The mid term elections are finally over here in the USA. Pope Leo’s Wednesday reflections on Vatican II could not come at a better time. He called for Christians to revive their understanding of the social doctrine of the church:

“The Council Fathers highlight, first of all, the threat to world peace deriving from the imbalances linked to an economic development that is neither equitable nor respectful of creation (cf. GS, 63). This is a far-sighted vision, which was unfortunately borne out towards the end of the last century and which we see even more clearly today. To correct this course, the Document warns, technical progress alone is not enough: “many reforms in the socioeconomic realm and a change of mentality and attitude are required of all” (ibid.).

Therefore, Gaudium et Spes summarizes the Christian vision of economic development, which must always be at the service of humankind and under human control (cf. GS, 64–65). The concept of integral development is already clearly evident here, a concept which Saint Paul VI would later place at the heart of his Encyclical Populorum Progressio (1967). More relevant than ever are the appeals to commit to eliminating discrimination against the most vulnerable social groups and migrants (cf. GS, 66).

The heart of the economy is work. Through it, one develops as a person, provides for family needs, expresses one’s own talent, participates in social life and builds a better world by collaborating in God’s creative work. Work must never be distorted to the detriment of people, the common good or creation. The real challenge is to offer everyone opportunities to make the most of their abilities: unemployment, exploitation and working conditions that endanger health and life itself are unacceptable (cf. GS, 67). Workers have the right and the duty to participate in decisions affecting their work, including through trade unions, resolving conflicts through dialogue and non-violent action (cf. GS, 68).

In this context, the Council recalls one of the fundamental principles of social teaching, namely the universal destination of earthly goods (cf. GS, 69) and applies it to the financial sphere, stating that “whoever makes decisions concerning these investments and the planning of the economy – whether they be individuals or groups of public authorities – are bound … to recognize their serious obligation of watching, on the one hand, that provision be made for the necessities required for a decent life both of individuals and of the whole community and, on the other, of looking out for the future and of establishing a right balance between the needs of present-day consumption, both individual and collective, and the demands of investing for the generation to come” (GS, 70).

Gaudium et Spes then goes on to discuss the political community, noting several positive developments in the contemporary era, above all the fact that “the present keener sense of human dignity has given rise in many parts of the world to attempts to bring about a politico-juridical order which will give better protection to the rights of the person in public life” (GS, 73).

The political community exists for the sake of the common good, which consists of “the sum of those conditions of the social life whereby men, families and associations more adequately and readily may attain their own perfection” (GS, 74). The exercise of political authority must always be directed towards the common good, which must be structured and operate according to local and historical circumstances, but always with the good of the entire human family at heart (cf. ibid.).

Gaudium et Spes reiterates that “the Church and the political community in their own fields are autonomous and independent from each other. Yet both, under different titles, are devoted to the personal and social vocation of the same men. The more that both foster sounder cooperation between themselves with due consideration for the circumstances of time and place, the more effective will their service be exercised for the good of all” (GS, 76).

Dear friends, engaging in economic and political life in accordance with these criteria is a way of building peace. As Pope Francis recalled, “war is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil” (Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti, 261). On the contrary, politics that tends to the wounds of peoples and of those who suffer injustice offers grounds for hope for the future of humanity.

For this reason, I encourage young people to follow the example of those men and women who have borne faithful witness in these fields. And I renew my call to Christian communities to revive formation in the social doctrine of the Church.

Our first reading at Mass this week is taken mostly from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. St. Luke describes Paul’s mission to Philippi, ” a leading city in the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony”, in the 16th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. “We spent some time in that city” , Luke says, indicating he’s describing something he knows firsthand. It was a dramatic and fruitful stay.

Paul encounters Lydia, “a dealer in purple” at the place along the river where women prayed. She listened to his message and asked for baptism for herself and her household. She also convinced Paul and his companion to stay at her house, which became a house church. Women play a major role in the spread of the gospel.

Paul also encountered persecution in Philippi when he was accused of causing businesses to fail because of a cure he worked. ” The magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake. ( Acts 16:22-24)

An earthquake broke the walls of the prison and the jailor, fearing the prisoners had escaped, was ready to kill himself. The earthquake led to his conversion along with his household – another house church in Philippi. It also led to Paul’s exoneration by the fearful magistrates of Philippi.

Commentators describe Paul’s warm relationship with the Philippians. It looks like a lot of important people there were on his side, or at least very respectful of his mission. They say he wrote this letter– to Lydia’s house and the jailor’s household– from prison, either in Rome, Ephesus or Caesaria.

Paul had his share of prisons during his ministry. That experience and others like it convinced him to see his life in the light of the suffering Christ. He told the Philippians they were granted “for the sake of Christ, not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him. Yours is the same struggle as you saw in me and now hear about me.”  (Philippians 1, 29-39)

Have the mind of Christ, Paul tells them– and us– in this important passage, probably from an early Christian hymn:

Have among yourselves the same attitude 
that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and, found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2, 6-10)

This passage occurs often in the church’s  prayer tradition. On Palm Sunday, it’s read as Jesus enters Jerusalem to suffer and die on the cross. In the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church’s daily prayer, it’s read each Saturday evening. The passage even appears before Christmas, a reminder that from the beginning Jesus accepted the weakness of “human likeness.” Unlike Adam who grasped for equality with God, Jesus humbled himself. 

We follow Jesus from birth to death and then to resurrection. It’s not a grim unhappy journey. Commentators on the Letter to the Philippians call it a “Letter of Joy.” Having the mind of Christ make life a journey to glory. 

About 22,000 years ago, the Laurentine Glacier began its retreat from North America. Our hill looking southeast to the Flatlands and the Atlantic Ocean is its terminal moraine, the last icy outpost of the glacier’s advance. Clover grew on Clover Hill as plants and trees gradually replaced the cover of ice. Birds, animals, finally humans followed the glacier’s retreat.

By the late 19th century, Clover Hill, just up from the village of Jamaica, was uninhabited.

A photo today offers a different picture from our hill. A banner promises high quality used cars on busy Hillside Avenue below. Planes climb into the sky from Kennedy Airport. New apartment buildings crowd around the nearby station for the F train.

Billions of years before ice covered this hill, earth’s journey began. Where is it headed now? How will we take part in its journey?   Is it just a few years about me? We won’t be here forever. We’re part of God’s great plan.

“I saw a new heaven and a new earth; I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God.” (Revelations 21: 1-2)

We are blessed with an ancient stand of trees on our land surrounded by a crowded city. They brought stability to a land bound by ice long ago. They bring needed relief to us today.

Thomas Merton looking out at small pocket forests like ours from his monastery in Kentucky called them “the fifth column of the original forest that wants to return.” Once, by natural right, our land belonged to trees. Now, we welcome them for absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and water from floods. They offer shade from the sun. Going into the future, we do not have enough of them.

Different as they are, their roots communicate, scientists say. They crowd together offering strength and support to each other as they reach for the light.

“Learn from the fig tree and all the trees,” Jesus said. ( Luke 21:29 ) More of our learning needs to come from the trees.

we are “being built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord…” (Ephesians 2: 19-22)

Every month we celebrate a feast of an apostle. St. Cyril of Alexandria calls the apostles messengers to the world.

” Our Lord Jesus Christ has appointed certain men to be guides and teachers of the world and stewards of his divine mysteries. Now he bids them to shine out like lamps and to cast out their light not only over the land of the Jews but over every country under the sun and over people scattered in all directions and settled in distant lands.”

Jesus called his church to embrace people from every nation, time and place. The monthly celebration of apostles reminds us that our church is called to that mission.

We belong to a church described as a building, not a complete building, but one “being built.” It is a house meant for all the peoples of the world. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, holding everything together and ensuring it grows to the “sacred temple of the Lord.” The apostles and prophets are its foundation stones.

We may not see the church in our part of the world growing. It looks like it’s falling apart. Yet our church is bigger than we think. Its influence is growing worldwide. It is growing numerically worldwide. We see only part of the church.

The apostles brought their message to all the earth. Accounts of their missionary journeys may not all be historically true, but they were convinced of their universal mission. The apostles call us to this same universal mission.

“We have inherited heaven along with the apostles.” “On the foundations stones of the heavenly Jerusalem, the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are written,” That’s where we are headed, but now we see only so much..