SENSE OF THE SACRED | KAIROS GLOBAL | MAY 2022

Author: Anil Israel

Intro: Anil Israel reflects on this issue’s theme, justice, with Scripture.

‘The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed’ (Mahatma Gandhi). It’s a sad scar on the face of humanity, to see the vast gap between the haves and have nots. It is astonishingly shocking to hear that the wealthiest 1% of the world population owns more than half of the world’s wealth. The bitter truth continues to haunt us – selfishness is still far from decay.

The Catechism teaches us that justice is one of the four cardinal virtues which everyone can pursue. ‘Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbour’ (CCC 1807). ‘Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give God and neighbour their due’ (CCC 1836). 

The seventh commandment: Thou shall not steal, strongly draws our attention to heed the call for justice and honesty. When we think about this commandment, we normally tend to think in terms of: ‘have I stolen some physical thing from someone else?’ Do we ever think in terms of: ‘have I withheld something – love, talent, time from those who rightfully deserve it?’ It could be towards those around us or towards those at home, and even towards God – the Author of life (Acts 3:15).

The golden rule reminds us: do to others what you would have them do to you (Mt. 7:12). Do I truly treat others with fairness and loving kindness? We might tend to be good to those who are good to us. We might be happy to follow the golden rule from within the frames of our comfort zones. Aren’t we discriminating when we tend to be conditional? Isn’t convenient obedience a sign of hypocrisy?

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full (Lk. 6:32-34). God does not show favouritism (Rom. 2:11). He does not show partiality (Deut.10:17b). He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Mt. 5:45). As children of God (1 Jn. 3:1) aren’t we too called to do likewise (Lk.10:37)?

Do not defraud or rob your neighbour. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight (Lev.19:13), for the labourer deserves his wages (Lk.10:7; 1 Tim. 5:18). Have I denied benefit or appreciation to those who have served me or have been kind to me in any way? Do I put myself only on the receiving end of gain, or am I willing to bear some pain for someone else’s gain? The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve (Mt. 20:28). Am I willing to serve, rather than be served? It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). Am I willing to give, rather than receive? Am I willing to love, rather than be loved?

What do you have that you did not receive (1 Cor. 4:7) Every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1:17). If all that I have and all that I am is from God, am I not expected to return to God what is his due? Have I been a good and faithful servant (Mt. 25:23)? Is there anything I have withheld from God? Will a mere mortal rob God? (Malachi 3:8). Have I sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath (1 Mac. 1:43)?

The extent to which other things have taken the place of God in my life, to that extent, I have cheated God – denied what is due to him. To the extent I have failed to put to good use the gifts, talents and charisms bestowed on me, I have yet to grow to be the good and faithful steward God wants me to be. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God (Mk. 12:17). Let us learn to be faithful to his call, to his plan, to his will in our lives. 

What prevents me from standing right in my relationship with God? If I fail to love my brother whom I can see, how can I claim to love God whom I cannot see? My failure to see Christ in my fellow brethren, prevents me in my progress along my journey from selfishness to selflessness. 

Pope Francis put it poignantly: ‘When you lose the sense of sin, you also lose the sense of the kingdom of God.’ Is my loss of the sense of the sacred, a cause for the chaos in the world? May God strengthen us with the power from above (Lk. 24:49) to be his face on earth.

Anil Israel lives in Mannheim, Germany, with his wife Sunitha and their 5 children.