“As for you, Capernaum, will you exalt yourselves to the skies? No, you will be hurled down to Hades. Anyone who listens to you, listens to me. Anyone who rejects you, rejects me; and those who reject me, reject the One who sent me.: (Lk 10:15-6) Jesus is angry and frustrated. He has just spoken “woes” over Chorazin and Bethsaida because they have not listened and have not repented.

In February, we were in Capernaum, a beautiful site on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The sign on the gate bills it as the “Hometown of Jesus.” How hard, how painful it must have been for Jesus to utter these words. His home town had rejected him and his message. His hometown will be hurled into Hades, the place of death and no return.
Depending on our experiences, our wants, our needs we can fashion many different interpretations of Jesus’ message. For years, we, as Catholics, avoided the Bible. Part of this was a patriarchal ploy. We were assumed to be ignorant and incapable of reading and interpreting the Bible. The clergy did it for us. They would tell us what was in the bible and what it meant. However, with the rise of printing presses and nation states, people came to understand that they could read and interpret the Bible. This was fraught with dangers also because some structure, some guidance is needed in this process.
In 2008, it is incumbent upon Catholic Christians to familiarize themselves with the Bible. Commentaries make it possible for us to read, understand and properly interpret the Scriptures.

What should we be hearing? For what are we listening? We are listening for the message of Jesus. Jesus clearly defines his mission and his expectations for us.

Jesus lived and died as a Jew who was faithful to Abba God. Mary, his mother, was his first teacher. Listen to what she taught him:
For you, the Almighty, have done great things for me, [Gratitude]
And holy is your name. [Reverence for the Creator as other.]
Your mercy reaches from age to age [Loving merciful Creator God]
For those who fear you. [Awe in the presence of the Creator.]
You have shown strength with your arm;
You have scattered the proud in their conceit; [The Creator humbles the proud.]
You have deposed the mighty from their thrones [Wow!]
And raised the lowly to high places [The Creator humbles the exalted and exalts the humble]
You have filled the hungry with good things, [The Creator gives us what we need.]
And you have sent the rich away empty. [The Creator does not cotton to rich people.] (Lk 1:49-53)

Should we be surprised then when Jesus unrolls the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth and announces his mission?

The Spirit of God is upon me:
Because the Most High has anointed me
To bring good news to those who are poor.
God has sent me to proclaim liberty to those held captive,
Recovery of sight to t hose who are blind,
And release to those in prison—
To proclaim a year of pour God’s favor [jubilee]. (Lk 4:18-19)

This passage is loaded with rich meaning. First, Jesus is saying that he is opposed to the Roman Empire. “Good news” was used to refer to announcements by the emperors who thought they were gods. They would proclaim good news by announcing military victories. Here is Jesus defying imperial power. Second, Jesus came to liberate us, to give us sight, to bring us back to Jubilee.

Every seventh year the land was to lie fallow. The land was to rest because the Sabbath was part of creation. Creation includes rest. Everything does not have to be frenzied, mindless activity. The land is to rest and we are to rest—rest in God every seventh day, every seventh year, and every 50th year.

In John 10:10, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, assures us. “I have come that you might have life and that you might have everything you need.” Jesus wants to liberate us. He wants to open our eyes. He wants us to have whatever we need in order to be fully human and fully divine. That’s right divine. The early Fathers and Mothers clearly taught that Jesus became human so that we might become divine! Think about it!

Jesus cannot be more clear about his message and his purpose. He did not come to appease an angry Father God for our sins. What kind of Father God would demand the death of his Son? Jesus came to show us the face of God—compassionate, merciful, loving and liberating.

What then must we do to respond to Jesus? Many pietistic practices that grew up over the years when we were second or third class citizens in the patriarchal church have nothing to do with what Jesus really expects. Again, we have to go back to the Scriptures. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that we will be judged by what we have done for the least among us. This is THE true litmus test for Christians. This is Jesus’ standard. Have we fed the hungry? Have we given drink to the thirsty? Have we clothed the naked? Have we sheltered the homeless? Have we cared for the sick? Have we visited those in prison? Have we welcomed the strangers [The stranger biblically is the alien, the immigrant among us.]?

Traditionally, Catholic social teaching has affirmed this. Many Catholics do not know about it because it has not been taught. Every human being—no exceptions—is loved by the Creator. As children of God, human beings have the RIGHT to food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and education. These are not things we earn. They are God-given rights. As long as we tolerate poverty, hunger, and homelessness, we are not listening to Jesus’ message. As long as we tolerate inferior education, we are failing to grasp Jesus’ message. As long as we allow 40,000 people to die every day from preventable causes, we are not responding to Jesus. We will be held accountable for what we have done to and for the least among us. We will not be judged on the square footage or numbers of our dwellings. We will not be judged on the balance in our bank accounts. We will not be judged on our stock portfolios. We will not be judged solely by the number of rosaries we have said or the novenas we have made. We will be judged by Biblical standards.

Albert Camus, the French philosopher wrote:

We are faced everywhere with evil.
I feel rather like Augustine did
before becoming a Christian when he said,
“I tried to find the source of evil
and I got nowhere.” But it is also true
that I and a few others know
what must be done…Perhaps we cannot
prevent this world from becoming a world
where children are tortured. But we can
reduce the number of tortured children.
And if you believers don’t help us,
who else in the world will help us?

I am reading The Last Campaign. It is a book about Bobby Kennedy. RFK often modified this Camus quote to say:

We are faced everywhere with evil.
I feel rather like Augustine did
before becoming a Christian when he said,
“I tried to find the source of evil
and I got nowhere.” But it is also true
that I and a few others know
what must be done…Perhaps we cannot
prevent this world from becoming a world
where children are suffering. But we can
reduce the number of suffering children.
And if you believers don’t help us,
who else in the world will help us?

Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy reminds us believers of Jesus’ message, “Radical evil is the failure to alleviate relievable human suffering.”

Hopefully, Jesus will feel at home with us. He will see that we are taking him seriously. He will not feel rejected. He will know that we are liberating people from their misery and suffering. He will know that we are continuing his mission on earth.