In this new year, we can use our voice as a gift to draw attention to the plight of others
Did you notice that the Scriptures for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time have a theme of not being silent? We all struggle from time to time about whether it’s our place to say something to a person or in a particular situation, but there is some good guidance in these readings about when to speak up and when to be silent.
At the wedding feast of Cana, Mary notices what is needed and speaks up. She is very conscious of the fact that she does not control her Son’s life, but she offers Him the opportunity to act because He is now more aware than He was before she spoke up.
This passage offers us some guidelines about when it is appropriate to speak up. The first is when the person in need does not have agency or a voice with those who can make a difference. The second situation is when we could make a difference for other people.
Advocacy for those without a voice clearly is a theme and a practice of the Old and New Testaments. We hear often that God hears the voice of the poor and downtrodden, and those with resources to help should not neglect them or refuse to act on their behalf. The advocacy begins by forming relationships with people who do not have a voice or making a connection with those who can make a difference. Those relationships should not be built on pity, but love. As we form relationships with people on the margins of society, we come to know why Jesus told us we should spend time with them. It is for our sake that we are in a relationship with the poor, because the poor and the marginalized have something to teach us that we probably won’t learn from anybody else. Once we have formed relationships with those who are marginalized, we come to know the difference between what we think they need and what they say they need. That interaction allows us to truly listen, understand and act.
Many of us are incredibly gifted with resources of the earth. We have plenty to eat, plenty of clothes to wear and beautiful and safe places to live. In comparison to the rest of the world, especially the poor, we have many options. Those of us who have been blessed have been given the opportunity and the responsibility to connect those who have with those who don’t have as much.
That means that we are responsible for connecting those who have the possibility of making a difference with those who need generosity and compassion. Once again, it is not for the sake of the marginalized, but for the sake of those who have and will hardly ever want for anything. As the Scripture says, instead of building a larger barn to store the excess, we can make sure that the excess goes to those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers and those who are unnoticed in their need.
We have a voice that can make a difference, and yet some of us remain silent. We remain silent when we see other people taken advantage of. We remain silent when we hear others ridiculed. We remain silent when we could be a prophet. We remain silent because we are afraid or anxious, and we allow that to paralyze us. Most of the time when we say it is none of our business, we are using that as an excuse to not allow our voices to be heard. We know we are in good company when we are on the side of the poor. There are some damning lines in the Bible that have to do with rich people who stand silent as other people go hungry.
What can we say and do in this new year to use our voice as a gift for others and not just to draw attention to ourselves?
Father Donald Wester is retired and serves as lecturer of homiletics at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
