Today’s second reading gives us picture that we may have some familiarity with but I think we need to update it a bit. The picture is discrimination against the poor. Obviously, St. James is questioning a common practice throughout the ages as exalting the rich while rejecting the poor with trepidation. So people kow tow to the rich, while leaving the poor to fend for themselves. In the passages following, St. James reminds his readers that although they favor the rich, the rich are the first to turn on them.
But you dishonored the poor person. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court? Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you? However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. James 2:6-8 NABRE
Today, I witness a different kind of prejudice and it works exactly the same way. It is a kind of idolatry of the educated. Now you need to know, this is not against those who are educated, remember, I have Master’s degree and among places where I studied to get that degree is Harvard University. So, I am not pointing figures at them, I am pointing fingers at us if we exalt them to a spot they do not belong while looking down upon the less educated.
James’ basic point is that God works through the rich and poor. He also says that God strengthens the faith of the poor to bring greater faith to the rich. However, what people do not know is that the same relationship exists between the educated and the uneducated.
Jesus prays in Matthew 11:25 (NABRE):
I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.
What is important to understand is the difference between wisdom and education. You can study your Bible from cover to cover and you see will nothing in there that will indicate to you the structure of the DNA molecule. It is not there, because the Bible, the Word of God and the teachings of the Church are about wisdom and not education. The Bible is not a scientific textbook, so Genesis is should not to be taught as the science behind creation.
The Bible and the teachings of the Church teach us wisdom so the words of Genesis when understood in the realm of wisdom give us not only a blueprint for our lives but teach us who we are as human beings for we are God’s creation. That is clearly understood in the Pope’s latest encyclical, which by the way is not about global warming, but about living our faith in the realm of the wisdom of creation. You do not learn that in a classroom that rejects God. The Pope’s encyclical is also about what happens when we do not live in that realm.
So, the difference between someone who has a Ph.D and rejects God and one who has a high school diploma and embraces God is the difference between the wise and the unwise regardless of education. The Ph.D who rejects God and there are plenty of Ph.D’s who are believers so that is not to be general assumption, is one who sees the world without faith and can only understand a world of atoms and molecules laws and punishment.
Let us take an example: The court case from last week in New Hampshire in which a student was convicted of having some form of sexual experience with an underaged freshman. The school is Christian, but not a Catholic school. Any report, I saw, focused on whether their actions were legal. Granted it was a courtroom which is where legal questions are answered, but wisdom brings up that this was a sin. That truth was not addressed at all.
So we have educated people who do not understand sin. What is the fruit, a morality that teaches that what is consensual is good and what is not consensual is bad. No standard of right or wrong, good or bad, godlike or evil. Just, what is good for me right now. In a legal standard if what happened was consensual no laws were broken, but in a standard of faith, even if consensual you had an act of sin and against God. The fruit of following the legal standard and not the faith standard is two damaged lives and a prestigious school that has a to do some PR work to explain that what came out as a result of the court reporting is not their policy.
Education teaches us how improve ourselves and the world around us, wisdom teaches us who we are to the ontological level, which means to the core of our being. This is where the clash happens. If we reject God then we also reject the most profound definition of who we are to the deepest level of our being. Everything we do and are without God is limited to the temporal sphere alone. However, if we embrace education without faith, then the ideas that should be limited to the temporal sphere clash with those of the ontological.
Let me give you an example: The story this summer of the harvesting of the unborn for scientific experimentation. What kind of people can look at what was an unborn child in a completely clinical manner. One who can do the same to you. If you stand in the way of human progress, you need to changed or eliminated. Why, because you have no ontological value because in the minds of these people there is no such thing as the ontological because ontological has to do with who we are as being and these people only thing what we can accomplish in the progress of the race. Being does not exist in their understanding. A fetus is not a person and after all what is a person? That is the world you enter when you reject the ontological.
This is precisely the kind of relationship James addresses. People will walk all over the uneducated to learn what a Ph.D in Russian literature has to say about the economy. James will say to you that you are prejudiced against the wise who are uneducated. While the Ph.D in Russian literature tries to silence your ability to practice your faith.
It is the wise person, educated or not who can teach you about knowing Christ and when you know of Christ you have a deeper understanding of learning who you truly are and your destiny in eternal life. The non-believing Doctorate in Mitochondria can teach you many things, but he can never help you understanding what your true destiny is except that in his mind it is in the ground. Why? because his vision is limited despite his education for he can only see and know a world of atoms and molecules law and punishments and you know a universe much bigger than even that.
Beware of the prejudice rooted in the words of James for the 21st Century, the prejudice of those who favor the Ph.D over the wise but uneducated. One can teach you how to do brain surgery, the other can teach you how to love those who hate you. If you find the one who can do both, you have a true find.
God Bless You,
Fr. Robert J Carr
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find on Youtube. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on Podomatic and here on Catholicismanew. You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google Plus as +Fr. Robert Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook