Sunday, August 30, 2009AD
22nd Sunday in Greentime
Letters of Straw (Not!!!)
Martin Luther had a problem with the letter of St James from which we will hear five excerpts in the next few weeks. He felt that the words in the letter, “Faith without works is dead”, contradicted St Paul’s teaching about salvation’s coming through faith alone in Christ Jesus. He referred to the Letter of St James as a “letter of straw.” The consensus begged to differ with Luther on that one.
The letter of St James has been part of the Catholic Bible from the beginning. In our own time, it has come into a new prominence for several reasons. First, it is the most socially and economically focused document in the Christian Scriptures. Second, it probably comes from a date (c.65AD) that places it after St Paul wrote his letters (50’s) and before St Mark put inspired pen to scroll with the composition of the First Gospel, c. 70AD. Third, the author was probably a disciple of James, the “blood relative” of the Lord (on Mary’s side, of course). James himself was murdered in 62AD in a pogrom in Jerusalem against the Jesus Movement, mentioned by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. Fr Raymond Brown wrote that since Jesus was a descendent of David, a blood relative of Jesus would have been as well. Therefore, James’ blood connection somehow with Jesus as well as with King David, would have given him an ascendancy in the Jesus Movement after St Peter left Jerusalem for other venues. Fourth, the letter represents a very traditional Jewish Christian vision that came to be integrated into the positions of Sts Peter and Paul. In fact, the document is so Jewish in thought that there are only a few references to Christ Jesus in the letter. This paucity of references has caused some Scripture scholars to wonder if the letter were, in fact, a Jewish teaching that was Christianized by the references to JC!
In our reading today, one can see what might have caused Luther some agida, but still it clearly can be reconciled with St Paul’s thought of the gift of faith and salvation in Christ Jesus. It is true that St James says, “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. Religion …is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world (“caught up in the system???”).” However, St James clearly sees that faith is a gift from God in the preceding verse, “Humbly welcome the Word that has been planted in you.” This is the “biblical theological passive,” viz., the unnamed One who does the planting is God.”
Twenty years ago, in 1986, the USA Conference of Catholic Bishops published, Economic Justice for All. Sadly, it was a largely unread document that went unnoticed by most. On its twentieth-third anniversary, several of its thoughts take on an even greater significance in light of the growing social and economic problems that we face in our nation and throughout the world. Catholics need to acknowledge that Jesus is not only their personal Lord, but that He is our political Lord as well. Jesus is Lord, the first Christian creed, challenges Caesar and the Empire about Who really was running the show. The bishops broached this when they wrote the following in a less complicated time, “The pursuit of economic justice takes believers into the public arena, testing the policies of government by the principles of Catholic teaching. We ask you to become more informed and active citizens…to advance the common good. We are called to shape a constituency of conscience, measuring every policy by how it touches the least, the lost and the left-out among us. With questions such as adequate health care insurance for all and immigration reform that is just and compassionate, both the letters of St James as well as the US bishops in 1986 are hardly to be described as “letters of straw”.
During these days, as our nation which earnestly says, “God bless America”, may we always try to remember God’s call to justice, God’s call to compassion and God’s call to civility in our discussions. How do we respond to St James and the US Bishops?
Pope Benedict, in his new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) reminds us that Catholics must always link up the concept of solidarity (we are all in this together) with the concept of subsidiarty (we try on the lower level to solve problems, then we work our way up.) He tells us to recall the human person in his or her entirety as well as all human persons. How will you teach your children to respond to the call to authentic globalization with their life choices?
There is a strange irony that we are thus challenged by Jesus’ blood relative and our bishops and the Pope as we near Labor Day weekend. If we live in a vacuum, we might react one way. If we live in the Christ Quantum, we react differently. 083009AD jfq