States built on the hidden people need to know service.

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today inspire some reflection on the hidden persons who make the work of the state possible. The reflection of Angela Maynard on the Gospel from Mark invites us to consider the relationship between the Church, believers, and the State. Our trip to Rome and our guide from the Holy See have made it clear that the separation of Church and State is an ideal which has not been the reality for the 2000 years of Christianity. The commentary on this event from the Gospel of Matthew notes that they handed Him the Roman coin. This likely meant that they were users of the currency of the Roman Empire too. The passage from Tobit is a reminder that our assumptions about the nature of things, including the relationship between Church and State, are often the product of our own situations and may not reflect reality. The good guides who are in our lives provide touchstones to moderate our initial reactions. One example of the contrasts which we see in Rome was experienced yesterday as we visited some historic churches. One was built over a 1st century villa on a hill and the excavation showed frescoes of the pre Christian devotions of that time. The early Church met in this villa and obviously benefited from the alliance of its owner with the laws of the Roman State. The hidden people, like the blind Tobit, built the villas and palaces of Rome and they are with us today in a social political system which exploits and discards the poorest of the poor. We were quite fortunate to find the Roman Convent, near the old villa church, were nuns of the order founded by Mother Theresa live. We were invited to see where Mother Theresa lived when she visited Rome. The extremely humble cell in the convent which used to be a chicken coop for the Benedictan convent next door set the stage for the sister to explain the work her convent does with the homeless men of Rome. The State exercises the will of power and privilege. We are instructed by Jesus to bring the fruit of love, service, forgiveness and humility to our involvement with all people. We do this in one and one encounters and in efforts, which are political, to bring the actions of the State closer to serving the needs of those hidden persons upon which it rests.