Greetings on this the Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
Readings: Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11; Psalm 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19; Matthew 17:9a, 10-13
Summary
Silence in the face of moral harm is not neutrality; it is abandonment.
Two days ago I asked the question: Are you still waiting for Elijah?
Today, I ask a harder one:
Do we recognize the stranger?
I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands (Mt 12:12-13).
John the Baptist stood in their midst—
calling for repentance, truth, conversion—
and they did not recognize him.
So they destroyed him.
And Jesus adds quietly, almost ominously:
“So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.”
Reflection
Sad days.
Not because laws exist.
Not because borders exist.
But because people can be rendered invisible.
Good people being swept up in this madness of immigration ethnic cleansing.
Because human beings—mothers, fathers, children—can be moved, displaced, separated, and spoken about as problems rather than persons.
Because once someone is no longer recognized,
anything can be done to them.
This is not new.
The people of Jesus’ time did not recognize Elijah when he came (in the person of John).
They did not recognize John.
And they did not recognize Jesus.
The tragedy was not ignorance.
It was misrecognition.
They saw a threat where God had sent a prophet.
They saw inconvenience where God had sent a human being.
Even today, as people seek legal counsel,
ICE moves them across state lines,
separating them from representation,
rendering them unseen.
- Cold hearted.
- Unrecognizable ethics.
- Unrepentant moral failure.
Personal Reflection
The same people that rail Life Begins at Conception do not recognize persons after birth.
And still, it is possible to defend life in theory while failing to recognize persons in reality.
Jesus’ words do not allow us that separation:
Literally, in the season of Mary & Joseph fleeing to Egypt they do not recognize the moral failure. What you do for the least of these, you do to me: So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.
A very sad day.
Saint Lucy is perfect for today!
- she saw,
- she refused blindness,
- and she paid a price.
Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121325.cfm
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry