Scripture: Third Sunday of Lent

Reflection: The beauty of God’s creation is that everything within it shares the sacredness of being created by God. This inherent dignity binds all of us, and everything, together. And in the Incarnation, God fully descends into the entirety of human experience and all of our problems. Everything is touched and transformed. This is why the law, delivered in the first reading, is multi-issue, touching on numerous facets of life under the umbrellas of love of God and love of neighbor.

What does it mean when someone takes only part of the law, or creation, or a political issue and sets it up over and above all the rest? At NETWORK, we would understand this as an injustice – literally not in “right relationship” with how we understand the rest of creation. We witness this distortion in the practice of single-issue voting. Some politicians seek to consolidate power by making us believe that there is one issue that is more important than all the rest, and that we can sacrifice the wellbeing of our families and neighbors — especially our economically and racially marginalized neighbors — for the sake of this one issue. Many U.S. Catholics have accepted this approach, playing right into the hands of politicians who pass policies that limit our ability to care for ourselves and our families and to live in peace and safety. We are called to dismantle this injustice, with the moral clarity of Jesus in the Gospel, and nonviolently overturn the tables that distort the role of faith in politics.

In his 2024 Lent message, Pope Francis proclaims that “through the desert, God leads us to freedom.” This hope-filled claim resonates deeply with us at NETWORK, because we know bad policy, policy that ignores solidarity, often robs us of our freedom to flourish in our daily lives. Pope Francis offers, “In Lent, we find new criteria of justice and a community with which we can press forward on a road not yet taken.”

We have seen the destructive choices that people of faith make when they believe the importance of all other issues can be dismissed. May we embrace the new criteria of all that is “equally sacred” in God’s creation.

Prayer by NETWORK Advocates for Catholic Social Justice Board Chair Leslye Colvin:

Holy Triune God, you infinitely model for us what it is to dwell in right relationship.

We are in awe as we witness your unfolding in the mysteries and wonders before, beyond, and within us.
May this same awe compel us to faithfully pursue and establish right relationships in our society by participating in our local, state, and federal electoral systems.
May curiosity about the unknown lead us to explore, study, and ponder the vast range of issues facing our society, the world, and creation.
May we engage in dialogue to clarify and expand our understanding of those who have lived experiences different than our own.
May courage empower us to embrace the painful discomfort of our past, and how it impacts the lived experiences of our neighbors who dwell on the margins.
May we freely and intentionally apply the gifts of faith and reason to discern a path illumined by your compassion and mercy.
May we dare to humbly venture into the newly illumined areas of suffering with gratitude for what we see anew.
May we question quick and simple answers that neglect human suffering and our ability to faithfully form our conscience.
May we acknowledge the complexity we witness, and affirm that we cannot turn our back on it by focusing on a single issue.
May we move towards inclusion as nuance softens the hardline of dualism that simplifies reality and threatens community.
Model of Right Relationship, your servant, Francis told the people of the United States, “Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility.”

Help us to discern what is a personal responsibility, and what is a social responsibility. Amen.