Ease The Burdens

A Reflection on the Second Reading for September 26th, 2021:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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James
5.1-6

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire.

You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

The pandemic should have levelled the playing field in many ways. It showed us our mortality — our vulnerability. We were presented daily with ways to love our neighbour: feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, protecting the vulnerable. Usually, our neighbour in need is segregated and hidden from us, but the trials of the pandemic pushed them into public view. The medically vulnerable took to social media, begging those around them to make selfless choices that would protect their neighbour. Those unhoused by unscrupulous landlords formed a tent city in the middle of our downtown core. Our Church’s ministry to families received increasingly frequent requests for support for those in need of food and other necessities. Many people who believed their situation to be stable were completely destabilized.


James’ dire warning to us is a good reminder as we enter into what I hope will be a less stressful point in this global pandemic. James is reminding us not to get comfortable. To keep our eyes on those in need. To not let our riches burden us. When we are blessed with prosperity, we are not to wrap our riches around us as though they’ll insulate us from the terrors of life. In fact, those riches fatten our hearts and put scales on our eyes. Our ease is blinding. And those riches are not only material, but those of position. Do we take our privilege for granted and ignore opportunities to come alongside those whose needs are not ones we can throw money at?


As the vulnerable become increasingly invisible again, our obligation is to cast off the scales on our eyes and seek them out so that we may serve them. We are being reminded to use our platform for truth; use our material wealth to ease the burden of others. And we should do this not out of fear of the fire James is promising, but inspired by the holy fire of the Spirit which makes us burn for love of God’s children.




Stephanie Potter

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