16 June 2020
Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
The ending of the drama of Naboth’s Vineyard is not what many people would imagine. The story concludes with accusation of Ahab and his conversion, which results in the delay of his punishment. The episode of Ahab’s conversion and the delay of his punishment is not what we expect as the idea of justice. As Ahab was responsible for Naboth’s murder through the manipulation of legal proceedings, many people expect a severe punishment for the oppression of the powerless.
Again, I would like to reflect on this story through the prism of my young priesthood. Shortly after my priestly ordination, there was shocking news that rocked my young priesthood. A prominent Catholic magazine in the US, published an essay the “Catholic Case for Communism.” It was a surprise but not shocking news to me because in my observation, many Roman Catholic priests and seminarians easily buy the Communist’s argument out of their good desire to see a better humane society. Whether they realize it or not, they embrace the Marxist axiom that “the philosophers only interpret the world, but they do not know how to change it.” They can plunge themselves further into the muddy water of Marxism when they see that theology is created to justify the practice of social actions for changes. By adopting this stance, they are following the Marxist’ foundation of the relationship between theory and praxis that ideological theory is created to justify the practice of revolution.
But Marx’s fundamental error, as Pope Benedict XVI laid out in his brilliant encyclical Spe Salvi, is he simply presumed that with the expropriation of the ruling class, the new paradise would be realized. Marx presumed that once the economy had been put right, everything would automatically be put right. Marx forgot that men would remain men with all the complexity in their human nature. Similarly, those priests and seminarians who bought the “Catholic case for Communism” forgot that human beings are not merely a product of economic conditions. Even if they can win the struggle for social justice, human beings cannot be redeemed by simply breaking barriers for social mobility or creating safety nets and economic justice. No matter how well off human persons are, they cannot run away from the suffering of evil. A favorable economic environment, either created in the name of Marxism or Catholic Social Justice, cannot eradicate the fundamental tragedies of life, such as sickness, aging, and death.
I am afraid that many Catholics have forgotten that Marx sees the world as the struggle between those who have and those who have not. Under this worldview, the cause of all of human suffering is economic and social injustice. But if the world is seen as the fight between the oppressor and oppressed, then people will easily get bitter and vengeful. If this bitterness and vengeance are taken to the extreme, people will become murderous, even to the point of genocidal. The history of Communism has proven those trends and I am not sure if that is the direction that those Catholic priests and seminarians want to follow by buying the “Catholic Case for Communism.”
After all, as Catholics, we are called to love our enemies and to forgive those who do harm to us. We are not seeking the punishment our enemies, but rather we should pray for their conversion and let God bring divine forgiveness.