26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Published: September 25, 2016

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily during confirmation Masses at St. Augustine Church in Dardanelle and St. Andrew Church in Danville on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016.

Bishop Taylor

That's basically what God is saying through the prophet Amos translated to today: 

Woe to the complacent in Zion! Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches — king-size beds — they eat lambs taken from the flock and calves from the stall (barbecue). They drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best oils (deodorant) yet are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph. Therefore, they shall be the first to go into exile, and their wanton revelry shall be done away with — their life of leisure will come to an end.

And of course the point of God's message through Amos is the same as Jesus' message in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus in today's Gospel: Open your eyes, your heart and your wallet to the needs of the poor and oppressed now, while there's still time — because otherwise God will punish you in this world and in the next.

If you ignore the poor at your doorstep: Watch out! The tables will soon be turned. We Americans live comfortably because of the exploitation of others, and not just people working almost as slaves producing cheap consumer goods in the sweatshops of far away China and India, where we feel we don’t have much control, but also right here in Arkansas.

I have already spoken out on other occasions regarding human rights and the God-given right to immigrate when circumstances so require. I continue to decry the inhumanity of those who want to pass laws designed to make life even more difficult for at least 12 million of the poorest people in our society, without whom our economy would collapse for sure.

Many of you have already heard me call for comprehensive immigration reform to correct the injustices of which our nation is guilty and create a system that reflects the economic and social realities that underlie most immigration.

But our first reading today from Amos reminds us there is actually one more element to the story we almost never hear anything about, namely: Many people in business like things just the way they are. Twelve million workers whom they can exploit easily because they lack papers.

They don’t want immigration laws to be enforced because they need the workers and they don’t want immigration laws to be changed because they would have to pay them more — and in this, American workers have a very legitimate complaint: Their wages are undercut by this cheap labor.

Comprehensive immigration reform would erase this disparity and thus benefit all workers, not just the immigrants. For instance, awhile back I visited with some people working on chicken farms in western Arkansas. I learned that some workers were being paid $200 and others $280 per week, sometimes because very rudimentary lodging was also being provided.

That’s below the minimum wage, especially when you consider they often work more than a 40-hour week. But they have no other options and life was even worse in their country of origin. They have to feed their families, so they swallow hard and endure this exploitation, and you and I benefit from it in the form of cheap chicken in the grocery store. And that’s just one example right here in Arkansas.

Woe to the complacent in Arkansas! Lying on their king-size beds, comfortable couch potatoes, they eat barbecue and drink beer and use deodorant, but are not concerned about the injustices perpetrated against their fellow human beings. Therefore, they will be the first to be punished; their life of leisure will come to an end!