SAVE YOURSELF BY SAVING OTHERS

Truth, Love and Solidarity

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - 10th September, 2017

Ezek 33:7-9; Rom 13: 8-10; Mt 18: 15-20

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” -These words of Elie Wiesel are very powerful, especially these days when everything that happens is unjust and everything just is silent. Being a Christian cannot support a choice of being silent or neutral. We have to take side and the side that we take will determine whether we are truly Christ-ian or not.

Christ came to save us, he has saved us all. But we need to claim that salvation that Christ brought for ourselves - how do we do that? By surrendering ourselves to the way of life that Christ taught us, by surrendering ourselves to the mercy God our Father and Mother and by allowing the action of the Holy Spirit to take over our lives. But we do that here and now, by our daily choices. One thing as Christians we need to keep in mind is, we cannot be saved or we cannot work on our salvation all alone. We are called to be a community of persons and we are going to be saved thus too. That is why today the Word today reminds us, the way to save ourselves is by saving others.

Truth lives. When moments of choice come, we need to abide by Truth. It is sign that we serve that One Lord and God. Because Truth is one and we need to stand by it. At times when we have to choose between values, between issues, among a few things which seem all good, we need to look for that truth that will most reflect the Lord. That is where we become the servants of God. The truth of the dignity of a person, justice, should stand aloft in our choices and we need to speak that out. The first reading from Ezekiel reminds us through the voice of the Lord - you speak or you will not be saved! Express that you stand by the Truth; the Word itself says it does not matter if the others heed to you, what matters is that you have declared your stand.

Love is a mutual debt, Paul declares. I cannot ask a question, why should I love, if I am truly a Christian. It has to be ingrained in me to love. Loving is not just saying it by words. Loving is standing by, feeling for, reaching out and doing everything possible for the well being of the other. At times when we stand by love, we may feel that we are fighting a losing batter, but I need to stick on. Because, it is only by that love that I become a true child of God. For those who love are born of God and those who do not love, do not know God, says John in his epistle.

Solidarity is the first principle of Christian living. That is in fact what makes you and me a people of God. The moment we are not in solidarity with each other, the moment we lack care and concern for each other, the moment we are unaffected by the sufferings of the other, the moment we are blind to the injustice that is perpetrated in the society, the moment we join the oppressors or those moments when our silence strengthens the oppressors we are failing to be truly people of God. When your brother goes wrong, speak to him, take a few with him and speak to him, call the entire community and speak to him and only then we are allowed to go in peace. Not until then! That is, we should have exhausted all possibilities, only then we can remain silent.

Today, there is so much going on in the local societies, national scenarios and international stand offs. Be it the escalating tensions between the US and the North Korea, the Rohingya Crisis, the Fundamentalism that is being unleashed, or the cases of politically powerless being exploited to the core - what is my response? Do I want to save my skin or do I look for a true salvation. If I am looking for a true salvation, I can save myself only by doing something to save the others, the oppressed, the entire world!