The Acts of the Apostles describes early efforts of some disciples to share Jesus’ Way. These include “Peter and John,” and also “Philip.” Each set out to love as Christ loved and thus “proclaimed the Christ” to people and healed people afflicted and orphaned; in their own land and in other lands such as “Samaria.”
Is it the case that we too love and heal those afflicted and orphaned by their culture? Do we, instead, sometimes align ourselves with the elites of a culture and promote their harmful practices which result in people being afflicted and orphaned? Doing so is a description of Religious Imperialism and it can happen in our own land or in other lands. Matteo Ricci, whose life is celebrated this week (May 11, 1610), set out for a distant land but was it to share Jesus’ Way? 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 but knowing comfort and prestige while living a life of honor among elite Chinese nobility. He promoted similarities between Confucianism and Christ that were rejected by institutional Christianity, made official in the 1704 decree Cum Deus Optimus. In it, the Vatican condemned idolatry such as Confucianism and forbid making ritual sacrifices to China’s ancestral hero. But institutional Christianity, via its elite priestly class, had already made an idol of Jesus, worshiping him rather than following his Way, and perverting the Mass as a sacrifice of Jesus rather than as the meal he shared. Can we ask if Ricci or the Vatican “proclaimed the Christ” to people? Did either love and heal the afflicted or the orphaned? Religious Imperialism, which includes institutional christianity, is still operative, for example, in the U.S. A current practitioner is Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York who also knows the worship of comfort and prestige while he sacrifices Jesus daily in the Mass. That is because Dolan, as a priest, is of an elite class and aligns himself with other elites of the U.S. Empire who 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. As the people are afflicted and orphaned, Dolan is “in admiration of the president’s leadership” – the elitist president who is willing to sacrifice them, “The people are warriors… will some people be affected badly? Yes.” “They’ll be more death.” The Trump Dolan alliance is no surprise; secular rulers who promote worship of elites and sacrifice of the people are promoted by a religious ruler who promotes worship of elites and sacrifice of the people. Who among us are loving and healing the afflicted and those left orphaned?
The question can be asked and affirmed among peacemakers 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 peers to 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 elitism and illness.
Question: Who are the people to whom I bring love and healing?
May 17, 2020 Gospel John 14:15-21 Sixth Sunday of Easter