With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Wisdom 2:19
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” Mark 9:37
Piety
Let us pray: God, you sent the rich and poor into the world. Give us the fortitude and prudence to meet the poor in spirit and thereby meet You. Grant us the fortitude to do what is just in order to walk in your light sharing all that we have – our time, our talents and our treasures – with those most in need of our help. Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today. We ask this through the inspiration and intersession of Jesus Christ, your son and our Lord and friend. Amen.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/092406.shtml
We live in a society that likes to surround itself with winners. We put the Olympic champs on the Wheaties box. We commemorate the lives of our heroes on coins and postage stamps. We buy the championship hat when our team wins (fill in the blank) a. The World Cup; b. The World Series; c. The Super Bowl; d. All of the above and more.
Even in the disciples’ time, if you were blessed with good health, abundant children or a good crop, your family offered proper praise to God.
The people in Palestine were subjected to the whims of a conquering army from Rome. So they knew what winning and power were all about. Because the words of Jesus were so counter-intuitive, is it any wonder that the disciples' did not understand Christ’s message?
Children were the symbol Jesus used for the anawim – the widows, orphans and the poor in spirit, the lowly in the Christian community. He did not use the soldiers from Rome’s occupying army. He did not use the Pharisees. He did not use the High Priests. Jesus used children, the anawin to show the path to the love of God.
The secret of the “anawim” is that God lives in all people. Jesus’ blessing in the beatitudes confirms this joyful news, turning the old expectations upside down, like the moneychangers’ tables in the Holy Temple. Jesus extends blessings on even the lowliest outcasts of society.
As Lee Ellis observes: Knowing that we are already blessed allows us to turn the other cheek with grace and dignity. We stop being victims and claim our place at the table as the prophets of the Kingdom. As you do to me, so you do to The Christ. It is a joyful mission indeed to bring such good news to the world. The choice to return good actions for evil is truly the mark of those whose very lives bears witness to that ancient truth: Love One Another, for we are all, indeed, Blessed![1]
Action
How can we help the poor in our midst? The Saturday Washington Post had another stark reminder for us with an article: “Loudoun's Other Half -- In the Richest County in America, a Food Pantry Nourishes the Hidden Poor.”[2] Reporter Darragh Johnson wrote:
The clients of Loudoun Interfaith Relief, which gave away food to 3,300 county residents in August, are in economic freefall. As they wait in line, some talk about the latest census statistics -- recent news stories about how Loudoun County's 255,500 residents are living in the single wealthiest jurisdiction in America. Its median family income is more than $98,000 a year. Half of the county's households make even more.
Everyone here is part of the half that makes less. Way less.
It could be Fairfax County. Or Arlington County. Or Prince William County. Or Washington, DC or where ewver you live. The anawim are among us and Jesus asks us all to embrace them as a way of serving Him.
[1] http://www.leeellis.com/Anawim.html
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092201753.html
1 comment:
Hello 'Keeper and all,
The time is long past to stop focusing on the symptoms and myriad details and finally seek lasting solutions. Until we address the core causes of the millennia of struggle and suffering that have bedeviled us, these repeating cycles of evil will never end.
Why do religious leaders and followers so often participate in and support blatant evil?
History is replete with examples of religious leaders and followers advocating, supporting, and participating in blatant evil. Regardless of attempts to shift or deny blame, history clearly records the widespread crimes of Christianity. Whether we're talking about the abominations of the Inquisition, Crusades, the greed and genocide of colonizers, slavery in the Americas, or the Bush administration's recent deeds and results, Christianity has always spawned great evil. The deeds of many Muslims and the state of Israel are also prime examples.
The paradox of adherents who speak of peace and good deeds contrasted with leaders and willing cohorts knowingly using religion for evil keeps the cycle of violence spinning through time. Why does religion seem to represent good while always serving as a constant source of deception, conflict, and the chosen tool of great deceivers? The answer is simple. The combination of faith and religion is a strong delusion purposely designed to affect one's ability to reason clearly. Regardless of the current pope's duplicitous talk about reason, faith and religion are the opposite of truth, wisdom, and justice and completely incompatible with logic.
Religion, like politics and money, creates a spiritual, conceptual, and karmic endless loop. By their very nature, they always create opponents and losers which leads to a never ending cycle of losers striving to become winners again, ad infinitum. This purposeful logic trap always creates myriad sources of conflict and injustice, regardless of often-stated ideals, which are always diluted by ignorance and delusion. The only way to stop the cycle is to convert or kill off all opponents or to end the systems and concepts that drive it.
Think it through, would the Creator of all knowledge and wisdom insist that you remain ignorant by simply believing what you have been told by obviously duplicitous religious founders and leaders? Would a compassionate Creator want you to participate in a system that guarantees injustice and suffering to your fellow souls? Isn’t it far more likely that religion is a tool of greedy men seeking to profit from the ignorance of followers and the strife it constantly foments? When you mix religion with the equally destructive delusions of money and politics, injustice, chaos, and the profits they generate are guaranteed.
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Peace…
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