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Pastor's Page: Thou Shalt Not Steal
June 20,
2010
In the beginning of Mass, before the word of God is proclaimed to us in the Scriptures, we
prepare to hear that word by quieting down and making an examination of our conscience,
repenting of any sins we may have committed. The priest or deacon has a number of options to
draw from in the penitential rite. One of them is the Confiteor or prayer of confession that we
recite together. We admit that we have sinned "... In my thoughts and in my words, in what I
have done, and what I have failed to do."
In other words, we can sin through action, or through lack of action or passivity.
In the good Samaritan parable, the priest and the Levite pass by the man beaten and left to
die by robbers. They do not want to get involved. They sin because they lack compassion; the
compassion that leads to right action. It is the Samaritan whom we call good because he
stopped, and got involved with the plight of the man left to die. He did not know the man. He
was not a relative or of the same ethnic, religious group. But Christ tells us he was moved with
compassion, and did what love requires. He had a moral obligation to get involved. "Love your
neighbor as you love yourself."
You have probably heard the witticism: "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine." But
are my possessions truly mine to use as I choose? Or do my possessions, all that I have, belong
to God? Whatever we have, we have only for a time. One day what we have acquired of
material things will pass on to the government, to charities and to our heirs.
Your intelligence and will, your talents and attributes, your ethnic origin and social status
are all gifts from God. The Scriptures tell us that the one who has been given much will need to
give back in proportion to what he or she has been given.
If I have access to healthcare and someone else does not have access to that care, what is my
moral obligation? If another human being is treated with second-class status because she is a
woman or he is a black man or a Latino, what is my moral obligation?
Should I walk past the man or woman beaten down by an unjust system and the bigotry of
the majority? Or should I get my hands dirty with the binding up of wounds and the hard work
of love that involves changing unjust systems; systems that dehumanize and strip away the
God-given human dignity that we all have?
Peace,
Father Bruce
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