The Cause of God
Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. Ecc. 4:1 RSV
But most foolish, and more miserable than an infant, are all the enemies who oppressed thy people. Wis. 15:14 RSV
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Ps 9:9 RSV.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Lk. 4:18-21. RSV.
Scripture makes it clear, the cause of God is the cause of the oppressed. In the person of Jesus we find the stronghold for the oppressed. Those who claim to follow Jesus but ignore his message show disbelief. Jesus makes it clear, he has come to heal the world, and we have a part in his work. He is not disinterested in the oppressed; God came as one of the oppressed, he is on their side; his death on the cross demonstrates where sin is taking us, his resurrection shows us where God would lead us. He comes bringing justice to the world. Sin leads to death; the path of sin is the path of death. It is not just abortion, it is not just euthanasia, it is not just war that leads to death: the wages of sin is death. All sin leads to death. All sin, all rejection of God’s justice, is a part of the culture of death. Those who ignore the poor follow the path of sin, the culture of death. Those who do not speak out against injustice follow the path of sin, the culture of death. Those who are indifferent to greed are indifferent to the culture of death. Christians are called to turn their back on all of this, to take up their cross and follow Christ. We are to take on oppression to let it be overcome. If we put on Jesus in baptism, it is now time for us to take on the cause of Jesus. Let us take the gifts given to us, and use it for the glory of God; use it for his cause, the cause of the oppressed, so that we shall one day hear, “`Well done, good and faithful servant.”
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I’ve been thinking of injustice this week, because of the travesty of justice we have recently seen in Indianapolis. A 15 year old child was beat up by police; the child had committed no crime. What was done to him was some of the worst forms of police brutality on a child in recent Indianapolis history. The officers involved were, in the end, cleared from charges of misconduct. My father would have been furious.
Read about it all here:
http://ajabuspeaks.squarespace.com/ajabu-speaks/2010/11/7/the-police-parents-and-our-children-are-we-not-americans.html
The cause of the Christian is to “Christify” the world, and to Christify the world is to take the side of the oppressed in the world.
Kyle, that’s all well and good, but can’t you see that if he were here today, Christ would be on the side of John Galt, so that he and his friends could grudgingly provide jobs to the
parasitesoppressed?A cautionary observation:
Many murders are committed by self-styled defenders of the oppressed in the name of divine justice.
The political right certainly does side with the oppressed and the underdig.
Just don’t look too closely at who they consider the “oppressed” to be.
Phosph: Yes, it’s all about how we define “oppression”, isn’t it?
I’m pretty sure salvation from sin (the personal ones) had something to do with it…I know I heard that somewhere.
You could find a similar number of verses proving that God’s cause is to punish idolaters, or hypocrites, or other kinds of evildoers; or that his cause is healing the blind and the lame; or even, as someone suggested, saving souls from hellfire. God has a lot of causes. Certainly I would agree that we do ill in opposing any of God’s causes. But I would hesitate to say that one cause is “the” cause of God and therefore of Christians.
I would think the number one cause of a Christian (in terms of order anyway) is to repent of his sins. Only then can charity reign in his heart, enabling him to do good. Were one to place “standing up for the oppressed” as his number one purpose in life, to the neglect of his personal sins, he might make a grave mistake.
I’m not saying you disagree with this. But I think one could get the impression from the original post that you were making “God’s cause” and “fighting oppression” synonymous, such that God has one main cause, with all others being peripheral; and that fighting temporal oppression is more important than, for example, saving souls by preaching the Gospel.
Personally, I would say that each has his calling: Some are called to fight temporal oppression, some are called to be missionaries, some to raise families, some to live the contemplative life, some to earn money with which to finance good causes, etc. While no one should deliberately contribute to oppression, not everyone has to make overt oppression-fighting his main vocation in life.
Many years ago I was impressed with Protestants ability to quote chapter and verse from the Bible to support their point of view. As a Catholic, I did not have the education to do this and therefore thought the Protestant churches did a much better job of teaching the bible than did the Catholic Church. As I became in involved in teaching confirmation classes (and the required learning that is part of teaching any class) I came to realize how much better the Catholic method of teaching the bible is.
We are not encouraged to memorize particular passages that support our point of view. Instead Catholics are taught bible stories and their meaning. And we are encouraged to teach our children this way. We are taught the bible from beginning to end (if we listen through the 3 year cycle) and as each story is told we are then taught its meaning and how that fits into salvation. This not only teaches us how the story relates to our salvation, but also teaches us the progression of salvation from Adam and Eve to Jesus.
The point of this is that taken as a whole the bible repeatedly emphasizes two points. The first is complete faith in and fidelity to God. The second is social and economic justice toward our fellow man. These two points are the heart of the two greatest commandments and of Church teaching. As Agellius says, quotes and passages can be found to support many causes; the problem with substituting memorization of quotes for bible teaching is just that. A quote can be found that can be interpreted to support many different things. If we approach the bible as a whole, we can learn the progression of the teaching of salvation and not fall into that trap.
I believe that the cause of God is unity in love for one another. And that unity is lived through loving actions. The idea that each of us has a particular calling appears to create individualistic pursuits which results in a fragmentation of the faith and thus a weakening of the faith under the illusion of one doing God’s work. This fragmentation creates boundaries between members of the faith.
I know that we are one body with many different parts but these parts seem to have been amputated by leadership that has not been Christ-like in its vision. If leadership is not loving and unified, but is dogmatic and legalistic in its attempt to unify then we have the fragmentation that I believe we have today along with the revelations of underlying corruption.
If by serving the oppressed or pursuing social and economic justice we are committed to Love of neighbor as Christ instructed us, I am on board, but I sometimes get the impression reading posts and conmments here that Love of neighbor is a a bit narrowly focused and perhaps unwittingly serves the purpose of division along class lines. Love of the poor and oppressed while clearly not excluding material well being MUST promote salvation of their souls and as well, those of their “oppressors”. Christ and His Church do not divide along economic and political lines. We should always strive to do likewise.
Chris
The Church talks about the preferential option for the poor; while you are right in saying this does not mean an exclusion for the concerns of the non-poor, and for their salvation, to ignore the preferential option is to ignore Scripture and Church history. For those who have, more is expected.
Ronald
I understand what you mean, but I would add that, it depends upon how we understand our calling. What I think would be best to say is that our personal calling and talents (which differ from person to person; some are artists, some are teachers, some are sanitation engineers, et. al.) are to be used for a common goal and end which seeks for the good of all.