IT’S UP TO US
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
August 11, 2019
One of the
great rewards of travel to foreign lands is that it teaches you so much about
what people assume in various human behaviors. I can think of at least three examples immediately.
Many years
ago I was on a vacation trip to Scotland, and I and my companion had lunch in a
pub. As we were paying the bill at the
bar I left what I thought was a reasonable tip for the server. What I didn’t know was that there really
isn’t a practice of tipping in pubs there, so when somebody does that it’s
interpreted as a sign of showing off how wealthy and important you think you
are. I got taunted by the drunk guy on
the bar stool for being such a self-important American. Just for leaving a tip.
A second
trip was to an impoverished Native Mayan Indian community in the rural
far-south state of Chiapas, Mexico. We
were welcomed there for Catholic Mass and a meal afterward by the grateful
indigenous community. My traveling companion,
from lily-white suburban Minneapolis, didn’t understand the expectations there,
so when they offered him some boiled meat for the feast he politely said, “No
thanks.” I think he was concerned for
his health. He had no idea how insulting
a gesture this was to the hosts, who wanted to honor their American guests with
the only gift they had to offer.
And a third
trip was to a seminary in Ambato, Ecuador, during a time when I was teaching at
our local seminary here in St. Paul. We
were engaged in a kind of exchange of students and faculty at the time. I assumed that they would be encouraged to
know—the seminarians, that is—that my own theological studies had given me a
genuine commitment to the movement in the Catholic Church known as “Liberation
Theology,” which had its origins in Latin America in the 1960’s and 70’s,
focusing on the plight of the poor. I
mentioned it at a public meeting there—and the seminarians hissed at me. I’m still not sure why, but it seems that we
didn’t have the same understanding of what that term meant. I offered it as a gesture of friendship, but
that’s not how it was heard.
Each of
these memories is an example of being ignorant of what is expected of us, even
if it’s completely innocent. Even if our
words or actions intend no harm or insult. We only get to know and understand each other by living and speaking
alongside one another. Without that, we
begin to misunderstand, and become suspicious, and sometimes even to demonize
and hate one another. We’re doing a pretty
fair job of that right now in our country, in our world, in our politics, and
sometimes even in our church.
And this is
where our gospel today can help us, because it speaks of the difference between
those who know and understand God’s will for our lives and those who are
unaware, whether through their own fault or not.
Unfortunately
for us who come to church, we bear the greater burden of responsibility in
this. Today’s gospel of Luke
distinguishes between those who know God and who behave badly, from those who
do not know God and who behave badly. It’s the God-people who stand under the greater judgement. We’re the ones who know better, and who are
tasked with sharing what we know with those who don’t.
We are the
ones who know how to be alert for the eruption of God in almost any place and
every situation, whenever and however God might appear. We are the ones who are commanded to be ever
on the lookout for the inbreaking of divine goodness, even when the rest of
humanity is resigned to cynicism or violence or despair, or when our leaders
tell us to expect something less.
This is our
moment. It may not be pleasant, but it
is our responsibility. This is the God
who tells us over and over again to be ready to discover him in the stranger,
the orphan, the poor, the migrant, the outcast, the sinner, the pagan, the
discarded, the sick, the hopeless. We
are the ones who know this, and have heard this from the Lord’s own mouth. It will be a more severe judgment for us than
for others when we refuse to share what we know to be true. Even when our leaders won’t.
The gospel
tells us today that we have no excuse for being ignorant of what is expected of
us. The very fact of our having heard it
again today makes us responsible. And for those of us who are here at Mass
every week or every day, the expectation is all the more. “Much will be required of the person
entrusted with much,” St. Luke tells us, “and still more will be demanded of
the person entrusted with more.”
Well, sorry
to say, we are these who have been entrusted with more—like a gospel that
alerts us to be on the watch for God in every place and every person—at a pub
in Scotland or an Indian community in Mexico or a seminary in Ecuador. We may be surprised by how and through whom
God speaks, but we have no reason to be lazy about the watch, even if it
baffles us in the moment. Each Eucharist
teaches us how to do that better and better. Here we listen.
|