He hears the cry of the oppressed

First reading for 30th Sunday of the year Cycle C
Sirach 35,12-14,16-18


The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.
Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed.
He is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint.


He who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens.
The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal,
Nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right.

The world seems blatantly unfair and unjust. The innocent it seems are always the ones getting caught in the crossfire. We believe that God is a God of justice and that especially God is attuned to the cry of the oppressed. Why doesn't this seem more obvious to us? We all know good folks with terrible suffering and it always begs the question: why? Why if God is just is there childhood cancer and so many other debilitating diseases? The measure of a spirituality of any flavor is what do you do with your pain? Those of us in the first world are used to power or at least the illusion of power, so we are particularly toppled when things are beyond our control. "Anawim is a Hebrew word that means 'the poor seeking God for deliverance.' Anawim (pronounced ann-a-weem) is a Hebrew word from the Old Testament which describes the “poor ones” who remained faithful to God in times of difficulty,translated as meaning poor, afflicted, humble or meek.  They are the “faithful remnants” who, even in the worst of times find their security in the Creator."

The anawim are the ones who know they have no power themselves to remove their suffering other than to rely on God for healing and help. Their spirituality is one of trust and hope in a setting that seems hopeless and in which trust is certainly not intuitively obvious. I remember talking to a living saint, a little woman in el Salvador who appeared much older than I am sure she was. She lived in a one room shack and cooked over an open flame stone oven. Immediately outside her refugee home was a stream of raw sewage running down the hill on which she lived. She proudly pulled out a warm coke from her old refrigerator used as a storage unit as she had no electricity and offered us a drink, we, the charmed visitors from another world. She was honored that the priest and I came to visit her. I was so humble by her holiness,
 I could barely speak. She had eyes that were so alive and yet a face that was weathered with grief and deep suffering. Her husband had been pulled out of their home and killed in front of her. One son was killed by the guerrillas and another by the army. Her only living son was travelling with the guerrillas and she had not seen him in 3 years. Her daughters too were far away presumed to be living in another refugee camp. Only one remained with her and her 3 year old grandson who played in the corner seemingly unaware of the burden of sorrow that their family had carried.

She stood a little under 5 feet tall and yet stood humbly with the quiet largesse of a queen. She told us that she trusted God because God had told us he could be trusted and that we were loved. Jesus after all loved us so much as to live, die and rise for us. She knew with certainty that although things were difficult now; one day her little family would have a piece of land so they could farm and feed themselves and maybe even sell a little of their crops to buy the things they couldn't grow, and if not in her lifetime, then in the next generation or the one that followed but God's word and promise to her would be fulfilled. She spoke with the confidence of a mystic who has known God not as a concept but as a Holy Presence. She spoke Truth and Wisdom with a gentle and holy confidence. It was a very memorable moment of grace.

We can learn much wisdom from this little anawim, we can learn the truth of the wisdom conveyed in this passage in Sirach. Our prayers and our sharing of our heart with God is never in vain. Just as God's word does not go out from God without fulfilling its mission (Isaiah 55:10-11), so our words of the heart do not go out from us and not find a home in God's loving heart.
If there is not more justice in the world; it is because too many of our human family are not in tune with the heart of God and do not move for the communal good. The power of God lies within us to free others from oppression, to be the hands and feet, the vessels of the mission of God to his people especially the anawim. We do have the power to change the world, one little gift, and one person at a time.

God has not promised that we would understand all the mysteries of life, instead God has promised to be with us and to understand us in all our struggles. It is with the heart not the head that we most fully enter in to the Living Mystery of the Presence who is God. Let us trust then when we feel oppressed or even just deeply discouraged that God does hear our hearts' every sigh even before we are finishing exhaling. In our poorest moments when we do not have the means to change our situation ourselves, we are indeed strangely in the moment of grace when we are most open to what was true all along: we need God, we need to be connected to the Creator to be fully ourselves his creation. We need the mercy of God and fortunately we don't have to prequalify, the Mercy of God is already ours just waiting for an open heart to receive what God has already so generously given.

Like the anawim may we be a people of trust and hope even in the most challenging of times, trusting the mercy and justice of God will always affirm the right.

God bless.