One of the major sins of our times is greed. Our whole lives are shot through with greed and built on the desire to acquire and possess more than we need. Our church is guilty of this sin; our society is guilty of this sin; our political system is guilty of this sin. We humans rape nature--the water, the air, the land, everything--seeking a profit, as if the water, the wildlife, the countryside, the beauty, were ours to exploit. The U.S. spends billions of dollars on defense to protect our way of life, our freedom. We talk about other, noble freedoms; but the freedom that many of us desire on the gut level is the freedom to possess and be greedy. I have often wanted to preach God's word about greed, but I usually lack the courage: it would be too contrary to what people want to hear. Jesus' word in Luke's Gospel is "none of you can be my disciples unless he gives up all his possessions."
RELY ON YAHWEH
The idea that material possessions can give any kind of security has no support whatsoever from Scripture. In fact, Scripture teaches that we need to break with our possessions to find our true security in God. As God led his chosen people out of Egypt and through the desert, he fed them with manna. God told them to go out in the morning and gather enough for the day but no more. Some gathered more, hoping to have security for the next day: but whatever extra they gathered spoiled. God was telling them, and he tells us, that he will provide everything day-by-day if we trust him. The chosen people were to have God as their portion, God as their inheritance. For many of us, God is not our primary trust: we trust money. If we have money, we have security and do not have to trust God for our daily sustenance as the Israelites did. We look for our security in the things that God has loaned us for the building of his kingdom.
A way to trust God is built into the Old Testament laws. In the seventh year there was to be no planting and no harvesting of crops. Food was to be put in the common storehouse each year: God promised that in the seventh year there would be plenty of food to carry them through into the eighth year. There were also laws to keep anyone from being destitute. An owner was not allowed to harvest his crop completely: he'd have to leave the sides of his fields to be harvested by the alien and the poor. Further, a person could not acquire a great deal of land, because every seventh year the original owner or members of his family could claim the property back. The whole system was set up to keep anybody from getting too acquisitive or too rich. Following God's detailed law, the nation and the individual would come to trust God for their material needs.
The two great sins that the Hebrew People committed were unfaithfulness to God through idolatry, and failure to seek social justice. It was often greed that led them into idolatry. Casting their children into Moloch's fire or going through a fertility rite were thought to bring more wealth and security. Today we bypass Moloch: money can buy all the things we or our children need. We skip the worship of this or that idol, and go directly to money. But God's message is still, "I am the only God; you don't need any security besides me." As followers of God we should put our trust in him, and not in what he made. (Matthew 6:33)
THE NEW TESTAMENT
Our seeking after material possessions is a great obstacle to doing God's work. When Jesus sent his Twelve to proclaim the reign of God, it was without staff, bag, bread, or money (Luke 9:3). Deprived of all, they would have to trust God every step of the way. It takes faith to put that kind of trust in God.If I have a wallet full of money, cashier's checks, and a bank account, it is a lot easier to feel secure. That's the way we have been taught to think, but it is different from the evangelical trust Jesus wanted his disciples to have.
Jesus proclaimed this trust in the Sermon on the Mount. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns--your Father feeds them. Look at the lilies of the field. They do not make clothes or worry--God clothes them, beautifully. How much more you of little faith. The faith he spoke of was faith in God's providence. He will take care of our needs if we seek his kingdom first. Yet we are tempted to take care of our material needs first, then we will have time to work for the Church. Or we feel that when we have plenty of material security, then we will give money to the poor.
Many people are in severe pain for years because they cannot afford to buy a prescription. Many don't eat properly. The clear teaching of Scripture is that we are aliens on God's property and stewards of his riches. In the Acts of the Apostles, the early Christians sold what they had and gave it to the apostles so that everyone's needs could be met. The Fathers of the Church said the goods that are left over after our needs are met. belong to the poor.This sounds shocking, but we are only God's stewards.
THE NEIGHBOR
The two great commandments are to love God with our whole mind, our whole heart, and our whole soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In answer to the lawyer's question about who is a neighbor, Jesus spoke the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30). This parable is an illustration of the second of the two great commandments: how we love our neighbor and who our neighbor is. The two main characters in the parable were political enemies, living in different countries. They were also religious enemies: to both hatred of the other was a part of their religious practice. The Samaritan gives his enemy personal medical attention and puts him up at a hotel. It's very costly in time, convenience, and money; he sets his own plans aside. It is also a long-term help; he tells the innkeeper to continue to look after him and that he will come back and pay more money if necessary.
We can quibble and ask how wide a road must be before one is excused from crossing over to a person in need. We can say, "Well, that problem is in another country, or another religion, or another race; it isn't my business." But there is scarcely a road so wide or a distance so great that it excuses us from coming to the aid of our neighbor in need. We cannot look at the great needs of the underdeveloped nations and say, "Why don't they do something?"
Consider the priest who first saw the injured man by the side of the road. Probably he said to himself, "I am a priest: I have religious duties: I do not have time." The excuse seemed a good one, even a religious one. The second man was a Levite, a professional priest-helper. He too could have had a religious excuse for not helping the wounded man--he had to help the priest in the temple. But Jesus rejected the conduct of these two.
Many people, even Church people accept what our society teaches: "Help yourself to everything you can, and everything you can possibly want. Then give a token to your neighbor in need; it is nice to help the missions and the orphans." Tokenism has nothing to do with loving our neighbor as ourself. If we really loved our neighbor as ourself, we would be interested in seeing that he ate as well as we eat ourselves, and that he had as good a house and education as our own.
HOW?
. . . Since the social problem is so complex and interlocked, what can we do? We must first admit our sin, and admit our need for a savior. Jesus is the only one who can straighten the mess out. We must call upon him to do it, both as individuals and as members of the Church and of this society and of this nation. We must repent personally and corporately and call each other to repentance. Repentance is more than striking our breasts: it is changing our direction. Repentance doesn't mean striking our breasts as we reach for more material possessions and more comfort. We must also make ourselves and whatever he has given us available to Jesus. This means our whole lives, all our possessions--for him to use in any way he wants in a solution to the world-wide problem.
We live in a society that shields us from knowing what tragic things go on. Some of us never smell poverty; we never bury a person who dies of malnutrition. But misery and tragedy exist very close to where even the richest of us live. Within a mile of where I go to sleep, people freeze to death every year. I live in a city where making clothes is a major industry.
Christians should live frugally in order to put their possessions at God's service. This is especially true of religious with a vow of poverty; but all Christians are called to put their comforts on the line, and share them with those who do not have the basic necessities of life. If everybody in the world was living decently, there would be room for luxury.
There is one further complexity to our social problems that needs to be faced. Sin and greed are not the whole story.
THE ENEMY
In the whole social question, it is important to remember that "Our battle is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness, the evil spirits in regions above." (Ephesians 6:12) Jesus often spoke of the power of Satan in the world. Though that power was broken with the crucifixion and resurrection, the Prince of this world can still dominate social systems. He knows that if he can keep whole systems in his slavery, many many people will live in vice and despair, sadness and sorrow, and will never find Jesus. The devil and his helpers cause people to sin, to be sick, to suffer, and to live in poverty, by fostering unjust and evil systems that perpetuate all these things. As individuals are afflicted, tempted and abused by spirits of various kinds, so are systems and nations under bondage. Many Christians are part of business enterprises under the control and supported by the Prince of this world.
In social problems, this is the nature of the struggle. People who have worked for social justice realize how frustrating it can be. Sometimes they can work for years and produce nothing. Or they reach some goal, and see that they have really accomplished nothing. They have replaced one set of oppressors with another, or they may have tinkered with the social system but not made any substantial change. They may have been frustrated for years trying to do a very simple thing. Feeding the poor seems like a very simple thing, but can be blocked for years in a way that cannot be explained naturally. If someone were going to build a tavern or a house of prostitution, it could be done with little money and no obstacles. Try to do something useful, and there are countless obstacles one after the other.
WEAPONS
Since a main objective in the social apostolate is to correct bad institutions, and since the nature of the battle is spiritual, we have to use spiritual weapons. One of these weapons is to praise God, that his power be released to break the power of Satan in men's lives and in the systems that keep people in bondage. Another weapon is the expectancy of God's salvation. We must live, praying and believing, that Jesus will save us from the mess that we have made of the world.
Another spiritual weapon is the exorcism of the Church. The Roman Ritual includes an exorcism of a community "to be delivered from every influence of the accursed spirits, from their every evil snare and deception." Pope Leo XIII wanted all Catholics in the world to say this exorcism daily. It is interesting to note that the same Leo XIII was the first modern pope to speak about social problems in unequivocal language.
Other weapons we need are the charismatic gifts. I think new charismatic gifts are coming to help us in this battle. I expect people to emerge with gifts we never thought about, gifts to come to grips with social problems and come against the spiritual powers that keep the world in bondage. We certainly need people with the gift of wisdom and understanding to see through the practical difficulties. When I read in the Mexican paper that several people were frozen to death in the freight yards, I say to myself, "Well, I have to go help these people. I have a coat that I could give to somebody." Then the practical problem comes up: how am I going to find the man that needs this coat? There are hundreds who would sell the coat to buy a bottle of wine. The gifts of knowledge and understanding are charismatic gifts that God has to give his people if they are going to cooperate in the building of his kingdom on earth. I look for these gifts, not familiar now, to emerge.
I believe that the charismatic renewal is preparing the body of Christ for the ministry of healing society. The charismatic renewal can motivate people to give themselves to working for the poor and the correction of social evils. Motivation is a prime factor. You cannot pay people and get them to make significant headway, at least in my experience. It is a fallacy to think that money equals progress. The motivation comes from Jesus, not from money. The charismatic renewal is already motivating many people to give themselves to this type of service.
The charismatic renewal is also able, I believe, to call people to effective evangelical poverty. Christians must be willing to share their lives and their possessions with the poor and needy. The renewal already has shown itself capable of creating Christian communities that are able to deal with these problems, or, at least, show promise of being able to deal with these problems effectively. Hopefully, the charismatic renewal will also have power to renew religious congregations and call them back to a life of evangelical poverty, and give up the hypocrisy and the bondage of Satan in which they now find themselves.
The charismatic renewal will enable people to fight the spiritual warfare that exists in the social apostolate. We must fight the powers of Satan in individuals who are afflicted and also in evil systems, institutions, and governments that are bound by the evil one. We have had experience with individuals, but no successful experience yet of conquering Satan's widespread influence in social systems. Hopefully that success won't be too long coming.
This article is reprinted from The New Covenant, a magazine of the Word of God Community in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When this article appeared, Fr. Thomas was a leader in prayer groups in El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. He was also an active participant in the Catholic Charismatic movement.
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