Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • September 17, 2021 7 This is the seventh column in a 10-part series provided by the Arkansas Catholic. BY CATHERINE UPCHURCH Special to Arkansas Catholic The gospel spiritual, “Go Down, Moses” begins, “When Israel was in Egypt’s land, let my people go. Oppressed so hard they could not stand, let my people go.” That spiritual and countless others testify to the conviction that our God hears the cry of the poor and the oppressed and does not sit idly by. We are told in Exodus 3:7-10 that God witnesses the affliction of the slaves, hears their cries, knows well what they suffer and comes down to rescue and to lead them. But notice this: God chooses to work in and through human beings to accomplish this purpose of liberation. God chooses to rescue the slaves from their suffering by sending Moses to Pharaoh, and then sending Moses, Miriam and Aaron ahead of His people into the wilderness. God chooses to end their oppression by removing them from Egypt and by entering into a covenant with them. The story of the exodus and its surrounding events becomes the lens through which all of God’s actions are seen. While God is known in many ways, most fundamentally God is the great liberator. By making a covenant with those released from bondage, God reveals to them their own capacity for becoming like Him. He acts with loving faithfulness, justice and mercy, and now expects them to create a community to do the same. The Ten Commandments spell out what that looks like and how to live in right relationships: in three commands about loving God and seven commands about loving your neighbor. The prophets of the Old Testament can be our guides in this regard. They do not waver in identifying systems that are sinful and in spelling out the consequences of misplaced loyalties (for example, Isaiah 10:1-3; Jeremiah 7:5-7; Amos 4:1-3). They criticize shady business practices that hurt the poor the most, empty worship that does not transform the worshippers and attitudes that neglect basic human dignity. They help us understand that a tangible sign of being in right relationship with God is living in a way that gives priority to building a society that is loving and just. God used the prophets to help identify evil with the hope of conversion rather than mere retribution. We sometimes oversimplify and equate justice with punishment that fits the crime. But God shows us a better way that can best be summarized by the words of Jesus: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. … love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:38-39, 44). What has this to do with justice? Everything. Jesus echoes the message of the prophets of Israel who knew that justice ( mishpat in Hebrew) had to be accompanied by righteousness ( tsedekah in Hebrew). Righteousness might be understood as the right relationship we have been talking about. It is also a way of speaking about the moral will to do what is good -- the just deed -- that will build a community of right relationships. Understood in this way, justice becomes a calling card of God’s people and a standard by which we evaluate our priorities. Our communities of faith become training grounds for transformation so that our attitudes and actions reflect God’s justice and righteousness. We learn to identify those who are neglected or oppressed, and to embrace the moral imperative to address the situations and systems that inflict harm. We try to resolve differences creatively and in ways that honor human dignity. Far from tolerating evil, God’s justice, acting through God’s people, can transform it. This is a tall order. Our God is up to the challenge; with God’s grace, so are we. The words of God through the prophet Amos ring true in every age: Take away from me your noisy songs; The melodies of your harps, I will not listen to them. Rather let justice surge like waters, and righteousness like an unfailing stream. (Amos 5:23-24) SEE BE-ATTITUDES FOR BELIEVERS, PAGE 10 Be-Attitudes for Believers Upchurch Justice is a gift and a challenge One challenging aspect of the pandemic that has afflict- ed the world in the past year and a half has been the curtail- ment of our Catholic sacraments. It has awakened many people to the value of practicing their faith and the reality of how much of our spiritual nourishment comes from the sacraments. So, as we try, in fits and starts, to get back to a semblance of normalcy and a regular practice of our faith, many Catholics are looking to immerse themselves more fully in the rich traditions we have available to us. One of the most vital and life-affirming aspects of our tradition as Catholics is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The commission to forgive sins traces itself directly back to the person of Christ and the moment He visited the dis- ciples after the Resurrection. He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23) In a recent video series for The Christophers , I was asked to address some of the complexities of the Sacra- ment of Reconciliation in the hopes of helping people overcome common barriers that stand in the way of regular reception of this healing ritual. And I think some people might avoid Confession because they see it as an activity that promotes an attitude of guilt or self-loathing. On the flip side, others might find no point in going to Con- fession unless they have some long list of major sins. The key to under- standing why both of these mindsets are flawed can be found when we ask: what is it we should be seeking to get out of the sacrament? What we are seeking, or what we should be seek- ing, is innocence. In his book Orthodoxy , G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.” In other words, the innocence of the angels is rooted in the fact that they have humility and are not weighed down by sin. This is the kind of lightness of spirit we should be seeking. It is the spirit of innocence that existed for humanity before the Fall, and it is the spirit Christ has made available for us again through His sacri- fice on the cross. We are not expected to be racked by guilt over every minor fault we have, but we are expected to accept Christ’s redemptive sacrifice with humility, to ac- knowledge we are not perfect, and that we need His saving grace to return to the lightness of spirit God intends for us all. We might also ask: who are we trying to be, or what kinds of things are we called by God to do in this world? And the answers to such questions are so often found in how we treat others. Well, to be attentive to the needs of others, we need to be unburdened in our spiritual lives, and this is the great gift that Christ has given to the Church. He’s given us a way back to the innocence that existed for humanity before the Fall. He’s given us a way to unburden ourselves from the weight of sin through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And we should avail ourselves of this healing ritual on a regular basis so that we might become light in spirit, capable of looking outward from ourselves upon the world and applying all of our talents in service to God and others. Fr. Ed Dougherty, M.M., serves on The Christo- phers’Board of Directors. For a free copy of the Chris- topher News Note, GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP, write: The Christophers, 5 Hanover Square, New York, NY 10004; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org . The gift of reconciliation Light One Candle Fr. Dougherty