(RNS) — Catholics, like Vice President JD Vance, who criticize Pope Francis for being too political, claim they long for the times of Pope John Paul II. However the reality is, they did not hear to John Paul when he challenged their political affairs.
When John Paul successfully-known Mass in Yankee Stadium in Unique York on Oct. 2, 1979, he preached on the Gospel story of the rich man and Lazarus.
The rich man was “wearing crimson and linen and feasted splendidly each day. At his gate lay a beggar named Lazarus who was lined with sores. Lazarus longed to consume the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table” (Luke 16:19 ff).
Every men died, with Lazarus going to heaven and the rich man going to hell.
John Paul looked out over the team of successfully-fed People and said, “The rich man was condemned due to he did not hear to the unreal man. On fable of he did not rob witness of Lazarus, the person that sat at his door and who longed to consume the scraps from his table.”
John Paul then translated the parable “into contemporary phrases — in phrases of economic system and politics, in phrases of all human rights, in phrases of household people between the ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘third world.’”
“We won’t stand idly by when thousands of human beings are death of starvation,” he said. “We won’t stand idly by, enjoying our be pleased riches and freedom, if, in any space, the Lazarus of the Twentieth century stands at our doorways. Within the sunshine of the parable of Christ, riches and freedom imply a particular accountability. Riches and freedom assemble a particular obligation.”
The message was certain: The usa, you’re the rich man. Or no longer it is a must-desire to love the Lazaruses at your door.
When rich men like President Donald Trump and Elon Musk shut the United States Company for Global Vogue and set apart away with foreign assist programs, they’re ignoring Lazarus. They are consigning him and millions like him to starvation. They are abandoning refugees who be pleased fled persecution, wars and famine. They are stopping medical love the sick. They are allowing plagues like Ebola, monkeypox and HIV/AIDS to unfold unchecked.
This is in a position to perchance be devastating to downhearted international locations, but it would additionally wound The usa. We are in a position to lose admire among allies and lose friends among those we reduction. Desperate refugees will turn to radical leaders like ISIS, or they’ll strive to immigrate to the U.S. or Europe. Nor will plagues admire borders if we attain no longer reduction contend with a watch on them where they start.
Pope John Paul additionally cited the fable of the Final Judgment as found in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me no meals, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was far from dwelling and you gave me no welcome, bare and you gave me no garments. I was sick and in detention heart and you did not near and sumptuous me,” (Mt 25 :42-43).
FILE – Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, left, and Republican presidential nominee aged President Donald Trump attend a campaign match on the Butler Farm Reward on Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Trump and Musk claim reducing foreign lend a hand will reduction them balance the federal budget, but foreign lend a hand is most effective 1.2% of annual federal spending, and far of this cash is spent within the U.S. on agricultural merchandise. Procuring for from farmers nearer to those in need would be more efficient since the meals wouldn’t would possibly perchance well be pleased to be shipped long distances, but it would alienate American farmers who would lose these sales. Now, those farmers be pleased their lend a hand threatened as successfully.
Conservative Christians, collectively with the Catholic bishops, allied themselves with Republicans due to overturning Roe v. Wade was their preeminent priority. Once this was carried out, Trump was more professional-preference, asserting he’ll go abortion to the states and supporting federal funding for IVF.
Become overturning Roe value the value? The real influence on the sequence of abortions is unclear. Abortion supporters be pleased won nearly every referendum on yelp ballots since Roe was overturned. Abortions continue at high numbers.
Trump, Musk and Vance are no longer most effective rejecting the teachings of Pope Francis, they’re rejecting the teachings of John Paul. They are rejecting the teachings of Jesus.
Christian leaders would possibly perchance well be pleased to be prophetic like Francis, John Paul and Jesus in calling us to be Factual Samaritans to those that need reduction.
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