Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle
Sirach,
Chapter 29, Verse 7
Many
refuse to lend, not out of meanness, but from fear of being cheated
needlessly.
The lending of money was part of the cycle
of life for a righteous Jew. Even today a good person may be afraid of being
cheated by a charity with charity executives
being some of the highest paid people or from a quote “homeless” holding a sign
up that says: “Why lie: I still get high” “Help” “God Bless”.
Lending
and Love: A Jewish Approach to Loans[1]
Tracee Rosen suggests that the Torah
provides a system of social engineering in its complex laws of land management
and interest-free loans. Every seven years the land was to lie fallow and debts
were cancelled. In the meantime it was forbidden for Jews to charge one another
interest when lending money. Tracee Rosen writes, “Both are social engineering
policies designed to forestall widening the chasm between the haves and the
have-nots in society. Helping the poor become more self-sufficient through
these two policies also meant a reduction in the number of Jews who would be
required to sell themselves into indentured servitude to repay their debts.”
That said we confront a variety of complex problems in the practical
application of these laws both in ancient and modern times. While borrowing was
the last resort in an agrarian society lending and borrowing of money took on
commercial significance in a society that was built upon business and the
exchange of capital rather than agriculture. The sages came up with ingenious
strategies for circumventing the prohibition against lending money with
interest while trying to maintain the spirit if not the letter of the law. At
the heart of these practices was a deep belief that property is not ours
unconditionally and that we have a responsibility to share our resources with
others. From the perspective of the Bible and the sages lending money to fellow
Israelites in times of difficult economic straits was an “act of righteousness
and kindness.” And yet to loan funds without some type of system of interest
became untenable over time. The sages wondered how to balance righteousness
with a stable economy.
We are left to wonder whether these ingenious
strategies circumvent the law or capture the spirit of the law. If we are but
stewards of God’s wealth we must ask ourselves what our responsibilities are to
others.
Halakhah L’ma-aseh
·
The key to understanding these texts from the Torah
properly is that they all suppose the act of lending money to fellow Israelites
in times of difficult economic straits to be an act of righteousness and
kindness. And indeed, we are commanded multiple times in the Torah to behave
righteously toward strangers, poor people, orphans and widows. The Observant
Life, pp.556
·
Giving gifts of charity, of course, is one way to
help the poor and powerless. But the Torah seems to recognize at least tacitly,
that almost all people will be capable of lending far greater sums of money
than they will be able to give away outright as charitable gifts.-The Observant
Life, pp. 557
·
It is crucial to remember that the biblical view of
lending is rooted in the assumption that loans function primarily in society as
a means for the wealthy to assist people in dire economic circumstances.-The
Observant Life, pp. 558
·
In our day, there are special societies that exist
to facilitate lending money to Jews as an act of charity, but the reality in
our world is that most loans are sought from banks or other lending
institutions as commercial enterprises rather than acts of charity. The
Observant Life, pp. 560
·
The prohibition against taking interest from
another Jew was taken so seriously that the Talmud actually rules that
participating in such a loan represents a transgression not only for the lender
and the borrower, but also for the guarantor, the witnesses and even the
scribe...nonetheless, as the financial realities of the medieval period
changed, some sort of device was required whereby merchants and business people
could borrow money in order to finance their business...referred to as torat
iska (business law), the document restructures what we would normally
understand as a loan into a kind of business partnership. The Observant Life,
pp. 560
·
At the deepest level, these laws are a powerful
translation of the dogmatic notion that everything we own ultimately belongs to
God from the realm of pious ideas into the world of real people and their very
real needs, Being willing to release a loan, therefore, is a kind of tacit
acknowledgement that all wealth is on loan from the Creator anyway!-The
Observant Life, pp. 564
·
In general, the Jewish attitude toward individual
wealth can be summed up by these words from the first verse of the twenty
fourth psalm: "The earth is the Eternal's and all it contains." And
indeed, from the Jewish perspective, we are merely the conservators and
stewards of the wealth that ultimately belongs to God.
Feast of the conversion of St. Paul[2]
Sometime after the death of Our Lord, St. Paul returned to Palestine. His profound conviction made his zeal develop to a religious fanaticism against the infant Church. He took part in the stoning of the first martyr, St. Stephen, and in the fierce persecution of the Christians that followed. Entrusted with a formal mission from the high priest, he departed for Damascus to arrest the Christians there and bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was nearing Damascus, about noon, a light from heaven suddenly blazed round him. Jesus with His glorified body appeared to him and addressed him, turning him away from his apparently successful career. An immediate transformation was wrought in the soul of St. Paul. He was suddenly converted to the Christian Faith. He was baptized, changed his name from Saul to Paul, and began travelling and preaching the Faith. He was martyred as an Apostle in Rome around 65 AD.
What do we learn from this history?[3]
Not to despise any sinner, nor to despair of his salvation: for, like Paul on
the road to Damascus, the greatest sinner may, by the grace of God, be suddenly
converted, and become a saint. At the command of God he accepted Ananias as his
leader in the way of salvation, and became as zealous for the honor of Christ
as he had previously been intent on persecuting Him. In like manner, a convert
must shut his eyes to all by which he has heretofore been led astray, and must
give heed to that only which God commands.
Today try and be 100%
for God.
As
iron, cast into the fire, loses its rust and becomes bright with the flame, so
too a man who turns his whole heart to Me is purified and all sluggishness and
changed into a new man.[4]
Who am I, Lord, that I
should be considered by You: I AM WHO AM.
Like Paul we must be fearless in proclaiming the
gospel.
“Go
into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be
saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mk. 16:15-16)
The Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity[5]
Day 8, He will gather the dispersed… from the four
corners of the earth
Scripture
·
Isaiah
11:12-13,
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be hostile towards
Ephraim.
·
Psalm
106:1-14 & 43-48, Gather us to give thanks to your Holy Name.
·
Ephesians
2:13-19,
He has broken down the dividing wall.
·
John
17:1-12,
I have been glorified in them.
Meditation
Throughout the biblical narrative of salvation history, an unmistakable
motif is the unrelenting determination of the Lord to form a people whom God
could call God’s own. The formation of such a people – a united covenanted
people – is integral to God’s plan of salvation and to the glorification and
hallowing of God’s name.God’s covenanted people must be a reconciled community – one which itself is an effective sign to “all the peoples of the earth.” The prophets repeatedly reminded Israel that the covenant demanded that this relationships should be characterized by justice, compassion and mercy. Like Israel, the Church in its quest for unity is called to be both a sign and an active agent of reconciliation.
Prayer
Lord, we humbly ask that, by your grace, the churches throughout the world
may become instruments of your Peace. Through their joint action as ambassadors
and agents of your healing, reconciling love among divided peoples, may your
name be hallowed and glorified. Amen.
Daily
Devotions
·
Please pray for me and this ministry
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