Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 476



For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

The majority of those who lived under the rule of the Roman Empire were slaves. Americans are horrified by the thought, remembering as we do, "American slavery was profoundly different from, and in its lasting effects on individuals and their children, indescribably worse than, any recorded servitude, ancient or modern."

Under the Roman Empire, slavery was certainly unjust and occasionally cruel, as is capitalism in the United States; but it also served as a useful model for the Christian's relationship to Jesus. Paul's use of the analogy is no more shocking than one of today's orator's references to a smoking gun or a nuclear option. 

Slavery was an economic way of organizing work; without some organization human life descends into chaotic, violent anarchy. As I understand, slavery nearly disappeared in Europe after the fall of the empire; it was revived by the world-wide sugar industry in the sixteenth century. Sugar was a luxury for rich and poor, everybody wanted it and no one saw any harm in it. Slaves grew cane and processed sugar in Caribbean islands and South America. It was transported to consumers in Europe; and the profits were used to purchase more Africans for transport to the Americas. 

South Americans, still engaged in the sugar, banana and coffee trade, still suffer the short side of that exploitative triangle. And, when the climate changes and those crops fail, millions of people migrate north, toward the source of today's cash crop, which is cash. (Understandably, nations who control the generation and flow of cash, fear them.) 

But, I was reflecting on our slavery to righteousness for sanctification. If I were less a slave to consumer products (e.g. sugar, bananas and coffee), I would be more sanctified; I might be more free to serve the Lord! 

Our historical reflection on slavery, ancient and modern, has evolved into a consideration of consumerism. Which must direct our attention to how we, denizens of the 21st century and participants in international trade, (albeit minor partners), are controlled by those dynamic forces rather than by the Spirit of Jesus. 

Our Catholic tradition recommends fast and abstinence as a practice of freedom. I've often heard the legend that Catholics abstained from meat because the papacy wanted to support Rome's fishing industry. I suspect that's not true but it does point to the macroeconomic impact of a spiritual discipline. The consumer who must eat meat seven days a week has been indoctrinated in a falsehood and needs to be set free. These unfortunate persons may be called a slaves of their stomachs. Saint Paul speaks of this slavery to one's appetites again in 1 Corinthians 6.   

The mystery of the Incarnation -- God's taking on human flesh and wrapping himself in the mesh of human relationships -- which includes everything from family and clan to economics and politics, and viruses and microbes -- insists that Grace disciplines the body as well as one's mind. They are inextricably entangled in one another. 

Even the shame we feel about our bodies and their demands teaches us to rely on the Mercy of God.