Thus says the LORD:
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him
by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge,
you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body.
What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."
Today’s first reading at Catholic Mass sparked a lot of emotion for me. Coming so soon before election day it clarified for me what we are dealing with in our choices this time around. I
In the reading above the Lord sends the message to us personally. When he says, “You shall not molest or oppress an alien,” He is not talking about government or society, but “You.” It is a commandment. Given how aliens are treated in this largely “christian” nation, hypocrisy is running rampant. It almost seems that “Evangelical” christianity does the exact opposite to what the Lord demands.
When he says, “You shall not wrong any widow or orphan,” my mind goes to the 545 migrants that the US government has made into orphans. The Lord says he will kill “you” if you wrong an orphan. How much more pissed off do you think he is going to be with “you” if you are making children into orphans? My family has personally experienced bad immigration policy based on xenophobia. I have heard the horror stories of countless people from every part of the world dealing with our nation’s immigration system. We need to completely reform our system so that it is nothing like what it is today. What it is today is evil.
When he says, “If you lend money… you shall not act like an extortioner...” He is not talking about our banking system which serves a function in our economy. What He is talking about is our own behavior. We kind of know this is true. When we lend money or property to a family member, I know I always think, “What if they don’t pay me back, or what if they don’t return the thing?” I’ve kind of learned that when it comes to family, in order to try to keep my relationship with them, I try to erase the “lending” or “giving” thing from my mind. I try, I don’t always make it. To erase the lending/giving thing I try to make it an extension of “Mi casa es su casa,” (My house is your house). I try to treat what ever was “loaned” as really a part of communal property that belonged to the requesting family member. I’ve extended this to coworkers as well. I must have leant $20 to a coworker and then completely forgot about it. I was surprised when he came up to me during a bad moment and apologized for not having paid me back the 20 bucks. ??? I told him I had forgotten about it, but what I should have done was find out he was OK. Now, several years later I’m thinking he probably needed help, and feeling that he had already tapped me for help, he couldn’t ask for help again, hence the apology for not having paid me back. Sometimes it is hard to be heads up as a christian. I realize now that I missed that opportunity to help and be kind.
We live in such an affluent society compared to those in the times described in the bible. It is impossible to imagine we would ever be in a situation where we were using someone’s only cloak as collateral for something. However... there are things in our society that are similar. Rent would be one that is really relevant to today. In the coming weeks there will be millions of landlords faced with tenants unable to pay their rent. Maybe some of the readers here on DailyKos are landlords. We are going to be faced with the question on what to do. I’m talking out of my ass right now because I’m not a landlord, but I’m going to talk about it anyway. My suggestion is if you are a landlord that you communicate with your renters honestly about the pressures you are facing. You may have a mortgage you have to cover, utility payments or other expenses associated with the maintaining the property. Remembering the last crisis of this sort, many renters faced serious problems and confusion when their landlords were foreclosed on for not paying their mortgages, which they couldn’t do because they couldn’t collect rent. I believe if the bank, landlord and tenant communicated with the full understanding of our current situation, some sort of mutual solution could be reached. Chances are it will not be a capitalists preferred solution, but it may get us through this crisis without putting people out of their “cloaks” into the cold.
In conclusion, Christians our Lord commands us to treat aliens well, to not to make orphans, and to treat the orphans that do exist well, to treat widows well, and to not hold in collateral those things necessary to be free from the cold and have some dignity in life. All clear? So then don’t go out and vote for Republicans, because doing so puts you at odds with the Lord. If you are at odds with the Lord on these things, just understand, He will kill you. His words, not mine.