3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time C.
January 24, 2010. Our Lady of Grace. 7:30.
11:30. Nehemiah 8: 2-4a, 5-6, 8-10. I Corinthians 12: 12-30.
Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21.
The biggest of the ancient Egyptian pyramids is more than
4,000 years old. The base of the pyramid of Khufu covers about 13 acres. It
probably contains more cut stone than any building ever built by human beings.
It is an amazingly complex example of architecture and
technology. There are many great and ancient civilizations in the history
of our human family- the Romans and the Greeks, the Chinese and Japanese, the
Aztec and the Mayan among them. How do we know when a civilization has
begun? Does the appearance of weapons and building tools in ancient ruins
tell us that civilized men and women lived in this place? A well known anthropologist
– one who studies human beings – was asked this question. She surprised
everyone by saying that it is not tools, weapons or buildings that tell us
about the beginning of a great civilization. Civilization begins when
human beings begin to relate to one another as human beings with compassion. .
When the survival of the fittest is the law of the land,
human beings act like ruthless animals in ways that
are neither human nor civilized no matter how intelligent they are or how many
things they build. Before human civilization existed a broken leg meant
that a person would certainly die. A person with a broken leg can not gather
food until the leg is set and healed. Unless there are other human beings
around to care for the injured person that person can not survive. The
oldest and best sign of human civilization is compassion. When human
beings are kind and compassionate toward one another in times of tragedy and
need then true human civilization is present and growing.
Like many people I saw the movie Avatar a few days
ago. My first reaction to the movie is that it didn’t make me feel very
good about being from planet Earth. The Earthlings in the movie were driven by
the greed to bring a precious mineral back to earth, even when it meant destroying
the native people. The native people worshipped a nature god, yet they
seemed to be much more in touch with the spiritual dimension of life and with
care for one another. What does it mean to be civilized? Is
civilization about having the best technology, the finest weapons and the most
power, or is civilization about the compassionate way that we care for one
another.
“Jesus unrolled the scroll (of Scripture) and found the
passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim a year
acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll Jesus handed it back to the
attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at
him. He said to them ‘Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your
hearing.”
Compassion is not only the infallible sign of a true and
lasting civilization; it is also the mission which Jesus announced at the
beginning of his ministry. In his first sermon in the Gospel of Luke
Jesus chooses to preach on good news for the poor, liberty to captives,
recovery of sight for the blind, and letting the oppressed go free. This is his
inauguration message. Later he will say “I was hungry and you gave me
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. Whatever you did for the
least of my brothers and sisters you did for me.” Compassion toward
our neighbor is the test on which we will be judged worthy or unworthy of
heaven. Compassion is the message both at the beginning and the end of
the teaching ministry of Jesus.
The American Bishops remind us that “Parishes are called
to reach out to the hurting, the poor, and the vulnerable in our midst in
concrete acts of charity. Just as the gospel tells us our lives will be judged
by our response to the "least of these," so too our parishes should
be measured by our help for the hungry, the homeless, the troubled, and the
alienated - in our own community and beyond.” (USCC: Justice, Peace and
Human Development 1994)
In his encyclical Spe Salvi Pope Benedict said, “A society unable to
accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering
and to bear it inwardly through compassion is a cruel and inhuman society” (38)
The telethon on
During this time of the year we focus attention on the
weakest of the weak, the unborn child in the womb. Compassion begins with
the love a mother and a father have for a child who is yet hidden from human
view. The prophet Isaiah says: Does a mother forget her baby, Or a woman the child within her womb, Yet even if these
forget, Yes even if these forget, I will never forget my own.”(49)
God uses the oldest known bond of compassion – the bond between mother and
child, to express God’s bond with us. Isaiah is telling us that it is
almost impossible to imagine that a mother can forget her child. One of
the greatest challenges in our society lies right here. As a civilized people
we are challenged to have compassion for the mother who is unexpectedly or
undesirably pregnant. Compassion challenges us to support all pregnant women in
our society. It also calls us to be compassionate and honest with the
fathers of these children. We are also challenged to join with these
mothers and fathers in helping them to be compassionate toward the child in the
womb. Once a child is conceived that child has the right to life.
Our Church teaches very clearly that the true measure of a society’s greatness
is compassion toward the least powerful members of society. The measure
of our society is the compassion we have toward all the poor including the
unborn child in the womb. For the gift of compassion for all human life,
from the womb to the grave, we give God thanks and praise.