Wednesday of the
Thirty-first Week in Ordinary time
(Philippians 2:12-18; Luke 14:25-33)
St. Paul’s words about perversity ring in most people’s
minds these days. However, the people
are divided about what it comprises.
Some see perversity in the attitude and actions of the American
president and his supporters. These
people find the equating of racial bigots with civil rights activists
outrageously scornful. They judge
fear-mongering about falsely documented immigrants as merciless and hateful.
Another ideological bent judges as bankrupt many of
contemporary society’s mores. The people
of this large segment are indignant over the increasingly high percentage of
children born outside of marriage. They
reel at the indifference with which many, concentrating on their smart phones,
ignore one another. Generally elderly,
these folk yearn for the past when civility meant addressing a stranger by her
or his last name with the proper salutation.
Both sides of the ideological divide can build up
arguments for their moral persuasions.
Today’s reading from Philippians tells us that present outrage is nothing
new. Sin and injustice have been rooted
in the world since almost the beginning.
But it exhorts us to rise above the mire by following Jesus, the
Lord. Later in the letter Paul tells his
readers: “…our citizenship is in heaven.”
We care about the world because Jesus died to redeem it. But if we have
embraced him, we know that soon enough either we will pass or it will pass
away. In either case we will take our
places in a new world of justice and love.
