INVITE THE POOR
Jesus
says at one point, “When you have a celebration, invite the poor…” It is one of
those shock remarks of his. What does he mean? When we celebrate we tend to do
so with like-minded people; people we know and can relax with. Jesus
understands that but he still poses the invitation. Somehow he is calling us to
break down the barriers dividing people.
Stephen
Cave wrote an article not long ago describing the questioning today as to
whether we really have free will. He records a current view that the notion was
dreamt up by theologians and law-makers – the former to explain the reality of
sin (breaking the Ten Commandments) and the latter the reality of crime
(breaking the laws of the state). The presumption is that people freely choose
to offend.
But
how many choices are really free? If we imagine a society where there are very
few choices we find people just do what they have traditionally done for
centuries. They have no other options. In what sense do they have free will? Or
how do we explain that there are far more Afro-Americans in US prisons then
whites? One obvious explanation is that historically they have enjoyed less
educational and economic advantages than whites and have had a hard time
breaking out of poverty. Need, or just sheer frustration, leads them into “crime”
and so to prison. What, Cave asks, do a deprived person and a privileged person
have in common when we say they both enjoy “free will”?
From
my little experience in Zimbabwean and Zambian prisons I have often asked
myself The same question. How many of the people I meet there committed their
crime “freely”? For how many of them was it circumstances that was largely led
them to it?
The
Church and the state both view transgressions according to their laws but the
actual offender may be anywhere on a broad spectrum of “freedom”, from a person
who is fully aware of the sin/crime they are committing to another who is such
a victim of circumstances they have virtually no choice but to do what they did.
I
do not think that anyone would deny human beings can make choices but it can be
a rather theoretical statement and many on our planet have virtually no
experience of it. So when Jesus says, “Invite the poor” he is appealing to us to
open the way to freedom for the many who have little experience of what it
means. It is of great interest that this question is being addressed today both
by the state and by the Church.
Philosophers
are making us aware of the problem and gradually judges will not only apply the
law but pay much greater attention to “extenuating circumstances”, mitigating
the seriousness of the crime in terms of diminished responsibility. This is
widely applied to people judged to be not in their right mind. But there are
many in their right mind who, only theoretically, made free choices.
And
the whole weight of Pope Francis’ recent letter, the Joy of Love, is to combine law with compassion. We are
beginning to heed Jesus’ exhortation.
28 August 2016 Sunday 22 C
Sirah 3: 17…29 Hebrews12:18…24 Luke
14:7-14
