The Debate!

A couple of weeks ago two of the candidates running for the U.S. Senate in our state had a debate on K.E.T. After the debate each of the candidates declared victory over their opponent. Most observers realized that each of the candidates just reiterated what they have been saying about themselves and their opponent in their political advertisements (i.e. nothing new, and no light on why we should choose one candidate over the other). The debate was not a debate by either party. It was only posturing, looking good on the camera, and trying not to look bad in front of the voters. I will not try to give any of you a reason to vote for or against either of the two major candidates we have for the open U.S. Senate spot. That would be out of my realm of influence. It would also be against what the Church wants me to do as a Catholic voice. My role and the role of any Catholic preacher is to point out the important issues that are facing us as an electorate and how those issues are to be addressed  by our Catholic Christian faith.

The readings this week say all we need to hear about how to make a faithful choice in the coming election. The first reading from the Book of Exodus goes back to the moral code that the Israelites heard from God, by the way of Moses, during their forty years in the Sinai Desert. Do not oppress aliens among you; make sure the orphans and widows are cared for; do not abuse the poor by heaping harsh taxes and interest on loans upon them. Why? Because you were once them and they too are made in God's image. The U.S. Bishops and the Universal Church ask us not to consider ourselves and our own well being in our voting. Instead we are asked to consider the needs of the most vulnerable in all of our civil dealings, including our voting. So, the unborn, the elderly, the poor, the alien, the others in our world who have no voice are the ones who take priority in the ways we casts ballots, and also how we live our lives. As Jesus lived His life and gave His life selflessly for God and us, so we are called to become "imitators ... of the Lord", as St. Paul asks us to do in the second reading today.

The Gospel shows Jesus in another debate. Last week we saw Him being forced into a debate with the "pro Roman" Herodians about paying taxes. After that he was confronted by the Sadducees about the possibility of resurrection after death. He silenced both debates by pointing to the truth of God and that His way is always first and foremost and should always be the direction of our lives. This week the Pharisees, who were very concerned about how the faithful were to obey the law, confronted Jesus on what laws He thought were the most important.

The Pharisees thought all laws were important to the point that no one could ever fulfill the law completely since the 613 laws of the Old Testament sometimes contradicted each other. Also, the Pharisees were the ones who normally decided which ones were important over the others, and were able to change their importance at their own whim. (They were sort of like traffic officers, sitting in a school zone, with the ability to change the speed limit in order to issue fines on drivers.)

Again Jesus did not fall into their trap. He answered their question with an answer that could not be disputed, and which put them in their places. "Love God with all you have. Love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself." Jesus' answer was the perfect answer then. His is still the perfect answer for us today. It was perfect for His persecutors then because it truly did sum up the Law of Moses, the preaching of the Prophets, and the activity of God in human history to that point. It is the perfect law for us today because it summarizes the life and teaching of Jesus Christ (and gives us a code on how to best imitate the Lord). Loving God above all things and loving us neighbors as Himself is what Jesus did once and for all on the Cross.

The debate continues by the way. Opponents are confronting us still. They want to see us answer universal questions. Who are you? Who am I? What is the purpose of life? What are the rules that should guide our lives? What matters most? Why should we care about anything or anyone other than ourselves? Is there a God; and why should it matter?

We are being watched. Our words and actions are the answers to all of the universal questions that the "world" needs to hear us answer. Do our lives say, "Love God above all and with all that we are. Love our neighbor as we love our selves."? Or are we answering the big questions of life with some truth that is not the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

peace,
Fr. Chuck