Homily for August 23-24, 2008

Father Tom’s Homily
21st Sunday
August 24, 2008

Fifty-two years ago, in August of 1956, I had a minor role at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I was 21 at the time and on summer vacation in the midst of six years of major seminary.
That summer I was working in Chicago and living with my brother Jack. When I read in the Tribune that they were looking for drivers at the convention, I decided to quit my job at the stock yards and deal with politicians instead of cattle.

I was one of 120 drivers who were selected because, I think, we were thought to be polite, trustworthy enough to be given a new car and knew our way around the city. I met a number of other seminarians and school teachers among the other drivers.
We were assigned to drive the big wigs of the party while they were in Chicago to select the Democratic nominees for president and vice-president of the U.S.

I was assigned to drive Governor Battle of Virginia to and from the convention center and the Palmer House Hotel in the city. He and his wife and three others were crammed into the new Ford that was given for use during the convention.
While matters were in progress on the convention floor, I was able to wander around the large “backstage” area and to wonder at the manner in which political leaders were chosen. The Democrats selected Adlai Stevenson for president and Estes Kefauver for vice-president.
It was a most interesting week for a young man out from protective hibernation at a seminary to attend. My thoughts return to that summer job when the political conventions reoccur every four years.

There seems to be no connection between my seminary formation and that summer job in the midst of a political process. It brings to mind the old controversy about the connection, if any, between politics and religion.

On the one hand, many say that there must be a separation between the sanctuary and the public life. The government officials in El Salvador during the crisis 30 years ago, complained that Archbishop Romero’s role was to say his prayers in the church and to stay out of political struggles.
The archbishop had become a voice for the voiceless poor who were suffering from great poverty and death squads. Romero knew that his role as pastor was to be at the side of the people who were suffering from a brutally oppressive regime. Too often, Church leaders have remained silent in the face of official violence.
Gospel faith teaches us that it is not enough to pray before the Crucified Figure inside the church. People of faith must not ignore the crucifixion of people outside the church building.

The gospels call us to build the Kingdom of God here and now. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
This is a call to Kingdom work, to work in solidarity with those who struggle for justice and peace knowing that it is certainly God’s will.
Kingdom work is not a weekend project. It is a life-long commitment. It can be an unpopular, wearisome and sometime dangerous commitment. But we should not feel alone. God is on the side of those who struggle for peace and justice.
Mary, when pregnant with Jesus, gave a powerful and prophetic teaching about God’s dream for his people.
She said (speaking of God’s role in human history): “He has pulled down the high and mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the downtrodden. He has filled the hungry with good things, and he has sent the rich away empty handed.”
Mary’s canticle of praise to a God of justice is one of the scriptural bases of liberation theology.

Taking into consideration Mary’s words, can we see any signs about God’s role in human history in our own day?
The stories of the scripture are based on the understanding of God’s interest and involvement in our lives. We should take this point of view into our exploration of history. What signs can we find of God’s role in building the Kingdom of peace and justice.

Let me offer one example that I discovered recently. In 1908, at the national Democratic convention in Denver, African-Americans urged nominee William Jennings Bryan to support a platform opposing lynching. This was the practice of mobs, mostly throughout the South, to torture and hang black men, seemingly for entertainment beside racist revenge.
Bryan, for political reasons, declined to support an anti-lynching platform.
This week, one hundred years later in that same city (Denver), the Democratic Party will be nominating a black man for president.

I say, something important is happening here in Kingdom building. It is a sign of something beyond human effort at work. In Mary’s prophetic words, “He lifts up the downtrodden.”
This is not meant to be an endorsement of Obama. It is a simply a recognition that some progress has been made in what was thought in the recent past to be a wild impossibility.
And it does suggest that something more than human effort is involved.

We have seen the struggle of a religious leader in the political arena in the recent history of El Salvador. Archbishop Romero is an example of someone who emerged from the sanctuary into the streets to accompany the crucified of the world.
In political matters, people of faith are called to be a voice for voiceless who are left out of the process. This year the U.S. bishops have issued a statement about the political responsibility of people of faith. They say: “Participation in public life is a moral obligation.” It is part of Kingdom work.
It would appear that a young seminarian or an older priest should have an interest in political conventions. I think Jesus’ mother would approve of it.