This past weekend we had readings from Wisdom, Philemon,
and Luke. All good readings, yet sadly the priest I listened to only talked
about the reading from Luke. Priests do this often, focusing on one of the three
readings that is particularly moving for them, or highlights a particular topic
that the local community or society at large needs to spend more time focusing
on. With this in mind I must at this moment own my own bias and say that while
Fr. Blank (as if Blank is the man's actual last name haha) focused only on the
Gospel I may very well have only focused on the second reading, the letter from
St. Paul that itself is only one chapter, 23 versus.
In the second reading we hear a portion of Paul's
letter to Philemon, a slave holder to whom Paul has returned a run away slave.
Philemon is the master of a slave that has run
away. Paul obeying the current societal norms sends the slave back and writes a
letter, a letter that I would like to call a great failure at Catholic Guilt.
Again, a slave ran away from their master. Paul sent them back. The reading
began
"I, Paul, an old man,
and now also a prisoner for
Christ Jesus,
urge you on behalf of my child
Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my
imprisonment;
I am sending him, that is, my own
heart, back to you."
How is that not the focus of every homily whenever
any verse from Philemon is read at mass? He was a slave, and Paul sent him
back. Am I the only one thinking (Screaming often times out loud) that this is
a massive problem?
At what point do we stop and say, 'this is WRONG!'?
At what point do we look at the slave master and say, 'what you are doing is
WRONG!'? At what point to we allow ourselves to step up and speak out?
The same day that we saw these readings in the
missal and heard them read aloud at mass we also witnessed the canonization of
Mother Teresa, now officially St. Teresa. This woman, this St. is a prime
example of standing up to the societal and cultural norms and enacting real
change for the least of those around you. She lived her life speaking out for those who were voiceless. Those enslaved by poverty felt her love and experienced her mercy.
In Luke's Gospel we hear the often-troubling lines,
“If anyone comes to me without
hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and
sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own
cross and come after me
cannot be my
disciple."
In this we should not hear the words of Jesus
telling us to hate our families. We should not leave mass thinking, 'Oh God why
must I hate in order to follow you?' Rather we should leave mass realizing that
we should not let anything get in our way of following Christ. We should not
allow our family, a religious order, our friends, or the societal/social norms
get in our way. We should pick up our crosses, as St. Teresa did, as Paul could
have and boldly follow in the footsteps of Christ never being too timid to flip
a couple of tables or look in the face of an oppressor and say what you are
doing is wrong!
He was a slave. Paul sent him back. This is wrong.
This is a problem. How can we, moving forward, free ourselves and our society
from the present day slavery that often surrounds us?
*Written while listening to the score from Schindler's list
