Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter
by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit”.

(MATTHEW 21:43)

“St Augustine teaches that we can never be morally neutral. We are either growing in virtue of falling into vice. We never have the luxury of simply being in a holding state. Either we are growing in goodness or sliding in the opposite way. That’s true for all of life. 

So also with our attitude toward justice and the poor: either we are actively reaching out to the poor and being more drawn into concern for them or we are unconsciously hardening our hearts against them and unknowingly sliding into attitudes that trivialize their issues and distance ourselves from them. If we are not actively advocating for justice and the poor, it is inevitable that at a point we will, with completely sincere hearts, downplay the issues of poverty, racism, inequality, and injustice.

We can, in all good conscience and with a good heart, be blind toward justice and the poor (Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus: cf. Luke 16:19–31). As I have stated before, we can be moral men and women, pious churchgoers, generous donors to those who seek help from us, and warm to our own families and friends. Yet at the same time we can be blind to ourselves, though not to the poor; be unhealthily elitist, subtle racists, callous toward the environment, and protective of our own privilege. We are still good persons no doubt, but the absence of compassion in one area of our lives leaves us limping morally” (20).

Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter
by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”.

(MATTHEW 20:28)

With the current state of affairs whether you’re looking at politics or the churches, it’s a challenge not to become pessimistic, angry, and bitter. But bitterness and anger, no matter how justified, are not good places to stay. Both Jesus and what’s noble inside of us invite us to move beyond anger and indignation. 

At the truly bitter moments of our lives – when we’re feeling overwhelmed by feelings of misunderstanding, slight, injustice, and rightful indignation and we’re starting across at those whom we deem responsible for the situation – anger and hatred will naturally arise within us. It’s OK to dwell with them for a time because anger is an important mode of grieving. But after a time we need to move on. The challenge is to ask ourselves: How do I love now, given all this hatred? What does love call me to now in this bitter situation? Where can I now find a common thread that can keep me in family with those at whom I’m angry? How do I reach through the space that now leaves me separated by my own justified feelings of anger? And perhaps most important of all: Where can I now find the strength to not give in to hatred and self-serving indignation?   

That’s the ultimate moral challenge, the test that Jesus himself faced in Gethsemane. How do you love when everything around you invites you to the opposite?” (14-15).