Why God's levelling up starts now – a homily for Racial Justice Sunday

Earlier this year, the Government published its white paper on levelling-up. You may have heard of this policy? Its aim is hopefully to bring about a more equal sharing of the resources and opportunities of the nation. It seems like a good idea, for as humans we have a fundamental need to seek fairness and justice, an equality of opportunity.

In the gospels, we learn that the Lord came down from a mountain onto “level ground” – he moved from a lofty height to even ground. A place of equality, of real justice. Whatever we may think of the Government’s policy, the idea of justice is one that we as Christians take seriously, for it comes from God, who, as scripture tells us, has no favourites. He wills to see us all live lives to the full, unhindered by shackles – be they the bonds of sin, oppression, or an unjust distribution of resources.

Last Sunday was Racial Justice Sunday, and another evil that shackles humanity is the sickening sin of racism, which is utterly abhorrent before God. He who loves us equally as a tender father, will one day destroy this injustice, too. As the Gospel says, those who suffer from want now, will be given royal status in eternity; those who lack the means to support themselves today, will one day be satisfied before God; and those who weep now, will one day laugh – a laughter ringing through the halls of eternity. From the level ground of the Gospel, God himself promises a levelling up of the world, starting now, here on earth, but perfected in the world to come. 

Not only is God levelling up the world, though, He will – He is – a turning it completely upside down. We see this in His logic and wisdom, which outsmarts the wisdom of the world. We saw it last week, when we read of the call of St Paul to be an apostle. Here was a man who was persecuting the Church, even planning the murder of Christians. If Paul turned up on The Apprentice for a job as an apostle, he’d have been the first to hear Lord Sugar say, “You’re fired!” But God’s logic confounds us – He chose Paul to become the greatest missionary in the history of the Church. God chooses the least likely candidate, to confound human logic. We see the same in the life of Mary – who else but God would have chosen an inconsequential girl from the north country to be his own Mother? A nobody from a nowhere town to become the Queen of Heaven.

God, therefore, not only levels up the playing field of life – He turns the whole world upside down. Those who laugh now will soon mourn, those with plenty will lose it all; for we are all going to taste death – that great leveller. But those who have put their trust in the undying God will inherit a world that makes this one, as beautiful and wonderful as it is, seem like a speck of nothingness.

The first reading from last Sunday speaks of the joy that fills those who rely on the eternal promises of God. Nothing can take this happiness away from us – no pain, no persecution, no material disaster. Not placing our trust in the fleeting things of this world alone, our life is hidden in God, who truly seeks our good, who shares our suffering, and who promises us life that never ends, and even the opportunity to become saints, co-heirs of heaven. He levels up our humanity, replacing sin with sanctity. Like a tree that never withers, never consumed by fear, even when the drought comes, we who love God trust in His promises; that He will level up all things. Like St Paul in the second reading, we have put our faith in a supernatural reality – that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, that we are made for eternal life.

If we preached a merely material Gospel, we would be the most miserable of losers – completely deluded, having missed the whole point of life. But, we are not the deluded ones, for we believe in the reality of justice and love, in a God who seeks our good not only in this brief spasm of life, but in the glorious never-ending world to come. For where our leader, Jesus, has gone, there we, too, dare to follow.

So, my brothers and sisters, let us pray for those who seek to strengthen the ideals of justice and equity in this world, those who wish to see all people receive a fair share of the life God so generously bestows upon all of us. It is a good thing to seek, pleasing in the sight of heaven. But let us also remember that despite the wonder and the mystery of this world, we are ultimately called on to higher ground, to place our hope in an unseen treasure that awaits us above this plane existence. Yes, God’s levelling up starts now. Justice is to be achieved today; love is conquering hearts here on earth. But our hopes do not end here; we believe in a God who has conquered death, in a Lord who is truly risen! We are not the most unfortunate of creatures. No, we are the ones who can truly proclaim, “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”

And if our tears have not been wiped away in this life, if justice has not been done to us here on this plane, then in the Kingdom of Heaven, God himself will dance for joy with us, as He Himself fulfils His promise to see justice done, and to set us free to live life, and to live it to the full.

Fr Gildas Parry O.Praem is a recently ordained priest and a member of the Premonstratensian canonry of Our Lady of Sorrows and St Philip, Chelmsford. He is currently undertaking postgraduate studies in Psychology.