Christians Have Ears and Hearts

By Fr. James Rude, S.J.

Our national parties must stop being so partisan!  The day after the recent elections, I phoned Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to congratulate her for becoming the first women to become Speaker of the House.

 I also wanted to warn her that not only must she be willing to work across party lines in a spirit of compromise, she must be a leader in bringing the two groups together humanly, socially for the sake of the Republic.

This is even more important for Christians to do – for the sake of the Kingdom!

 Many issues divide us Christians: Consider immigration, the death penalty and the minimum wage.  “They have a right to live,” vs.  “We have a right to protect our national borders.”  “Some crimes scream out for the ultimate in justice, vs. “We must stand for the protection of human life.”  “People have the right to expect appropriate recompense for their work,” vs. “Too high a minimum wage would weaken the smaller businesses.”

 Most moral issues that confront us are not simple ones whose solutions are immediately evident.  When they are, Christians can easily gather together to promote those actions.  But most are not and when we deal with them we must be clear about relevant Church teachings, what Scripture says and means, the tradition of our Church, the situation of society and our own personal needs. Then we must come together and discuss the issues.

 There is a rub: We must discuss them rationally and lovingly, not contentiously; we must discuss for truth, not for winning.  We are first called by the Spirit of Jesus to be a community, to be His Body.  We can face one another with different points of view, but we can never face one another with bad will or hostility, in a spirit of exclusiveness or self-righteousness.

 We cannot close our ears or our hearts to another Christian, but must continually try to hear, to understand.  If the other be wrong, he should be corrected, but with respect.  If the other dip into emotion and stray from reason, it should be pointed out to him, but with love.  If we cease to have regard and respect for the other, we have divided the Body and have failed our Christian call.

 Some arguments are wrong.  In these cases, we must inform and enlighten with respect.  For example, it is not true that human life is an absolute, although it is sacred.  It is not true that the number of Americans in deep poverty is smaller than in 2000.  It is not true that we are primarily a nation of laws, we are rather a nation of people who are supported and protected by laws; we don’t exist for the laws, the laws exist for us.

 Emotions can blind one to the truth.  When it happens, we must lovingly point it out, but also be aware that we might make the same mistake ourselves.  Consider the death penalty. I have talked to people about why the Catholic Church believes that the death penalty should be abolished.  I have talked to them about God’s love and the human dignity of every child of God, about the sacredness of life, about the Church’s insistent teaching about the “seamless garment of life,” its consistent pro-life ethic and about the need for forgiveness.

 People have agreed with me -- to a point.  One woman said yes to my every argument then added, “However, if someone were to hurt my little daughter, I would want to execute him myself!”  And a man listened to me and said, “That’s all well and good, until it is your son who is the victim.”

 The feelings of such people cannot be denied, but they are dealing precisely with feelings.  If they accept Catholic moral principles and then permit emotion to take the place of principle, the moral principles are lost.

 As Christians, we not only follow Jesus as our model and our master, but also are united to Him as members of His Body.  He is not someone simply outside of us who teaches us truths.

 Through the Spirit, He lives deep within each of us to be our truth.  Since we are united with Him, we must live united with each other.  We find our source of truth in the Gospel, but social justice is a constitutive part of the Gospel.

 That means that it is essential for us to work for justice, to work for justice together.