Economic Justice for All
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, October 10, 2021
Amos 5:6-7,10-15 • Psalm 90:12-17 • Hebrews 4:12-16 • Mark 10:17-31
Next month marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ publication of “Economic Justice for All,” a public statement that responded to poverty, income inequality, and libertarian political ideals in the 1980s. The letter presented a statement of moral values that contrasted against a growing belief that an economy was good as long as its markets were thriving and the government’s role in society was limited. The bishops acknowledged that, although the country was wealthy and had substantial resources, over 33 million people lived in poverty, and millions more were one layoff or financial hit away from it. Yet, economic models would have had you believe that it was perfectly acceptable for six or seven percent of the working age population to be unemployed – that everything was fine and economically healthy as long as the Dow was rising. At that time, when certain voices were encouraging a limited role of government in the market economy, the bishops took a stand and spoke from a long tradition of Catholic social teaching that “insists that human dignity, realized in community with others and with the whole of God's creation, is the norm against which every social institution must be measured." The bishops made a moral statement that:
“[Policy] decisions must be judged in light of what they do for the poor, what they do to the poor and what they enable the poor to do for themselves. The fundamental moral criterion for all economic decisions, policies, and institutions is this: They must be at the service of all people, especially the poor.”
That statement arises from a strong Biblical foundation – that the center of our faith includes a concern for the dignity of the most vulnerable among us. This morning, we hear some of that from Amos, who spoke at a time when Israel was enjoying relative prosperity and stability. But significant disparities existed between the wealthy few and the many poor. At this time, policies that favored the wealthy led to the consolidation of land and resources in the hands of a relative few. The harvest from the land also benefitted the wealthy owners, rather than all people. Amos wrote and spoke to challenge these socioeconomic disparities, claiming they had caused Israel – the people Israel – to die already! Amos challenges this system and directs his prophetic voice toward those in power and the social elite. What must they do? How would the people of Israel live? Amos provides the answers: “seek good and not evil,” care for the poor, and “establish justice as at the gate” – economic justice in public life.
Amos’ message to the people of Israel was that true worship of God – that living as faithful people of the covenant – meant providing economic security for all people, in particular the poor. According to Brandy Banks of the Center for Youth Ministry Training, in Brentwood Tennessee, “Amos reminds the people that to seek justice to seek life is to seek God.”
Today’s Gospel reminds us that this kind of justice-seeking is both communal and personal. And, while Jesus’ words focus on the rich man’s wealth, urging him to give everything he has to the poor, it is not the rich man’s wealth per se that is the source of the trouble. Yes, real justice means a redistribution of resources, but Jesus is asking for something else, too. Jesus is asking for something that might actually be more difficult. Jesus is asking for an internal change in the rich man: to give up his attachment. The rich man’s understanding of self-worth was bound up with his wealth and his possessions, and he was attached to this. You might say that his possessions, maybe even the image that came with them, sustained his sense of self. What would he be without them?
The rich man’s attachment to accumulated wealth and possessions operated to separate him from God. And, it operated to separate him from others. The attachment – not the wealth itself or the possessions themselves – the attachment is what kept him from living in solidarity with his siblings. The attachment is what restrained his ability and capacity to give.
Attachment is the force that keeps the rich man and any of us from giving lovingly for the sake of the common good. And I think this attachment begins from a sense – a belief – that I have done it, and I deserve it. And these feelings arise from the myth of individualism – that I can do it and do it alone. That I have done it and did it myself. That I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and that anyone else can, too. The reality is that everything we do and achieve is the outcome of a community’s investment and the product of a community’s interest, beginning with the investment and interest of that mysterious Community of Three in One, who created all that is.
Justice for the poor will remain elusive as long as we buy into the myth of individualism. Justice for the poor will remain elusive as long as we remain attached to the privileges we enjoy and see them as individual achievements. But when we begin to see our success and achievement, our security and our resources, as a gift given to us and as the product of a whole community’s investment, then we begin to develop the capacity to give and extend to others, with a spirit of love and generosity, those things gifted to us. And, so, there is an invitation in today’s readings. Today’s readings invite each of us to question and reject the myth of individualism and acknowledge the reality of community and interdependence among God’s people. Today’s readings invite each of us to consider what we need to detach ourselves from for the sake of God’s people. How can we create a neighborhood for all, where the needs of all are satisfied from the abundance of God’s gifts already given for all?
As we approach the thirty-fifth anniversary of the publication of “Economic Justice for All,” the authors’ words are as relevant today as they were in 1986:
“Like Mary in proclaiming her Magnificat, we marvel at the wonders God has done for us, how God has raised up the poor and the lowly and promised great things for them in the Kingdom. God now asks of us sacrifices and reflection on our reverence for human dignity—in ourselves and in others—and on our service and discipleship, so that the divine goal for the human family and this earth can be fulfilled. Communion with God, sharing God's life, involves a mutual bonding with all on this globe. Jesus taught us to love God and one another and that the concept of neighbor is without limit. We know that we are called to be members of a new covenant of love. We have to move from our devotion to independence, through an understanding of interdependence, to a commitment to human solidarity. That challenge must find its realization in the kind of community we build among us. Love implies concern for all—especially the poor— and a continued search for those social and economic structures that permit everyone to share in a community that is a part of a redeemed creation (Rom 8:21-23).”