Father Glenn's Pen

Fr. Glenn’s Pen 28^th Sunday Year A

In the first reading Isaiah it pointing to God’s ultimate plan. Namely all nations will be provided a rich feast on His Holy Mountain! This particular reading is a common reading chosen for funerals. It speaks to the ultimate plan for humanity. This gives humanity real hope. For the Christian, this hope has been realized! Jesus Christ has revealed to the world God’s saving plan that reaches beyond a physical mountain and has consecrated every corner of the earth until it passes away and the Sun goes supernova. That will not destroy God’s people, because He invites us to be joined through Christ to Himself!

At the writing of this article in October of 2023 a terror attack has been unleashed against Israel and the Jewish people as the result of irrational hatred and those who have not been privileged to have faith in God’s ultimate plan. Faith is extremely dangerous when it is placed in that which is not true. When it is placed in that which is true, one has insight into the four transcendentals, namely unity or oneness, the true, the good and the beautiful! Then enemies of God, literally the “atheists” (the etymology means “against god”) want division, no truth or nihilism, chaos, and ugliness. The devil, it can literally be translated “the enemy” or “the adversary” or even “the competitor” works tirelessly to foment these things. God shows us the way to achieve peace and tranquility both within oneself and in the social order. 

The Church in the last hundred and fifty years or so has reflected deeply on many societal issues that had concerned the rise of atheistic regimes. It can be argued that it has attempted to construct a framework for the world to move forward despite its differences. In fact Pope Frances in addressing world leaders early into his time in the office of pope used a strange word that I had not heard. It was transversality. It actually is a mathematical term but seems to be effective at conveying that no matter how complex social situations are, there are always points of intersection which every culture shares. I think it is fair to say for humanity to get along on a human level there are four pillars in the Church’s social teaching. The first is a respect for human dignity. We must recognize that every human being has worth from the moment of conception until natural death. The second is religious liberty. People must be given the freedom to believe in whatever faith they choose so long as that faith does not “demand” them to harm others. (This is why human dignity is first). The third pillar is solidarity. We are all members of the human race and we are part of the human family. Tyrants and incompetent leaders try and divide the people to gain a political advantage. They will categorize people into us and them, and they are named with terms like deplorables, or enemies of the state. The final pillar is termed as subsidiarity. This simply means that government’s role is to empower its citizens to meet the immediate needs in their sphere of influence. The smaller substructures in society have intrinsic rights that must not be impeded by the state. The principal building block is the family. This is why it seems that the enemy has put so much effort in destroying the family by crushing parental rights in profound ways.

The Good Shepherd is Christ, if we keep our focus there, we will know peace and anxiety will not rule us. Paul is reminding the Philippians that God will give us all that we need (not necessarily what we want).  The Gospel invites us to accept God’s invitation, my prayer is that we all do that!