Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God.

I, the LORD, am your God.”

Several years ago, lolling in the lap of plenty, some nations considered the possibility of easing or eliminating the burden of debt that crippled developing nations. They were disturbed by the images and stories of squalid poverty, and by their own practice of lending to notoriously corrupt regimes. The Vatican favored the proposal and some bankers of international stature thought it might enable a restart to bankrupt economies. Thoughtful Christians cited today’s passage from Leviticus as a scriptural foundation for the movement.

Eventually sober minds prevailed. They feared that an altruistic gesture might set a precedent and prompt further irresponsibility among the poor. They also found biblical historians who pointed out that neither Judah nor Israel ever actually enacted a “jubilee year.” It was simply an idealistic notion of Levites enshrined in the Bible.

That’s too bad. Had it happened we might have avoided today’s recession. The precedent might have taught us to deal fairly and stand in fear of God.

Around the same time, in 1985 the bishops in the United States issued a pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All, which addressed problems within this country. They wrote:

The challenge of this pastoral letter is not merely to think differently, but also to act differently. A renewal of economic life depends on the conscious choices and commitments of individual believers who practice their faith in the world. This letter calls us to conversion and common action, to new forms of stewardship, service, and citizenship. The completion of a letter such as this is but the beginning of a long process of education, discussion, and action."

Ten years later, in 1995, the bishops issued another statement which reads in part:

In this anniversary message, we renew our call to greater economic justice in an economy with remarkable strength and creativity, but with too little economic growth distributed too inequitably. The power and productivity of the U.S. economy sometimes seems to be leading to three nations living side by side:

• One is prospering and producing in a new information age, coping well with new economic challenges;
• A second is squeezed by declining real incomes and global economic competition. They wonder whether they will keep their jobs and health insurance, whether they can afford college education or Catholic schools for their children;
• A third community is growing more discouraged and despairing. Called an American underclass, their children are growing up desperately poor in the richest nation on earth. Their question at the end of the month is whether they can afford the rent or groceries or heat.

The “Reagan Revolution” has proved to be disastrous for the nation. The food kitchens that provided for fifty homeless persons in the 1980’s must feed five hundred homeless men, women and children today. The income gap between rich and poor continues to widen and the American Experiment of governance by the middle class is failing. And yet the Tea Party, fearing to lose what little they have, demands more of the same.

Today’s scriptural passage from Leviticus urges us:

Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God.
I, the LORD, am your God.”

I believe the key word to this dilemma is found throughout the scriptures, providence. We must believe that God will provide for us. Insurance is a fine thing so long as it provides for the needs of everyone. It can be a form of the social gospel enacted in the real world, where healthy and unhealthy, rich and poor, educated and uneducated provide for the needs of one another. Whether it is health, home, income, or automotive needs everyone provides for everyone else. The Book of Exodus described the practice of the Hebrews in the desert as they collected the Manna which God provided. The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. "But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed."

The Acts of the Apostles also describes our lived experience:

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Is this idealistic? Yes. Is it practical? Yes, again. We know it can be done; we only lack the faith to do it.