National Pride and Social Policy

The question of value and values is raised by the texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today. The first part of July in North America is a time when Canada (July 1) and the United States (July 4) celebrate with much public ritual their national holidays. In these countries, we have a lot for which to be thankful. Friar Jude Winkler and John W Collins both comment on the passage from the Prophet Amos with reference to fair trade practices. The butcher with the heavy finger in Friar Jude’s example and the small businessman struggling in a tight economy cited by Pastor Collins remind us of a moral responsibility to our neighbour which Eileen Wirth found in her small Catholic farming community but which she rightly identifies may be missing in the action and attitudes of the people and governments of these western democracies toward immigrants, refugees and other oppressed people. The model of Jesus in the Gospel from Matthew is to show the outcast and those who we judge as sinners that they have value in the eyes of God who offers them and all mercy so we might not judge others and so that the social crimes described by Amos will not prevail in society today. Friar Jude recalls a rabbinic maxim which he applies to the situation which befell those in the northern kingdom at the time of Amos which meant their punishment for rejecting the Word and Will of God would be a famine of that Word and Wisdom in the land. In this famine of clarity about the Will of God for the Chosen People they made social, economic and political decisions which lead to the destruction of Israel by Assyrians. The western democratic nations may also be neglecting to hear God cry out for the marginalized. Our political, social and economic decisions may need revision in the light of the Son who calls us to find value in all people and to Love our enemies.