Ted Kennedy 1932-2009
Arlington Cemetery as night drew on
A “Liberal Lion” & Now a Patron Saint
September 6, 2009, Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
James 2:1-5 Isaiah 35:4-7 Mark 7:31-37
Arlington Cemetery as night drew on
A “Liberal Lion” & Now a Patron Saint
September 6, 2009, Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
James 2:1-5 Isaiah 35:4-7 Mark 7:31-37
To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]
Second reading from James
Dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, if you show favoritism to rich people and look down on the poor? Suppose a man comes into your church who is dressed in expensive clothes and is wearing expensive rings on his fingers. Suppose also that at the same time another man comes into your church who is poor and shabbily dressed. Suppose finally that you make a lot of fuss over the rich guy and say to him, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but you say to the poor guy, ”You can stand over there or sit over here on the floor by my feet.” Dear brothers and sisters, by such behavior you have turned yourself into judges, and into corrupt judges at that. I tell you that God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to possess the Kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
Glory to you, Lord.
Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. Some people brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak. They begged Jesus to lay his hand on him. So He took the man off to the side, away from the crowd, put his finger into the man’s ears and spat upon his eyes. Then looking up to heaven He groaned and exclaimed “Ephphatha!”— that is -- “Be thou opened!” And immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was loosened, and he could speak clearly. Jesus ordered the people not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were completely amazed and said, “Everything He does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Favoring the rich
Introduction
Favoring the rich
Members of the early church, for the most part, were rather insignificant people. In I Corinthians Paul writes, “Brothers and sisters, remember what you were when God first called you: few of you were well-educated or influential or nobly born according to worldly standards.” (I Cor. 1:26) When in the course of time people of greater economic means and influence joined the early church, a problem arose. In the second reading today St. James voices that problem when he writes, “Dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, if you show favoritism for rich people and look down on the poor?” (James 2:1)
Favoring the poor
In the Old Testament there is, indeed, a favoritism, but it is for the poor. In Isaiah we read, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me. He has chosen me and sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to announce liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.” (Is. 61: 1) That same favoritism for poor people is found also in the New Testament. At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus makes it clear that the poor have a preferential spot in his heart. Luke quotes Jesus as declaring quite unqualifiedly, “Blessed are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours!” (Lk. 6:20) Matthew is more qualifying: he has Jesus saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Mt 5:3)
That qualification implies that the rich who are poor in spirit are blessed, and the Kingdom of heaven is theirs. (Blessed, then, is that rich lady Eunice Kennedy Shriver who died August 11, 2009; she was, indeed, poor in spirit, and the Kingdom of heaven is now hers.) By the same token, Matthew’s qualification “in spirit” also implies that the materially poor who lust after things are not poor in spirit, and the kingdom of God is not theirs.
The trouble with being very well-off is that wealth brings great security. When we’re rich – when we live in a very nice house and the mortgage is all paid off, when we have plenty of good healthy (non-starchy) food to eat, money in the bank and above all (in the light of the present national debate) very good health insurance, we’re not much threatened by the world around us. With such security, one doesn’t feel very dependent on anything or anyone, unless, of course, we are a remarkable person like rich Eunice Shriver. Though rich she always felt that she needed something which only God could offer.
That qualification implies that the rich who are poor in spirit are blessed, and the Kingdom of heaven is theirs. (Blessed, then, is that rich lady Eunice Kennedy Shriver who died August 11, 2009; she was, indeed, poor in spirit, and the Kingdom of heaven is now hers.) By the same token, Matthew’s qualification “in spirit” also implies that the materially poor who lust after things are not poor in spirit, and the kingdom of God is not theirs.
The trouble with being very well-off is that wealth brings great security. When we’re rich – when we live in a very nice house and the mortgage is all paid off, when we have plenty of good healthy (non-starchy) food to eat, money in the bank and above all (in the light of the present national debate) very good health insurance, we’re not much threatened by the world around us. With such security, one doesn’t feel very dependent on anything or anyone, unless, of course, we are a remarkable person like rich Eunice Shriver. Though rich she always felt that she needed something which only God could offer.
A beggar in a marketplace
In the second reading, James paints a scenario of a man coming into the Christian assembly, well-fed, expensively dressed and his fingers bedecked with rings. At the same time there enters a man with a skinny frame, shabbily dressed and a look of hunger on his boney face. Furthermore, the scenario has one making a big fuss over the rich man and shoving the poor man off to the side. That scenario is like a page ripped out of the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
No true biographer of the saint would ever neglect to tell the story about Francis who one day is working in his father’s shop which deals in costly velvets and fine embroideries. A prominent merchant of the town enters, and at the very same time there enters a beggar asking for alms, perhaps in a tactless manner. Francis does what we are all tempted to do when confronted in one and the same moment by a fine gentleman and a “bum”: he takes care of the "nice guy” first. How natural!
When the rich man’s business is finished and he leaves, Francis suddenly realizes that the beggar has quietly slipped away as unworthy of attention. Of that moment Chesterton[3] writes that Francis bolted from his father’s booth, left all the bales of precious velvets and fine embroideries unprotected, and went racing across the marketplace “like an arrow straight from the bow." After running through the narrow and winding streets of Assisi, he finally comes upon the beggar and heaps a hefty sum of his father’s money upon the astonished man.
Francis sang a new song about poor people. In the old song you pretended the beggar wasn’t there, or you tossed him a coin to get rid of him (or today you dismiss the poor man off to some agency which in turn dismisses him off to another agency). In the new song you speed towards the beggar, "like an arrow straight from the bow."
Daily we are confronted with James’ scenario and with Francis’ quandary in his father’s shop. Daily we’re tempted to fuss over someone who looks well-off and dismiss someone who looks shabby. Daily we are challenged to race toward a poor person "like an arrow straight from the bow."
No true biographer of the saint would ever neglect to tell the story about Francis who one day is working in his father’s shop which deals in costly velvets and fine embroideries. A prominent merchant of the town enters, and at the very same time there enters a beggar asking for alms, perhaps in a tactless manner. Francis does what we are all tempted to do when confronted in one and the same moment by a fine gentleman and a “bum”: he takes care of the "nice guy” first. How natural!
When the rich man’s business is finished and he leaves, Francis suddenly realizes that the beggar has quietly slipped away as unworthy of attention. Of that moment Chesterton[3] writes that Francis bolted from his father’s booth, left all the bales of precious velvets and fine embroideries unprotected, and went racing across the marketplace “like an arrow straight from the bow." After running through the narrow and winding streets of Assisi, he finally comes upon the beggar and heaps a hefty sum of his father’s money upon the astonished man.
Francis sang a new song about poor people. In the old song you pretended the beggar wasn’t there, or you tossed him a coin to get rid of him (or today you dismiss the poor man off to some agency which in turn dismisses him off to another agency). In the new song you speed towards the beggar, "like an arrow straight from the bow."
Daily we are confronted with James’ scenario and with Francis’ quandary in his father’s shop. Daily we’re tempted to fuss over someone who looks well-off and dismiss someone who looks shabby. Daily we are challenged to race toward a poor person "like an arrow straight from the bow."
A beggar in a parking lot
Recently I was so confronted and challenged. To beat the heat of an August day here in Texas and to get in my daily walk I drove into town early one morning to a large Walmart parking lot which was still quite empty. At the far end of the lot and off to the side someone had parked his pick-up truck, into which he had thrown his life’s possession. Beside his truck he had opened a canvass cot upon which he was sleeping. After my walk I got into the car and drove near the parked pick-up. The man by then had risen from v sdwhat for me could only have been a thoroughly sleepless night on a meager cot, through a muggy Texas night, on a well-lit parking lot thoroughfare and under a star-studded sky.
I approached the gentleman’s “campsite.” He was, I believe, in his sixties. He was overweight as the poor tend to be overweight because of a starchy diet, and a tooth or two were missing from his mouth. He had not yet taken his “morning ablutions” and looked a bit besmeared. I lowered the car window to ask him where he was headed. “To south Texas,” I believe he said. “Got some money for gas,” I asked? I knew he’d say no. Then I handed him a twenty. (What in the world can you do with a measly twenty in such a state of affairs?) He was quite surprised by my “free-will offering.” I had freely offered him something, when, in fact, he had asked for nothing. He stuck out a grimy hand to shake my hand and wished me a heartfelt “God bless you.”
A moment of revelation and gratitude
It was a moment of revelation for me -- a moment filled with a sense that something more than meets the eye had just happened. Just as it was a moment of revelation which sent Francis dashing out of his father’s shop to catch up to a beggar he had ignored, and to unload on him a good amount of his father’s money. At that moment he, too, suspected that something more than meets the eye had just happened.
For me the encounter in the parking lot was also a moment of gratitude. I found myself thanking God that I had not ignored the man, as Francis had at first ignored the beggar. I found myself thanking God for enabling me to see what many others in that parking lot would not see, either because they would choose not to see, or because they would simply be obeying that convenient golden rule of our culture to “mind your own business.”
I saw what I saw because I myself was born of poor Italian stock, and that makes it disturbingly easy for me to have a feel for poor folk. But it doesn’t always work that way. At times the poor who manage to dig themselves out of their poverty choose not to look back. That’s the case with some sport stars who have journeyed out of poverty and made it to the top, and who now live in obscene mansions.
This, however, is also true: while it might not be easy for wealthy people to have a feel for poor folk, it is, nevertheless, possible. Francis of Assisi, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Ted Kennedy were all rich people, but they had a feel for unfortunate folk.
The public option
In the healthcare debate raging in the nation with full fury at the present moment, it’s impossible not to hear talk about the "public option.” That would be a government insurance program (like Medicare, Medicaid or the veterans healthcare system) which would cover a wide swath of the public, and which would compete with the private insurance market. There are loud voices pro and contra the public option. There are those who are quite satisfied with their own private healthcare insurance, and are staunchly opposed to the public option. In general, they fear anything run by the government. In particular, they fear that the public option would run their own private insurance agency out of business, and that fills them with fear.
Then there are the uninsured or underinsured who would rejoice in a public option which, at long last, would provide them with the healthcare they need like anyone else. The debate rages on. However the debate goes, people of faith believe, as Sen. Kennedy did, indeed, believe, that healthcare is not a privilege but a fundamental right of everyone. That was his bottom line and his consuming issue.
Then there are the uninsured or underinsured who would rejoice in a public option which, at long last, would provide them with the healthcare they need like anyone else. The debate rages on. However the debate goes, people of faith believe, as Sen. Kennedy did, indeed, believe, that healthcare is not a privilege but a fundamental right of everyone. That was his bottom line and his consuming issue.
A liberal lion & now a patron saint
Shortly before midnight Tuesday August 25, 2009, Kennedy, beloved in Boston and beyond, died at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 77. His death came less than two weeks after the death of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver who founded Special Olympics[4] which grew to encompass 3 million athletes in 181 countries, though her concern for people was far more multifaceted than mere athletics.
Ted Kennedy was unabashedly “a liberal lion” who could, however, reach across the political aisle, when the issue at hand called for it. For nearly half a century in the Senate, Ted’s driving legislative priority was universal healthcare. It was the love of his life. He used to say that he’d see that it would be passed, if that was the last thing he did! He didn’t live long enough to do it. He will now be remembered as the patron saint of universal healthcare. And as the national debate about universal healthcare rages on through the fall months, uninsured and underinsured folk will be praying to him in heaven to finish the work he ardently espoused on their behalf.
Ted Kennedy was unabashedly “a liberal lion” who could, however, reach across the political aisle, when the issue at hand called for it. For nearly half a century in the Senate, Ted’s driving legislative priority was universal healthcare. It was the love of his life. He used to say that he’d see that it would be passed, if that was the last thing he did! He didn’t live long enough to do it. He will now be remembered as the patron saint of universal healthcare. And as the national debate about universal healthcare rages on through the fall months, uninsured and underinsured folk will be praying to him in heaven to finish the work he ardently espoused on their behalf.
Conclusion
Ted’s letter to Benedict
As the sun was setting on the private burial ceremony in Arlington cemetery, August 29, 2009, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, read a recent letter from Kennedy to Pope Benedict. The letter was hand-delivered by President Barack Obama during his visit to the Vatican in July. It read,
“Most Holy Father, I hope this letter finds you in good health, I pray that you have all of God’s blessings as you lead our church and inspire our world during these challenging times. “I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and, although I continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life. . . .
“I want you to know, Your Holiness, that in my nearly 50 years of elective office, I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor and open doors of economic opportunity. I’ve worked to welcome the immigrant, fight discrimination and expandaccess to healthcare and education. I have opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a Unites States Senator. . . . “I’ve always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teaching of my faith. I continue to pray for God’s blessing, on you, and on our church, and would be most thankful for your prayers for me.”
Ted’s life was not without its scandals[5]; he was, like all of us, a sinner. What makes him a saint, however, is that he, who was born into the illustrious Kennedy dynasty with a silver spoon in his mouth, had a genuine compassion and an impressive legislative record in behalf of those who weren’t so luckily born. “Blessed are the rich who are poor in spirit, the Kingdom of heaven is theirs.”
[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[4] Special Olympics celebrates people with mental retardation or developmental disabilities. Eunice’s sister Rose Mary was one such person.
[5] There were reports of womanizing, his first marriage ended in a divorce, and then there was the Chappaquiddick car accident in which 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne was killed but Ted himself survived.
