies that insult and contradict the Gospel of Life that Jesus came to preach? For us to say nothing is to become complicit in the lies ad wrongs that are being done. If we speak and others refuse to listen then so be it, but at least we have spoken. At least we have done our duty before God and our neighbor. This is the message of the prophet.

Secondly, as disciples of Christ, we also have a duty to be respectful and patient with those who are not speaking the truth. This is something that is very much absent in our times. St. Paul tells us that we have a duty to respect the lives and relationships and property of others, even if we tag them as our “opponents”. This is desperately missing in today’s social interactions and conversations where disagreement with the acceptable public narrative - promoted by the dominant mainline media and fueled by organized violence - can cause someone to lose their occupation or worse, even their very life.

We Christians must lead by example.  We need to make sure that the conversations and debates that we have in daily life, or that we engage in online, are tempered with this personal respect and come from a place of genuine love for our neighbor. Our duty is to contain and extinguish the social-political fires not spread them!

Finally, as disciples of Christ, we are called to be healers in our very fractured and wounded society. And we all know full well that this division and mean-spiritedness is happening even within some of our own families and at some of our workplaces. Our Gospel reading reminds us that there is a way of dealing with conflict and divisiveness that is not based on rage or seeking revenge. The discipline, effort and patience needed for us to become peace-makers, to bind up wounds and heal discord, is another way of showing Christian responsibility. We refuse to become part of the problem and choose instead to become part of the solution because we know that through, with, and in Christ we can make a difference by promoting this healing process within pour own little slice of life!

As Catholic Christians, we are fully equipped to meet this social challenge because of the Eucharist that we celebrate, receive and adore.  At the Eucharist, we hear the Word of God proclaimed and explained and so are taught the truth that we must speak.  At the Eucharist, we come into intimate communion with Jesus the Bread of Life, and receive the power of his presence within us, enabling us to become channels of his healing mercy to our brothers and sisters, no matter who they may be. Through our devotion to the Eucharist we are strengthened in our resolve as Christians to be counted among those good people who do not and will not allow evil to triumph. Not on our watch!Deacon David Previtali · Speak, Respect and Heal