May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
Today we bring to conclusion our encounter with the Letter of
James. For five weeks we have heard the
counsel of this servant of the Lord Jesus and shepherd of the flock of the
early church. We have been challenged to
be transformed by our worship of God, authentically living the Amen we speak in
the Church. James has invited us to live
in a spirit of reverence. Three weeks
ago we were encouraged to reject the distinctions of earth, especially between
the poor and the rich, when we gather to participate in the banquet of
heaven. James has invited us to live
with a spirit of welcome. Two weeks ago
we pondered the relationship between the faith we profess with our lips and the
works of faith we accomplish with our hands.
James, again, has invited us to live in a spirit of integrity. Last week, brothers and sisters, we were
invited to examine our motives and our goals.
We were challenged to make union with Christ the ultimate goal of our
lives. James has invited us to live in a
spirit of single minded devotion. Today,
as we hear the final counsel of the letter of James, we are invited to live in
a spirit of justice and generosity.
“Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending
miseries. Behold, the wages you withheld
from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of
the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” It would seem, brothers and sisters, that the
warning of the letter of James only applies to those who are rich in the goods
of the world. It would seem that only
those who have mistreated their workers need to be concerned about the judgment
of God. It would seem that this final
counsel of the Letter of James would not apply to us.
And yet, whenever the Sacred Scriptures are proclaimed in the
Sacred Liturgy, God is speaking to his people.
Whether or not we possess an abundance of the riches of earth, God is
speaking to us, this day, through the passage.
The charge that James levels against the materially rich of his
community is that they have kept for themselves that which rightly belongs to
another. They withheld wages that had
been earned for work that had been accomplished. They failed to give to another that which was
owed to them. They had failed to live in
a spirit of justice.
To live in a spirit of justice is to give to others that
which is owed to them. We live in a
spirit of justice when we fulfill the obligations that we have toward
others. We fail to live in a spirit of
justice when we keep as our own possession those gifts and graces that God has
entrusted to our care. That means, dear
brothers and sisters, that the spiritual gifts that were entrusted to each of
us in the Sacrament of Baptism and stirred up in the Sacrament of Confirmation,
have been entrusted to us for the building up of the community of faith. Each of us is a steward of the gifts of God,
and the people of God have a right to benefit from that which God has entrusted
to our care.
So it is dear brothers and sisters, that God who is the
author of all time, has a claim on our time.
We owe to God our worship for he is worthy of our praise. We owe to his Church a share of our resources,
both of our time and of our goods. We
owe to our society a consistent and convincing witness to the sanctity of life
and dignity of the family. We owe to
each other the prayers of intercession, the counsel of the Gospel, and the
compassion of the heart of Christ.
For these past few weeks, the letter of James has called us
to a deeper understanding of the meaning of Christian discipleship. We have asked the Lord to transform our
voices, our minds, our hearts, our motives, and the conduct of our lives. As we celebrate this Eucharist today, let us ask
for the grace to live in a spirit of justice toward God and toward our brothers
and sisters. Let us seek to place the gifts
entrusted to our care at the service of the whole community of faith. And let us ask for the strength of the Holy Spirit
to live our lives as witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church, Monroe, NC
