Today, in the epistle reading, the Holy Apostle Paul reminds us that defrauding a laborer of his wages is a sin that "cries to Heaven for vengeance." These are not Paul's words, of course, but this is the expression that the Church has adopted to describe this, as well as several other sins.
The discussion of defrauding the laborer of his wages is a good opportunity for us to meditate on the various relationships in our lives and seriously consider the fact that each of those relationships impose upon us reciprocal obligations. Being a father, a spouse, an uncle, a grandparent, a friend, a citizen, even an employee or business owner is a fact that gives us certain rights, but these relationships also give others certain rights in regard to us. The exercise of the virtue of justice has to take all of these relationships with their various rights and obligations into account, in order for our behavior to be just.
Human relationships exist in the context of a net of rights and obligations only the most serious of which are protected by civil law. For example, the law makes sure that I do not deprive my neighbor of his life, his property, or, in the most extreme cases, his reputation. Yet, more often than not, the law does not intervene (and really cannot intervene) in most of the cases in which our rights are violated or we fail to fulfill our obligations. We think, for example, of the child, whose physical needs are met, but who is emotionally neglected and unloved in the context of what cannot really be called a family. The child has a right in justice to the love and support of his or her family. His or her parents are obligated in justice to provide that love and support. Nevertheless, the child has to endure; he or she is wounded by the injustice, and that wound he or she carries into adulthood. Such childhood wounds, carried into adulthood, often become the seeds of further injustice, as the adult inflicts the same injustice upon his or her children. How could he or she not? He or she has learned only a defective way of being a parent.
I once knew a woman who was raised in a home that was loveless and cruel. Her basic physical needs were met with adequate food and clothing, but her relationship with a mother who was too near in age to her was adversarial, while her father was distant and severe. Beatings could only be avoided by adhering to strict rules and becoming as invisible as possible. In the end, she became a grasping and manipulative person, intent, because of her experience, on getting whatever she could out of life for her own benefit. Fortunately for her, she met a young man who developed an affection for her. Spending time with his family showed her the possibility of a different kind of life, because the young man's parents were exceptionally caring people, who were always looking for opportunities to do loving things for others, both family members and beyond. Even from the beginning, she was essentially adopted into their family and she received some of the healing that she needed to become, one day, a parent herself.
The point of such stories for us, in the context of the Christian life, is that we must always be careful concerning our obligations towards others, obligations that are incumbent on us on account of our relationships. One of the fundamental relationships, and the one that Saint Paul is pointing out today in a special way is that between the clergy (particularly the priest) and the people. The priest has the obligation in justice to pray for the people. The people have the right in justice to his prayers. But, in a similar way, your families have a right to your prayers, especially if you are the head of a family. Your families have a right to expect that you will put yourself at the service of God for them.
Why would we begin with the obligation to prayer when considering our obligations in justice generally? Because, first, that obligation is fundamental to the Christian life, and, second, serious attention to the fulfillment of it reveals the rest of our obligations. Dialogue with God inevitably reveals what we must do. We see no other example in the Scriptures or the lives of the saints. Those who believe, but who are avoiding prayer, are probably avoiding it, because they do not want to know what they must do. Nevertheless, this avoidance does not absolve us from the fulfillment of our obligations any more than it obviates our need for prayer.
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