Yes, Americans are angry and with good reason. The world of finance is more interested in making money than in building the American economy. But, you say, why, Mary, are you writing about this topic? Your topic is spirituality. But the economy IS a spiritual topic. Pope Francis says so: "Inequality is the root of social evil." SOCIAL evil? you say. Yes, every society has a moral responsibility to provide for the common good. For the lower class worker as well as the upper middle class worker. For the newest immigrant family as well as the family that lives in a gated community. This is the moral responsibility of our politicians as well as our CEOs. It is the moral responsibility of all of us.
Pope Francis expands on the topic:
"Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression, or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that create huge inequalities."
Every human being is made in the Image and Likeness of God. Therefore every human being has certain rights:
The right to enough decent food and clean water
The right to clothing and housing
The right to have a decent-paying job
The right to live without fear of persecution and in safety
The right to protest injustice and to be tried under a fair justice system
The right to practice his or her religious faith
Pope Francis continues "There is a need for financial reform along ethical lines that would produce in its turn an economic reform to benefit everyone. This would nevertheless require a courageous change of attitude on the part of political leaders."
Some people accuse Pope Francis of being unduly "political" when he directly addresses politicians about financial and economic matters. But Pope Benedict XVI also spoke strongly about morality and economics:
"To me it really seems visible today that ethics is not something exterior to the economy, which as technical matter, could function on its own; rather ethics is an interior principle of the economy itself, which cannot function if it does not take account of the human values of solidarity and reciprocity."
Sure, the Pope is saying, economics can function by itself without any "input" from ethics, but it should not: ethics should be an "inside job," woven into every thought, every discussion, every decision that is made by ANYONE about the economy. Why? Because of the human value of solidarity: standing together for the common good, rather than behaving egotistically as if it's every man for himself. When we think and act as if it's someone's fault because she haven't been able to achieve the American Dream, we're refusing to look at the multitude of factors, including unfair economic tactics, that prevent her from doing so.
In fact, Pope Benedict says strongly "The Church is not a political power; it's not a party, but it's a moral power."
Popes, Bishops, priests, deacons, religious women, and lay people are all called by God to be prophets, and one of the time-honored responsibilities of the prophets is to protest economic immorality. The prophet Isaiah says "Woe to those who acquit the guilty for bribes, and deprive the just man of his rights!"
The Lord sent the prophet Jeremiah to preach these words to the people:
"Thus says the Lord: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victim from the hands of his oppressor. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place..."
Resident aliens - Non-Israelis who lived in Israel - as well as orphans and widows, were the most vulnerable, and so God cares especially for them:
"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt." (Leviticus 19: 33-34.) Land-owners were required to leave part of their crops unharvested so the aliens could go into the fields and harvest food for themselves. After all, Jews remembered the years that they were slaves in Egypt. They knew what it is like to be aliens and hungry.
Jeremiah also says to the King "Woe to him who builds his house on wrong, his terraces on injustice; Who works his neighbor without pay, and gives him no wages." Jeremiah was protesting the King's lavish program of building in Jerusalem using forced labor, workers defrauded of their hire. Social injustice is the cause of much of the prophetic condemnation of Kings. The prophets' political stands were motivated by a God Who demands justice and mercy for His littlest ones.
God called His people to justice and mercy by requesting that they look into their own hearts and their own experiences of injustice so that they might find compassion for the most vulnerable in society. God calls us the same way today.
Yes, Americans are angry, and with good reason. The world of finance is more interested in making money than in building the American economy. Maybe we don't have $400.00 for an emergency. Maybe we're getting ripped off by credit card companies. Maybe our wages are stagnant. Maybe our best job went to India. We need to protest these injustices long and loudly.
But we can't take out our anger on those who are more vulnerable than we are. The wandering refugees who have no homes, nothing except the pathetic parcels on their backs. The "illegal immigrants" (it doesn't seem as if the Israelis worried about that) whose families will be ripped apart if parents, non-citizens, are sent back to their countries of origin - because we - WE! refuse to give them a path to citizenship.
We all are called by God to be prophets, to protest a U.S. financial system that is gouging all of us by protecting the investments of the very rich. But we also need to protest what is being done to the most vulnerable among us, our own resident aliens, and the refugees who hunger to come here. I could add the massive civil rights violations of those among us, both citizens and smuggled non-citizens, who are slaves: sex slaves, and workers who labor for next to nothing. The addicts. The mentally ill, who have little in place for them in our insurance policies. Our hearts should embrace everyone in solidarity and support. The common good is a moral requirement.
I attended a lecture last night at Christ the King Seminary given by Mr. Mark Mambretti, teacher and Principal at Aurora Middle School. He held up a crisp new twenty dollar bill. "How much is this worth?" he asked. We all replied "Twenty dollars." He crumpled it up and asked again "How much is this worth?" Again we replied "Twenty dollars." He stepped on the bill and showed us the dirty little wad that the bill had become. "How much is this worth?" he asked. Again we replied "Twenty dollars."
Then Mr. Mambretti observed " Why is it that we can see that the financial worth of this piece of paper is unchanged even when it is dirty and disreputable, but our eyes can't see the worth of another human being who for one reason or another is down on his luck, maybe dirty and disreputable and vulnerable? Isn't he or she still of great worth as a child of God?"
Our God is a merciful God; why aren't we? We need to be angry for all the right moral reasons, and still be merciful - for all the right moral reasons.