The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Today’s passage takes place within the context of Jesus’ discourses on becoming disciples. In the previous chapter, Jesus commented on the young rich man who wasn’t able to give up his “stuff” to become a disciple. Jesus said, “…it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven…is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God…” “…es más fácil que un camello pase por el ojo de una aguja, que un rico entre en el Reino de los Cielos”. Jesus taught that discipleship requires a certain detachment from the things of the world. Disciples cannot serve in the Kingdom of God if they are serving a king on earth. 

Jesus teaching about wealth and power is a challenge to those who believed that by associating with the powerful and influential, the Kingdom of God would come. Fearing that some would interpret his teaching about the Kingdom of God as being actual kingdom with a hierarchy of classes and privileges, Jesus illustrated the true nature of  the Kingdom of God by bringing children to them so he could embrace them. Children represented the poor and powerless of society. Apart from parents, people didn’t value children as anything other than as extra hands in the field.  Children inherently understood that they had no power and so Jesus said to the crowd, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” “Dejen a los niños, y no les impidan que vengan a mí, porque el Reino de los Cielos pertenece a los que son como ellos”.

Jesus taught that both discipleship and the Kingdom cannot be confused with the world’s kingdoms and values.  Disciples must serve rather than be served. The Kingdom of God does not belong to an earthly king, but to everyone.  Those who are first will be last and those who are last will be first.  Muchos de los primeros serán los últimos, y muchos de los últimos serán los primeros.

In the chapter that we read from today shows an employer who is clearly not interested in the number of hours that the laborers are working.  Those who worked early in the day received the same amount as those who worked a short time.  What was our reaction to this parable?  We probably were puzzled. Recall Isaiah’s line from the first reading, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”  “Mis pensamientos no son los pensamientos de ustedes, sus caminos no son mis caminos, dice el Señor”.  So what are God’s thoughts? What is the point of this parable?! Let’s take a closer look at the parable and see if it connects to Jesus’ teaching about discipleship and the Kingdom of God.

If a boss were to do the same thing that was described in the parable, we would be justifiably furious.  But the parable is not about wages. It’s about the employer’s graciousness to the families and children of those he employed.  As I’ve said before, the historical and social context of Jesus and his parables was a time of great economic uncertainty. People were unjustly displaced from their farms and were forced to go to the plazas and crossroads as day laborers. There were long lines of people waiting to work and employers could get many workers for next to nothing.  The employer in the parable wasn’t simply thinking of these workers as individuals, but was thinking of what happened to the families of workers who had no employment. Could it be that this parable was suggesting something in addition to the traditional interpretation of the parable as a critique against the old religious order, that there was something more subversive underfoot? 

Imagine if people elected to engage in bartering and forming cooperatives rather than buying and selling things on terms set by the Roman oppressors. By disengaging from the official Roman economy and choosing an alternative, the people chip away at the occupation. Their refusal to buy goods and services tied to the Empire is in effect a refusal to participate in their own oppression. This is why I find this particular parable quite revolutionary.

The chapters following the Transfiguration until the Entry into Jerusalem hone in on discipleship and kingdom because his disciples need to understand the dynamics of what it means to serve the Kingdom and not the king. Jesus’ confrontation with the authorities of Jerusalem is drawing nearer and nearer and disciples must understand that salvation does not happen by coddling up to rich and powerful or by ignoring the social realities in which they lived. If disciples were to continue on in the ways of the world, Christianity would have died out within a generation. Christianity survived because it was counter-cultural.  Christianity at its best lifts up the poor and voiceless.  Jesus offered us another way to see the world around us. He caused us to prioritize differently and through his teaching, he provided us with alternative future. 

As Christians we therefore cannot be uncritical of the world around us. When we think like the world and not think like God, we end up with the CEO of McDonald’s making $9,200 an hour and his restaurant employee having to work full-time for 4 months to make what he himself makes in an hour. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/mcdonalds-hourly-pay_n_4414538.html) This is a far cry from the Kingdom of God!  There’s a woman I know who works as a janitor - I’ll call her Ana. She works at one of these technology companies and makes $11 an hour with no benefits.  All the engineers around her make 6-8 times what she does. Ana uses his or her entire monthly income plus working overtime just to pay the rent…in THIS neighborhood!  (see http://wpusa.org/WPUSA_TechsDiversityProblem.pdf)

The kings of the earth are not concerned about the Kingdom of God.  They aren’t thinking of the prophetic call for justice. They are thinking about profits for themselves…and at the expense of everyone who must labor for pennies. (http://moneymorning.com/2013/04/19/ceo-pay-now-7000-an-hour-350-times-the-average-workers/) Do you think the kings of the earth care about the fast food worker who can’t make rent? Do these kings of the earth stay up late at night worried that janitors who clean up their messes can’t afford to send their children even to junior college?

The kings of the earth ignore folks like Ana and fast-food workers. The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, embraces them.  Let me say it again, the Kingdom of God demands that we hear the poor and that we join their Cause. Working for the poor is admittedly a hard sell and closing the wage gap in and of itself is a daunting feat. When we explain why we do what we do to others, it’s clear that what we’re doing doesn’t make sense to a whole lot of folks again.  Recall Isaiah, “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”  “Mis pensamientos no son los pensamientos de ustedes, sus caminos no son mis caminos”.  If we are to be Christ’s disciples and if we are to go with him to Calvary - then I believe it is ultimately up to each of us to pass through that narrow gate, to embrace the child and to fight hard so that all people have enough for their daily bread.

McDonnell Hall - The BirthPlace of a movement.

The parish was founded as a mission to Spanish speaking farm workers.  The parish’s original neighborhood called “Sal Si Puedes” - meaning, “Leave if you can” - was located at the Jackson Street 280 onramp. The nick name came about because of mud.  When it rained the entire neighborhood would become a giant mud flat because there were no streets, gutters or sidewalks. The mud was so bad, said Rachel - who grew up here with her family, that the kids would take their shoes off and put them in a grocery bag and walk through the mud. Just before walking into class, they would wipe their feet off as best they could, and put their shoes on.  The school, Jackson School, was a 2 room school house housing kids in grades K-9.  There were no grocery stores close by.  People would have to go downtown to shop - and keep the mud in mind when I say this -  that the closest bus stop was on King Road, over a mile away from the heart of the community.  The community, “Sal Si Puedes” was literally stuck in the mud and isolated from the rest of San José.  And this was the so-called “Fabulous Fifties.”

In 1953 the community got together and decided that they were going to have church of their own. The closest church was Five Wounds - the mass in Latin and the sermon in Portuguese. There weren’t Spanish songs or a sermon the people could understand.  There was no mass regularly offered in the community. Priests would come down once every few weeks to celebrate the mass and do “consejos” in a hall located in the community. The community itself decided that they were going to take responsibility for their own spiritual welfare. St. Martin of Tours, an aging church on the other side of the city was available for sale. The community bought the church, cut it in half and hauled it over to this side of town. The church became the “Mission Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.” Fr. McDonnell lived in the sacristy when he came down for mass. There in the church Fr. McDonnell introduced a young Cesar Chavez the Church’s VISION for social justice.  They would meet in the church to discuss the problems and challenges facing the community.  In that building, the young Cesar Chavez, Fr. McDonnell and others talked about the poor infrastructure and its affects on the people: no sewage lines, sidewalks, paved roads, no garbage service - all contributed to a host of stomach-related ailments - diarrhea and dysentery.  No other place in San Jose had raw sewage running down the streets.  These challenges were too much to put up with.

Fr. Don McDonnell and Cesar had a deep conviction that all people should be free - that is free from poverty, violence, and exploitation.  This foundational belief gave hope to those who were gathered in the small, Guadalupe Mission Church. In this church under the spiritual guidance of Fr. McDonnell and the prophetic organizing work of Cesar, the people began to talk about how they themselves could organize the community for change.  Together they worked with other visionaries to develop the Community Service Organization that served to organize and mobilize a people who were isolated from the rest of the city. This was a RADICAL concept in the 1950’s. In an era that is more known for ultra patriotism and conformity, the people of Mayfair took up the banner of resistance that demanded change.  The Mayfair Community was not longer a community of “Sal, si puedes,” but a community of “Si Se Puede.”

The “Si Se Puede” grito of independence, gradually caught the attention of people from around the country and around the world.  After Cesar moved on from the Mayfair, he got people everywhere to consider this concept of communities organizing themselves for freedom. The humble beginnings of the social change movement involving Latino leadership began here.  History will show that the Mayfair community, like our sisters and brothers in the Deep South, will be considered another center of activism and social change. And McDonnell Hall is ground zero of that incredible part of our country’s history.  Today’s recognition of McDonnell Hall is a step for all of us to claim our history.

Today we celebrate not only the State recognition of McDonnell Hall - Guadalupe Mission Church, but also the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The symbol of the cross rose above the violent streets of Jerusalem occupied by foreigners that bled the region dry and who set the indigenous peoples against one another.  The cross on the bell tower of the humble Guadalupe Mission Church in 1953 stood out as a symbol of triumph of Justice and Peace. In the midst of mud and sewage, the cross reminded the people that they are God’s beloved sons and daughters and that God’s children deserved better. 

While we have paved streets, sewer and garbage service, we are still isolated. Hemmed in by freeways and onramps, our challenges today are raising the literacy rate for our children, getting our youth into university and lowering violence in our homes and streets.  There’s no easy fix to our local problems while our people still fear deportation and profiling. Most of our people do not have sustainable wages - that’s why we work at several jobs. The cost of housing has forced us to live in garages and double or triple up in housing.  Despite what we see all around us, can you see more than suffering and hurt? Look at the first reading. The people in the desert were complaining because of what they saw, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”  Moses, a visionary leader, saw more than the lack of food. Moses saw a noble people who would create a land out of a desert. His role was to animate the people by providing them with a clear vision of what and who they could be. Sight doesn’t move us to act; VISION, on the other hand, provides hope and moves us toward action. Community organizing for social change requires strong visionary leadership. Visionary leaders are able to see beyond the problems and see real solutions.  Visionary leaders see the path and embolden us to be courageous and take the path.

As we celebrate this feast of the Exaltation, we remember that we exalt Christ who came to us as a laborer.  A working man born to a working family in a poor region. “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…” Marginalized from the seat of power and privilege, this working man, this carpenter, started a movement that is still active today. Jesus’ story continues to inspire future visionary leaders to see the world around them as an opportunity to initiate positive and inclusive social change from the base.  So as we come forward to this table, we come together as ONE. We join Fr. Don McDonnell and Cesar Chavez at the Table, anticipating the vision of true and lasting freedom - that has yet to be realized. As we eat the Bread of Hope and the Cup of Resistance, we too become the VISION of “Si, Se Puede.”

Love is the fulfillment of the law

Today’s Gospel reminds me about a story I heard about one of our local priests who did an amazing thing several years ago.  Once when this priest was offering mass at a downtown parish, he stopped the mass just before the offertory and said, “Everybody outside.” Everyone got up and stood in the main aisle and even others spilled out onto the porch. He stopped the mass because two rival gangs were at each others’ throats and the mothers of the two key leaders were in the mass. The priest was tired of burying kids. So when this priest stopped the mass, he had the mothers from rival gangs get their sons to meet at the entrance of the church with everyone else present. Once when the guys got there, the priest made them agree to a cease fire and that no violence would take place on church property.  

When all is said done, what was ultimately accomplished? Was there love? While no more violence has happened on church property, the rivalry still continued and continues until today. The violence was only contained, not eradicated. It was a ceasefire. Like the Israelis and Hamas, a ceasefire is a delicate agreement that is conditional and at best temporary.  A ceasefire is super valuable because it gives breathing room to get to the root causes of violence because what we want is lasting peace…and to get to lasting peace, we have to get at the root of the problem. Today’s gospel gives us a glimpse at how Jesus gets at the root cause of violence in his day.

The root of violence in Jesus time was a conflict how the land ended up benefiting the select few.  Jewish law states that the land that God gave to the people Israel is supposed to benefit the common good rather than benefitting the select few through private interests.  When this balance is violated by human greed, chaos soon follos. Violence in the time of Jesus came about during a massive migration brought on by an ambitious building project in Galilee.  (see http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/biblearchaeology/a/041511-CW-Galilee-In-Jesus-Time-Was-A-Center-Of-Change.htm) The building projects by Herod Antipas brought thousands of more people into the rural region. Villages went from 400 people to 1000’s of people in a very short time. The population boom displaced thousands of people who made their living from the land. Farmers, used to producing small yields, were now pressed to produce more produce for a large population.  When farmers couldn’t get the yield from their field, they lost their farm and became indentured servants on what used to be their property.   People began to turn on one another and neighbors became estranged from each other and violence erupted throughout the region.

The land was not used to produce food when the region shifted from agricultural self-sufficiency to dependency on employment - and employment was controlled by people who lived in Jerusalem, not in the local region. Jesus was not naive about the issues of his day.  Debt, massive migration, poverty and the immense gap between the powerful in Jerusalem and the common laborers in Galilee all played into what Jesus was saying, “…whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  

Jesus’ words, “loose on earth”   was directed at his disciples. What I have come to understand is that Jesus was teaching about letting go of something that would become more important than loving another person. In other words he’s asking us to embrace something other than material possessions or an ideology above embracing a real living creature.

Paul quotes Moses’ teaching, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Paul underscores Jesus’ teaching about love.  Love is about a real relationship that is built on mutuality - that we owe no debt nor do we expect payment from our neighbor. Love seeks to create a true reciprocal relationship in which we do not commit evil against our neighbor nor do we enter into a relationship with the intent to exert power over our neighbor.  Loving one another means that we learn to love in a way that isn’t about competition or trying to get something from someone else, but rather, that our love is a giving away of ourselves fully without any restriction or condition. “Love is the fulfillment of the law.”  This is way beyond a mere cease fire.

So is this idealistic and naive?  Of course it’s idealistic but it’s not naive.  Jesus paints a picture of a world in which love guides us, not greed. To get to that world of love, he preaches that we need to have forgiveness in our hearts. Forgiveness is the sense that we won’t hold anything we have against another person. It means that our relationship is a relationship built fully on letting go of rivalry and we abandon any sense that we need to get ahead of the other person by somehow conquering or having power over another person. Forgiveness in this sense is more than saying, “I’m sorry.”  Forgiveness is about getting to the core of the conflict and creating new conditions that will foster mutuality and long-lasting cooperation.

If enough people live this way, it would result in a radical shift in culture. What if we began to define ourselves as working in mutual partnership with other people rather than trying to have some power over others?  If the poorest 40% of this country were to take up Jesus’ teaching about forgiveness and pardon of debt, we could change the face of this country.  Let’s imagine that world now. Take a moment and ask, what would healthcare look like? What would education in poor communities look like? What kind of salaries would people be receiving? What would partnerships and marriages look like?

I believe that such a world is possible.  We need to be thinking about whether we want to belong to such a world.  As we come forward for communion we will be faced with the option to embrace things - that is the conquest and need to dominate or, to have the option to be embraced by our sister and brother who offer us nothing but love. What we choose will define whether or not we are fulfilling the Law.

"You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Here's my homily for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time...

The key understanding of this gospel passage is not that Peter is the first pope, but that Peter understood who Jesus was to him, “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” In response to Peter’s acclamation, Jesus said Peter is a “rock” on which the “church” (the assembly of believers, the company of the disciples) will be built. So let’s look more deeply at what Jesus meant by “rock.”
Jewish teachers were familiar with the symbolism of a rock in two ways. The first Scriptural: the water miracle that Moses struck in the desert that provided water for a desperate and thirsty people. The second is an oral tradition grounded in a legend that the same rock followed the people along their journey from the desert to the high mountains. When the people walked with God, each household had water at the door of their tent. The legend underscored the teaching that hostile surroundings would not have power over the people as long as they walked with God. Being a rabbi, Jesus was familiar with both traditions and when he said, “…you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…” Jesus’ declaration means that the community that professes Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the community would remain resilient in the face of hostile surroundings.
I just got back from Apatzingan, Michoacan where I and a priest friend visited people who are directly affected by the violence. Extortions, kidnappings, random acts of violence are tragically commonplace. While there, we met with the CCHRISTOS group. This group initiated by Fr. Goyo and his brother is made up of different people who are looking to develop a community-based response to the crisis. The group meets regularly - and at great risk: many of the members received death-threats. They are business owners, educators, workers, students, and mothers. They come from all sectors of society and when we sat down with them, they briefed us on the difficult political landscape and the corruption of the system. We heard testimonials and were briefed on efforts to overcome this violence. The following day we were in Mexico City at the Senate Chambers hearing more testimonies and reports from all around Mexico of how different regions are responding to the the phenomenon of violence.
What stood out for me was the resilience of the people. There is this widow’s group that works with women and children, to provide psychological and spiritual support to those who have lost their loved ones. Despite overwhelming odds against them, they refused to give into the violence. CCHRISTOS is also sponsoring the formation of an independent citizen’s-based self-defense network. Another representative was talking about a home for orphans. In all, the people we met with profess a non-violent approach to social change. In the face of such opposition, we asked them what keeps them going? For some it was the struggle itself. Others, wanted a better future for their families. Others believed that there is a better way. I asked one of the widows from the widow’s group what sustained her and she, like Fr Goyo and others from the Church, said, “I sustained by my faith. It is the inner-faith, the inner-vision within each person that gives that person the ganas to keep going.
When Peter arrived and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." I believe that the power of Peter’s confession isn’t in the confession alone, but rather, that through the confession he was articulating his readiness to accept the task of forgiving and loving - of choosing a different path - and thereby creating a new type of community. The title, “Son of the Living God” linked Jesus intimately to the history of salvation. Just as God delivered the people Israel from the hands of Pharaoh, and delivered Israel from exile in Babylon and from the hands of their enemies in Isaiah’s time, so too will Jesus would lead his people out from under the tyrannical force of Rome.
The Roman system infiltrated every level of society. Romans mastered the art of occupation. In each country they occupied, Roman leaders intentionally divided the conquered people, making them suspicious of each other. With social divisions in place, people wouldn’t trust one another and wouldn’t think to band together to form an alliance against their oppressors. Instead, people focused on their own problems and ignored the plight of their neighbors. This division made it possible for the authorities to haul people to jail if they couldn’t pay a debt or to kill those who dared to question the system itself.
The “powers of death” that Jesus referred to presumably included reference to the imperial powers of Rome - for they were the only ones that had the authority to determine who lived and who died. When Jesus said to Peter, “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it (the church),” Jesus was affirming that the Church would prevail against death - that God’s people would stand up against death, against the injustices of Rome.
Peter’s confession of faith, “You are the Son of the Living God” was a way of saying, “Caesar isn’t God.” “Caesar’s kingdom is not the real kingdom.” “I reject the limitation that Caesar places on me.” Jesus affirmed Peter and this affirmation sealed the company of disciples to become a community of resistance to injustice. The Church would not succumb to a system of using dominance! Where the system of Rome was sustained by division and violence, the new kingdom Jesus preached would be organized around equity and equality and sustained by a never-ending process of forgiveness.
Returning to Apatzingan for a moment, it seemed to me after hearing hours of testimonies and briefings over the course of 2 days, that there are many levels to the conflict. On one level there is the very real conflict of power between the state and federal government, the cartels and the innocent people caught up in this undeclared war, the so-called fuerzas ruales and newly emerging community-based self-defense groups, and individuals in neighborhoods. On another level there is a conflict between visions: a vision of a society held together by dominance with a system of extortion, threats of violence, substance abuse, and random violence and a system of mutual aid. Both systems: the Kingdom of Rome and the Kingdom of God cannot simultaneously exist. One will give way to the other. And with God, all things are possible!
The task of the Church is to proclaim Jesus as Lord, as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We cannot; however, proclaim this message with any real integrity if we are willing to tolerate and bargain with a system built on dominance and the subjugation of the weak and defenseless. We must, as Jesus commands, loose on earth the bond of violence that imprisons us to a never-ending cycle of “an eye for eye and tooth for tooth.” Victory won’t come easy, but it won’t come for sure if we do nothing. Injustice will continue: kidnappings, extortions, violence and the subjugation of people will flourish if we do not actively resist the Empire. Our confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God means nothing if we do not express our declaration by standing up to the gates of the netherworld. Like the courageous widows in the rural communities, the unarmed community self-defense groups, the student activists and mothers who look for a better life for their young children, we too must find our voice and work.
As people who live here in the relative safety of San Jose, we are invited to share in their struggle. Our trip to Apatzingan was not a one-time visit, but an opening of future visits. We left Apatzingan with greater understanding and appreciation of their struggle, but we also left with a promise that they are not alone. Proclaiming Jesus as the Christ and Son of the Living God is to live the sure and certain hope that we will triumph against the gates of the netherworld. Vive Cristo Rey!