Friday, 2/15/13
God, speaking through Isaiah in the First Reading, tells us
that the religious behavior he desires does not consist of fasting and of
lengthy prayers. What he asks of us is rather “releasing those who are bound unjustly, setting free the oppressed,
clothing the naked.”
That puts me in mind of a speech delivered twenty years ago by
Cardinal Bernardin, who was the archbishop of Chicago until his death in 1996.
The American Bishops Conference had just issued a pastoral
letter that told us that we should have an identical concern for the dignity of
human life both in our opposition to nuclear war and to abortion.
Cardinal Bernardin’s speech went further. He said that the
abuses mentioned by Isaiah in our First Reading, even though they did not
directly take away life, were equally offensive to our human dignity.
Cardinal Bernardin had a real catchy name for the speech
that he gave twenty years ago. He called it “The Seamless Garment.” He was
referring to the garment Jesus wore coming up to his crucifixion. It had been
woven as a complete, encircling garment that was assembled without a single
seam. You will remember how the
soldiers who crucified Jesus looked to see if they could divide the robe
at its seams, letting each of them have a panel. But since it was seamless they
rolled dice for it and one soldier took the whole garment.
Cardinal Bernardin used the seamless garment as a metaphor
for the dignity of human life. He said we should give equal attention to
combating every assault on human dignity, whether it be the denying of food,
the denying of medical care, of education, or of freedom.
While warding off assaults on human dignity by abortionists,
or by secret producers of nuclear weapons we should not be forgetful of God’s
desire that we also look out for the dignity of the needy in our midst.
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