Opting for Clarity

by Dan Masterton

Over my years of ministry and teaching theology, as well as pursuing my own personal spiritual life, I’ve noticed that the cohesion and coherence of Catholic teaching is a major frustration to both Catholics and skeptics/critics alike. A two-thousand year Tradition that draws on the Scriptures and is animated by centuries of ardently lived faith calls us to a lot. As society evolves and social issues emerge, Catholic Social Teaching has a clear voice that tries to show us just how the Spirit calls us to respond.

One of the clarion calls of CST is the Preferential Option. Through this teaching, Christ calls us to intentionally and specifically consider the situation of people on the margins in all decisions we make personally, communally, and socially. This is not convenient. This is not comfortable.

I remember doing a very basic primer on some CST to pre-Confirmation 8th grade students. I used the imperfect analogy of a very large house to try to introduce the idea of just possession. I told them that if you choose to have a ten-bedroom house but only need four bedrooms for your family that the other six bedrooms should be readily available and open to others in need. One student, presumably exposed to significant wealth at home, bristled, asking, “But what if you’ve worked hard to earn your money and buy your big house or your nice car?” I told her that hard work is valuable but that it doesn’t change the nature of possessions and common good. She was personally insulted by this challenge.

Preferential option is a teaching whose call will fundamentally agitate most of us, especially those us of well steeped in American ideals that drive us to maximize our compensation, secure status well beyond stability, and accumulate wealth and possessions as we want. It’s something I come to understand more and more deeply as I move further into parenthood, marriage, and family life; it’s especially clear as I continue to manage the finances for our little family, which we hope will grow over time. As I think about the big budget items and financing we’ll eventually need, I don’t want much beyond a stable home with some value, a second car to ease our logistics, and the ability to travel to see friends. I hope we can make steady contributions to retirement investments and education funds for our children, but beyond that I don’t have much of a wish list.

I don’t know how common of a sentiment this would be among you, dear readers, but I think, in the grand scheme of things, I’d rather be a smidge poor, or at least getting by just enough, than rich. Maybe that’s a DUH! sort of statement. But for me, until a few years ago, I wanted the highest salary I could get (and sort of still do) and the most robust financial situation I could get. The more I live adult and family life, the more I realize that my focus is increasingly shifting to presence and freedom in the day-to-day of life. I know a lot of that freedom to choose such focuses only comes with the stability of economic security, but the bit that I’ve gained so far is just about all I actively desire.

As I see peers and contemporaries buying sizeable or high-valued homes, living crowded lives, and navigating demanding though handsomely compensated careers, I don’t feel jealous. I like having just enough to pay the bills, save a bit for ourselves and our kids, and live the rest month by month with a handful of dollars kicked toward savings. I know the having pressures of unemployment and heavier debts would change my mindset, but for now, I am grateful to have reached this initial point of basic, minimal stability.

This past Sunday, the Gospel reading invited us to the confrontation between Jesus and the “Rich Young Man”:

As Jesus was setting out on a journey,
a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: 
You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,"
You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. 

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,"How hard it is for those who have wealthto enter the kingdom of God!"The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
t is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
"Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God."

I frequently think of this story as I recall the students who have met the challenges of CST with disdain. I think some of my students would find resonance with the young man in the Gospel, who felt he lived his faith correctly but remained deeply tied to his possessions. As our delightful Franciscan priest preached on this Gospel at my parish, I was hoping he’d incorporate the witness of the great Saint Oscar Romero, drawing on Romero’s advocacy for the working class campesinos who were oppressed and executed by the rich, powerful military-government alliance. While father did not explicitly cite Romero, the message resonated with Saint Oscar’s life witness.

Saint Oscar may have been a bit hesitant to ramp up his advocacy completely, nervous for the friction he’d create or the ire he’d invite, but ultimately, he sacrificed his own stability and prestige and decided to act with the marginalized of society at the fore of his mind. I think his thought process exemplifies the core of the Preferential Option. Before we can entertain our selfish desires for luxury, comfort, or more, we must first consider those who our society has pushed aside. Whenever I invoke the lives of the saints to myself or others, I always point out that even if we aren’t called to the degree of witness some saints were (like martyrdom) we are called to the same ideals we see in their exemplary lives of faith.

For me, this has come in a changed mindset about my own life’s arc. I’m not aiming for the biggest house, the nicest car, or the highest salary. I’m seeking enough stability for my family to be steady and reliably fed and housed and set up to thrive with education, health care, and opportunities for growth. Right now, that means sacrificing half my earning power and being a part-time stay-at-home dad; while we’d come out a bit further ahead if I worked full-time and we paid daycare, we prefer the reduced income and the increased familial stability and well-being. I don’t know that this equation is universally applicable to all people and all families, but it’s a window into our thought process. My decisions in this way won’t impact a national civil war or unfurl complex social structures; instead, they’re smaller ways I try to keep my heart anchored in the right harbor and try to ground my decisions and actions in just ideals.

From there, I think my improved presence to my family and my faith primes me to be more intentional about opting for those on the margins. We set aside a monthly budget line to support an organization that does something for and with marginalized people. My daughter and I are starting to find small ways to be more hands-on in service and accompaniment, like our parish’s upcoming scarf tie activity. And I can form young people, both at work and in my family, in the Catholic Social Tradition and accompany them in learning more and accompanying those on the margins. I’ve found that life keeps delivering opportunities for me to more intentionally engage with the Preferential Option, and I hope I can keep responding earnestly.

* * *

Here’s an archive of some of my reflections on Preferential Option:

Jan. 2016: This Option Isn’t Optional, Dude

Jul. 2016: Opting for Black Lives

Apr. 2017: How to Persevere through the Quagmire

Sept. 2017: Like When One of Your Kids Is Sick

Nov. 2017: Encounter

Jun. 2018: More Isn’t Better