Do a little experiment with me: Since many of you are at your computer or on your phone right now, find your favorite Bible app (or download one, The Bible App is the one I have on my phone), or go to a searchable Bible online, (or if you are getting this at home, find a good concordance) and explore the number of scriptures that talk about justice: things like helping the poor, welcoming the stranger, caring for the sick, the vulnerable (often widows and orphans), and compare that to the number of scriptures that talk about devotion and prayer.
the Bible App
You might even do that by narrowing the search to just the gospels: how many times is Jesus actively caring about others, and how much of the time does he spend in conversation about having a personal relationship with him? After you have done that, search Amazon.com for books about faith (probably Christian Faith) and notice the number of books about a relationship with Jesus verses the number of books about justice. My hypothesis is that we will find the opposite imbalances. The amount of space the Bible devotes to concern for the poor, welcoming the stranger, etc. is much greater than the number of passages dedicated to developing a personal relationship with God.
On the other hand, the amount of writing done about faith and the life of faith seems to indicate a different emphasis. Certainly, prayer and devotion are important, vital even in the life of faith, and in the Bible. Jesus spends time away from the world around him in prayer and rest. However, the faith emphasis in our culture is very clearly on “having a personal relationship with God.” What we seem to forget most often when we get wrapped up in the personal relationship with God stuff is that our relationship with God and our relationship to others are inextricably linked (see Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, and Luke 10:25-28).
Prayer and devotion should lead us to action, as they did Jesus. Our personal relationship with God ought to bring more sharply into focus God’s desires for the world, God’s desires for justice and right-relationship. Isaiah 58:3-7 makes clearly the comparison between personal piety and action. It ends with the words, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
To be sure, we live in a difficult moment to do these things. We are having to rethink how we live life, how much more are we having to rethink the ways we live out our faith? Still, there are opportunities to serve and care, and we, the faithful, are needed now, as much as ever, to make the world a better place.