Thirty years ago this week Pope Paul VI issued an Apostolic Exhortation entitled Evangelii Nuntiandi, or On Evangelization in the Modern World. The church, he said, "has had the single aim of fulfilling her duty of being the messenger of the Good News of Jesus Christ." What is the content of the message of the gospel, and how does the church go about proclaiming the gospel? In a partial answer to the first question, the pope identified two fundamental commands in which the gospel consists: "Put on the new self" and "Be reconciled to God." He goes on to speak of the gospel as a transforming message, a powerful message, a divine message. It speaks of God's reign, and its kernel is salvation, which the pope defines as "liberation from everything that oppresses man but which is above all liberation from sin and the Evil One." Evangelization is not simply preaching a message to which people may choose to assent. Rather, "evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new. . . . For the church it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographical areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and as it were upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, mankind's criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life." The good news that the church proclaims, then, is something eminently relevant to all those who hear it. The prophet known as Third Isaiah lived among people who had returned to the land of their ancestors years before, full of hope and expectation. As the decades rolled by and the glorious kingdom they were expecting failed to materialize, many became jaded and discouraged. The prophet offered a message from God that was designed to hit people where they were, at the deepest point of their need. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn." The good news the prophet had for the people was not about pie in the sky bye and bye. His message addressed the real needs of real people in the real world: the oppressed, the brokenhearted, captives, prisoners, those who mourn. Too often the gospel that today's church preaches is diluted, or even perverted, and has little to offer people in the here and now. When the prophet speaks of God as saying, "For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing," he is describing a God who is intimately concerned with the way people treat other people in this world. This God wants to see justice prevail and robbery and wrongdoing cease. A world of justice and peace, where everyone has access to food, shelter, and health care, where people are free to speak and write and read and worship according to the dictates of their own consciences, that's good news for everyone.
When activists for the poor rail against the inequities in an economic system that is tilted so strongly in favor of the rich, those in power often accuse them of engaging in class warfare. "Class warfare" is a type of "witchcraft accusation," a sociological term that refers to a type of powerful, negative name-calling that takes place in societies. The purpose of a witchcraft accusation is to identify the accused person as so far outside the mainstream of society that drastic measures must be taken--ostracism, exile, or even execution--in order to preserve the society from that person's actions or ideas. The term "class warfare" is associated in the minds of many people with communism, the great bugbear of post-World War II Western society. Because Karl Marx talked about the eternal struggle between social classes (at least until a utopian, classless state is created), when many people today hear "class warfare" their minds lock shut, unwilling or even unable to look at the issues of disparity between the classes. For that reason, even when the Magnificat, one of the classic biblical texts dealing with social upheaval, is read during Advent and Christmas, the eyes of many remain shut to the clear teaching of this revolutionary song. Let's examine a few of the more noteworthy phrases in this song. "He has shown great strength with his arm": this is a clear reference to God's deliverance of the nation of Israel from Egyptian slavery, the paradigmatic example of social upheaval in the Old Testament. "He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts": The proud are those who rely on themselves, rather than God, who trust in their own riches, power, and cunning. "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones": Riches and power go hand in hand, in days of yore and today; there are few if any really powerful poor people in Western society. "And lifted up the lowly": In the Greek version of the Psalms, the word translated "lowly" here is often used to render Hebrew words that mean afflicted, economically dependent, or needy; the English word "lowly" captures the etymological root of one of these Hebrew words, which paints a picture of one bowed down, either in subservience or under a heavy burden. "He has filled the hungry with good things": Christmas is a time for feasting and rejoicing, but it is also a time to remember those who have little or nothing to eat. "And sent the rich away empty": The rich who rely on themselves have no need for God, and they will receive nothing good from God. If there was ever a song that could be accused of class warfare, the Magnificat is it, hiding in plain sight at the heart of the Christmas story and at the root of the Christian movement. Of course, the goal of Christianity has never been to incite class warfare but rather to preach a message of class equality. God does not hate the rich because they have money, but Jesus clearly teaches that God expects them to use their riches for the benefit of the poor, not just for themselves. Too many Christians today buy into the following faulty argument: Karl Marx invented communism; Karl Marx was an atheist; therefore communism and all ideas associated with it promote atheism. It is indeed true that most 20th century communist governments were officially atheistic, but it does not follow that ideas like national health care, progressive taxation, inheritance taxes, and the social safety net are opposed to Christian teaching. On the contrary, as even a fairly superficial reading of the Magnificat indicates, and as careful scrutiny of the message of Jesus and of many of the prophets reinforces, such ideas can claim a strong biblical basis. It is time for progressive Christians and our allies to refuse to accept the right's characterization of our ideas, which we find in a faithful reading of the Bible, as communistic or atheistic. Our ideas are biblical and originate in the most ancient sources of the Christian gospel. May our souls magnify the Lord as we say so.
For other discussions of this passage, click here or here.
I have a cousin who always seems to be happy. She's always smiling, always has a joke to tell, never seems down. She's had her share of ups and downs in life, and her life hasn't always been easy--in fact, I don't know if I'd say it's ever been particularly easy--but that doesn't seem to matter. She's just a person who seems to be filled with joy. That's not my nature. I would describe my typical mood as content rather than joyful. I think of myself as pretty happy most of the time, but I doubt that other people would think of me as an especially joyful person, but neither would they think of me as generally down or depressed. In fact, maybe the best description of me is even-keeled. I've known several people who sometimes seemed full of joy but were also prone to melancholia or even depression. All things considered, I guess I'll stick with being even-keeled, but is it possible for even someone with my personality type to experience joy? And what does Paul mean when he urges the Thessalonian Christians to rejoice always? With a few possible exceptions, people aren't always going to be happy. Financial, family, and work setbacks tend to take their toll on our joy. So do medical problems. Even the Christmas season can send many people into a kind of funk. This week we will light the third Advent candle, the Joy candle, and we will have to ask ourselves, what do we have to be joyful about? It's so easy to see the problems in the world and the problems in our own lives, but can we see the joy as well? Sometime we need to be reminded that, in the grand scheme of things, we have much to rejoice about. We have family and friends. We have food on our tables and clothes on our backs. We have time for work and rest and recreation, if we will just take it. Even those who do not have all these things--and many of us have been there--can identify things that bring us joy. Maybe we're currently without a job, but we have friends and family who support us. Maybe our health is not so good, but we can enjoy the warm fire and a quiet talk or a good book. Maybe we've lost a loved one, but we have others who are still around who love us. In the final analysis, I don't think being joyful requires us to always appear happy to others. Some of us are able to experience a deep feeling of joy that is rooted in a profound satisfaction with God's presence and providence in our lives. How will you express your joy this holiday season? Some find it in Christmas parties, others in family gatherings, and still others in still moments of contemplation and quiet. However you are best able to experience joy, I hope you do so this Christmas season.
John the Baptist was a great man, a prophet, a visionary, yet he is portrayed in the Gospel of John as one unwilling to accept the praise of the multitude, rejecting it as though it were simple flattery. "Are you the Messiah?" No. "Are you Elijah?" No. "Are you the Prophet?" No. "Who are you then?" I am simply the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord!" The following is a poem I wrote several years ago that touches on the same theme.
"The voice of a god and not a man!" The cry ascends from the multitude. Words of praise and adulation echo in my ears. Surely I am their savior, Come to deliver them from darkness, And set them firmly on their own feet. The words are flattering, and hard to believe, But in all modesty, they must be true, For all join in the chorus. From somewhere a discordant voice shrieks, "Lies! All lies! There is no truth in him!" The multitude parts, and I am faced with my accuser. How can I stand before men, My image shattered, my mortality bared? What justification can I give for my words? Falling to my knees, I cry out, "But I am a man, and not God--I desire nothing else!" My accuser vanishes, the crowd disperses, And I am alone with my Maker.