Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 100

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

 

 Like few other saints before him and since, Saint Francis explored the advantages of poverty. He believed that this was the easiest, quickest, safest, and most efficient way to come to Jesus. Isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Then why wouldn't the lover of Christ prefer less money, less security, less comfort, and less social influence?

In today's Gospel we hear the Lord praise God's preference for "little ones." Francis referred to them as minors. Majors in his medieval society were aristocratic families who ruled the world and used their finances and weaponry to maintain their authority. His followers to this day are known as "friars minor." 

Agustin Fuentes, in his book Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being (2019), shows how the gap of wealth and poverty began in prehistory. With the development of cities and the need for a continuous food supply, power settled upon those who controlled the supply. They created writing, records, invoices, and correspondence. Their work was clerical rather than manual, requiring fewer hours and less physical stress. But they were in the right position to assure their own security ahead of the consumers who ate the food and the farmers who supplied it. With wealth came status; they could afford to snub the common folk who did not understand their arcane language and complex symbols.

That financial system prevails to this day as American investors pay less or no taxes on money -- "capital gains" -- they garnered without effort, while laborers pay the heavier taxes. The investors obviously have better representation in the chambers of government, which are occupied by fellow investors. They, in turn, hire well-paid propogandists to persuade the same workers to vote for them. "We're your kind of people!" they insist. Their values -- greed, security, comfort -- may be the same but their living standards are better.

No one should be surprised by this wealth gap. Nine hundred years before Christ was born, the Prophet Amos complained about the "cows of Bashan,” who live on the mount of Samaria, who oppress the destitute and abuse the needy; who say to their husbands, “Bring us a drink!” We could not expect the American experiment to change that dynamic. Its roots are deeper than every human system; they’re called Original Sin. As Jesus said, “They have their reward.”

The reward of little ones is the affection and confidence of God. The saints and our daily prayers assure us that Loving Gaze is infinitely superior to comfort, security, and the esteem of fickle friends. The current pandemic, accompanied by financial crises and social disruption, proves again how insubstantial material satisfactions are. They vanish like the morning dew before the consubstantial love of the Father and the Son and the transubstantial miracle of the Eucharist. We know that substance within ourselves when the Father and the Son and their Holy Spirit make their home in our hearts.