In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN
A reading from the book of Genesis.
“ God said: Let us make* human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth. God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female* he created them. And God blessed them … And The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The LORD God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die.* Then the LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone ...
That communion of humanity is meant to reflect the Divine Communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is LOVE. God is love, an interpenetrating love that passes between the persons of the Trinity. The Father loves the Son as another self, and that love is so perfect that it is itself another person, the Holy Spirit. Think about this when we dwell upon Jesus’ words “to love your neighbor, AS YOURSELF.” when you fulfill that commandment, you reflect within yourself the Trinitarian love that exists as the Persons of the Trinity. When we love our neighbor, we participate in the Divine Life of interpenetrating love and become like God.
Every person in this room, every person on this planet, who was, and is, and will be until the end of time was made in the image and likeness of God as Scripture bears witness to, from the very beginning. Because of this, every person has a nigh-infinite dignity from being made in the image and likeness of the infinite God, and every person was made to participate in the divine life of the Holy Trinity. Rooted in this dignity is our vocation and fulfillment to live in communion with all as we are called to live in communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Whenever there is a communion of persons, there must be justice, the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor (CCC 1807). “The Lord God is a God of Justice!” cries out Isaiah. His concern is ever for justice, as it says in Psalm 146 “The maker of heaven and earth … secures justice for the oppressed, who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, protects the resident alien, comes to the aid of the orphan and widow … [and] the Lord love the righteous” that is one who is just, because in the just person, God sees his image and likeness in which he made that person.
Injustice, which God cries out against, occurred and occurs because of Sin. Going back to our primordial story, sin entered the word when Adam disobeyed God’s commandment, and immediately injustice among persons started to occur; Adam and Eve started passing the blame, and the power of Sin in the world is so powerful that it caused brother to murder brother when Cain slew Abel. Sin when unchecked by grace spreads like cancer and injustice and hard-heartedness toward others are the symptoms of the Sin’s plague. We have to remember that when we fight against injustice, we are fighting a battle against Sin and Satan who is power-player in the world, so much so that Jesus himself called him “the prince of this world” Our fight, then, is NOT against people, our fight is for people, ALL people even the “ungodly” as St Paul tell us. For St Paul also tells us our battle, the battle against Sin, is one “not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.”
There are three important aspects of Sin as the root of injustice that we need to address
1) that when we go out to serve the Lord by serving others to bring about great justice and mercy we are not humanitarians, doing what we do simply to seek or promote human welfare for the sake of itself. We are waging a war against this present darkness with the weapons of Charity, Mercy, and Justice, and Truth. Especially the Truth of the dignity of each person made in the image and likeness of God. This is important because absent of that founding truth that the Church’s fight for Justice in the world is supernatural, our social doctrine can look like just another Political Party Platform. So keep that Truth at the forefront of your mind as we continue to talk this weekend.
2) In order to fight against Sin in the world, we have to make sure that we ourselves are personally not handing ourselves over to Sin, and that when we do fall, we avail ourselves of God’s mercy to return to his Kingdom. You can’t win the fight of Justice, you can’t serve Mercy, if you yourself are trying to play for both sides in your own life . A commitment to justice in the world, is a commitment to being just yourself, giving your due to God and neighbor in moral behavior both personal and social . To that end, our priests are here this weekend to offer the Sacrament of Penance to all who seek it out. Thanks be to God that he has given us such easy means to take up again Charity, Mercy, Justice, and Truth in his name for His Kingdom.
3) because of Sin’s pervasiveness even in our own lives, we must be careful that we ourselves are not making villains of those who are unjust. A holy saint once watched a man going to the gallows to hang for horrific crimes of murder and rape, and the saint said, “Except for the grace of God working in me, I would be that man” or as it’s more famously known “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” God is in the process of making us righteous through Christ, but as he works that means the line of Good and Evil still runs through each of our hearts. Until Jesus has brought to fulfillment in us his righteousness, and that occurs only after death, we can still become the unjust.
So if this is about Sin, which stems from the free will of the individual, how can we talk about social justice, as we will. After all the Catechism itself says “Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness. "Structures of sin" are the expression and effect of personal sins.” (CCC 1869) and “No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.” (CCC 1931).
Everyone, please, stand up at your seat and close your eyes.
It is the dawn of time; God creates from nothing, and creation comes forth as a Glorious Procession from the Word of God:
Light and Dark lead the procession, their alternation—light, dark, light, dark—like the cosmic heartbeat, create the rhythm by which the rest march forth …
The heavens and the waters pour forth like a great carpet creating the space on which the procession shall move forward …
Earth rises up out of the waters, like an altar in the midst of the Church and the land is ornamented with vegetation, trees rising like pillars, abundant grain carpeting the land, fruit bearing vines burst into flower, incensing the land in fragrance, and adorning the land with their beauty, and providing fruit in rich clusters ...
Sun, and the Moon, and the Stars proceed forward to fill the heavens like sanctuary lamps and candle bearing attendants bringing sparkling, brilliant light to the procession …
Silver fish scales catch the new light of the sun and moon and reflect them back into the world, and birds burst forth into the heavens will brilliant color and begin to sing a heavenly hymn of praise in preparation, animals spring, crawl, and leap forward and join the fish and fowl in a brilliant dance of movement …
Then everything pauses , the procession is still, the singing voices fade and Creation catches its breath …
And the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God who is LOVE, says “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And like the great high priest, that they are, humanity enters the procession, the pinnacle of creation, bearing the regal dignity of one patterned after the Creator and Lord.
And God blessed them and gave them dominion and stewardship over all the rest of Creation.
Keep your eyes closed. Because God is still here … and realize you are standing in the procession.
Let yourself feel God’s loving gaze look directly at you. [PAUSE]
I MADE YOU IN MY IMAGE AND LIKENESS. I BLESS YOU.
Open your eyes a moment; turn to a neighbor. Look intently into their eyes; it’s okay they’re not going to bite … look at them knowing God looks at them through you, now let God’s voice be heard again.
I MADE HER IN MY IMAGE AND LIKENESS. I MADE HIM IN MY IMAGE AND LIKENESS. I BLESS THEM.
Close your eyes again. I want you to imagine the person you dislike the most in your life, make it someone personal. This is no time for piety saying “I love everyone” Everyone has that someone who brings them sorrow, anger, fear, frustration, disgust … hold that person firmly in your mind, see their face. …
I MADE HIM IN MY IMAGE AND LIKENESS. I MADE HER IN MY IMAGE AND LIKENESS. I BLESS THEM.
Lastly, start to imagine the grand procession of humanity, make sure your family and friends are there, make sure your neighbor is there, make sure the old and young, strangers, enemies who want you to die, rich and poor, day laborers, victims of human trafficking, those who profit from human trafficking, celebrities and cafeteria workers whose names you don’t know are there, your campus minister, those who are sick, those who are dying, your professors, classmates, the homeless, factory workers, the immigrant, the Pope, your Bishop, soldiers, social workers, terrorists, politicians, farm laborers, your dorm mates, single mothers, every child in the womb, every beggar on the street, nuns, prostitutes, Wall Street bankers, prisoners, the full tapestry of ethnicity, of culture, of religious faith or lack thereof, of language, of nations, of peoples … see their faces … now hear the voice:
I MADE THEM IN MY IMAGE AND LIKENESS. I BLESS THEM. YOU BLESS THEM.
The Son of God steps forward and into our Humanity. Then the Incarnate Word of God, who humbled himself to share in our humanity, the Image of the Invisible God, Jesus the Lord looks directly at you but gestures toward his heart with his right hand and embraces humanity with his left:
I am hungry; give me food,
I am thirsty; give me drink,
I am a stranger; welcome me,
I am naked; clothe me,
I am ill; care for me,
I am in prison; visit me.’
[PAUSE]
Let us pray:
O God, who gave one origin to all peoples
and willed to gather from them one family for yourself,
fill all hearts, we pray, with the fire of your love
and kindle in them a desire
for the just advancement of their neighbor,
that, through the good things which you richly bestow upon all,
each human person may be brought to perfection,
every division may be removed,
and equity and justice may be established in human society.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
You may open your eyes and sit down.
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