Speak Out Or Die

September 23: Tuesday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Proverbs 21:1-6,10-13; Psalm 119:1, 27, 30, 34, 35, 44; Luke 8:19-21

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life... Step Five)

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“Blessed are those who hear the word of God…” and express it (see Luke 11:28).

Proverbs says, “Like a stream is the king’s heart in the hand of the Lord; wherever it pleases him, he directs it.” For the author, “king” meant the ruler of a country. For us, a true “king” is anyone who shares in the kingship of Christ by being anointed “priest, prophet and king” at Baptism.

We can hardly measure the good or the harm done by those in “high places.” A teacher-friend talks of the morale-building and morale-crushing difference between successive principals in her school. Political corruption is stifling progress and maintaining poverty—visibly in some countries, invisibly in others. The example of Pope Francis is breathing new life into the universal Church, while “clericalism, legalism and triumphalism” are suffocating its spirit locally.

We say, “If only the heart of every authority were ‘like a stream in the hand of the Lord,’ being directed ‘wherever it pleases him!’”

Wrong focus. We ourselves are the “kings.” By baptismal anointing we were given responsibility for reforming and renewing the Church, civil society, family, social and economic life. We are “stewards of the kingship of Christ.”

Every responsibility confers rights. Our responsibility for renewal gives us the right to speak out: to bishops and employers, pastors and peers.

If we do, we may suffer for it. If we don’t, the whole world will suffer.

PRAY: “Lord, direct my heart.”

PRACTICE: See, judge, speak.