Pastor’s Corner for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, by Fr. Russell Pollitt SJ
Do we believe that spirituality (and morality) is a seamless garment?
One of the most significant human challenges is applying spirituality and morality to our lives. In other words, do not pick and choose. I suspect we are all guilty of picking and choosing; often, we decide what suits us and reject what makes us uncomfortable or does not suit us. Fr Ronald Rolhesier OMI captures it well and uses a powerful image: “A bird tethered to a rock, he says, cannot fly irrespective of whether the cord holding it is a cable or a string.”
What does this mean? What are the consequences for us? Fr Rolhesier explains:
[St] John of the Cross teaches that within spirituality and morality there are no exempt areas. Simply put, you cannot be a saint or a highly moral person if you allow yourself a moral exemption or two.
Thus, I may not allow myself to split off one moral flaw or sinful habit and see it as unimportant in the light of my positive qualities and the overall good that I do. For John of the Cross, you cannot be a saint and have a moral blind-spot, even if it’s a minor one.
The same is true for our efforts to protect life and foster justice in our world. The protection of life and the promotion of justice are all of one piece. We cannot be an authentic prophet and have a few moral blind spots.
A huge consequence flows from this, namely, we cannot treat issues like abortion, nuclear war, lack of ecological sensitivity, the plight of refugees, racism, sexism, poverty and inequality, poor access to health care, unequal access to education, sexual irresponsibility, and discrimination against the LGBTQ community in isolation from each other, as if these were wholly discrete issues. Whether we admit it or not, these areas are all inextricably interconnected.
All the issues that deal with justice and peace, are of one piece, one whole, one moral corpus, one seamless garment; and, like the soldiers casting dice for Jesus’ clothing, we should hesitate to tear this garment into different pieces.
It is disingenuous for us to proclaim that God is anti-murder, anti-corruption, anti-racism, anti-abortion, and opposed to oppression in every form, only to assert that the same God supports the oppression of gender and sexual minorities, for example.
The Christian Gospel is good news for all the poor, all the oppressed, all the marginalised. Or the Gospel is not good news at all. Do we accept the Christian Gospel is for ALL, no matter who?
Fr. Russell Pollitt SJ