Acts of the Apostles describes numerous early efforts of disciples to “proclaim the Christ” to people. Most of the people had been made “poor.” They were afflicted,” “orphaned.” Disciples did so in their own land and in other lands, such as “Samaria.”
Is Christ proclaimed in our present day and how? Is it to people in this land and in other lands who are poor, made so by their culture? Do we, instead, sometimes align ourselves with the elites of a culture who make people poor? Doing so is a description of Religious Imperialism. The life of Matteo Ricci is celebrated this week (1552-1610). He set out to proclaim Christ to another land, China. Ricci was an Italian Jesuit who, feeling called as a missionary to China, learned its language and many customs, but of the Chinese nobility. He believed it was only by converting the elite of the culture that any progress for Christianity could be made. It resulted in him being neither afflicted nor orphaned and certainly not poor. He knew comfort and prestige while living a life of honor among elite Chinese nobility. Ricci promoted similarities between Confucianism and Christ. His efforts were rejected by institutional Christianity officially in the 1704 decree Cum Deus Optimus. In it, the Vatican condemned the practice of idolatry such as Confucianism and forbid making ritual sacrifices to China’s ancestral hero. But institutional Christianity, via its own elite priestly class, already practiced the idolatry of Jesus making ritual sacrifices to him as an ancestral hero. The priestly class had long ago perverted Jesus, who was not a priest, and the meal he shared with poor people around a table of communion, making it instead into the sacrifice of Jesus on an altar. There is evidence Ricci and the Vatican were each an example of Religious Imperialism. Perhaps, here and there, they noticed and provided charity to the poor, afflicted, orphaned, but mostly they attended to the elites. In the U.S. a man currently giving evidence of Religious Imperialism is Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. He too knows comfort and prestige while he sacrifices Jesus daily in the Mass. As a priest Dolan is a member of an elite class and and aligns himself with other elites of the U.S. Empire. The Imperial elites also worship comfort and likewise sacrifice people daily. The people are sacrificed to the elite’s for-plunder sickness system preventing health care, supplies, and funds. People are being made “poor,” they are “afflicted,” and “orphaned,” but Dolan proclaims he is “in admiration of the president’s leadership.” It is an elitist president willing to sacrifice people to the coronavirus, “The people are warriors… will some people be affected badly? Yes.” “They’ll be more death.” The Trump-Dolan alliance of Religious Imperialism is no surprise. Secular rulers who promote worship of elites and sacrifice of the people are promoted by a religious ruler who also promotes worship of elites and sacrifice of the people.
Proclaiming Christ are the disciples at 5 Breads and 2 Fish, THE ROW-LA/The Street Church, Central City Community Church, Open Door Skid Row Ministry, and Christian Community Health. Community members do not live as the elite ruling class. Instead, like Jesus, they are the people, people who witness love and healing to those who are afflicted and left orphaned, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you… and I will love you.”
Prayer: Spirit, help us be loving and healing when we and others are afflicted with the illness of elitism.
Question: Who are the people to whom I bring love and healing?
May 17, 2020 Gospel John 14:15-21 Sixth Sunday of Easter