Woe to You

July 17, 2007

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the river bank. Exodus 2:3

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the Day of Judgment than for you. Matthew 11:21-22

Piety

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.

Mother Teresa

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/071707.shtml

Oh to be a mother without hope for her child facing the choice of slavery or death.

Today as we recall the birth of Moses, think about many children are growing up Darfur facing a future filled with either slavery or death.

Or in Iraq, where death for innocents comes in waves of 80 today or 150 tomorrow. How many innocent children have been caught up in the invasion, insurgency and subsequent civil war?

How many of these innocent children grow up to be imprisoned in Virginia, Texas or Georgia where the death penalty may be carried out more among people of color?

How many children are kidnapped and drafted as child soldiers fighting someone else’s war across the African continent?

What woe must the mothers of these sons must share with the Levite woman whose only hope was to abandon her son in a basket afloat on the river.

Yet how insulated we are from those realities…

…insulated by our sealed up air-conditioned houses

…insulated by our economically segregated neighborhoods where all that matters is not the content of your character or the color of your skin – just the color of your money

…insulated by our jobs that protect us from encountering the poor in our secured lobbies, locked down in perpetual orange alert

…insulated behind the locked doors of our automobiles cruising around the Beltway at 80 miles per hour just to stay ahead of the Jones’ and the Smiths and everyone else who is just trying to get to point B.

…insulated by our cell phone conversations with our “Fave Five” so we would not have to make eye contact with the stranger in the grocery store or the beggar at the Metro Stop?

Action

Today over 27,000 children died from poverty and other preventable causes around the world. But that fact did not make the headlines in the Washington Post or Wall Street Journal.

Woe to you Fairfax. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Port au Prince or Kabul or Bangladesh, they would long ago have reaped many rewards. Yet for all of our comforts and creations, we take our blessings for granted. And we sell short our ability to make a real difference in America.

Let’s make today the day we do not take our situation for granted.

According to a U.N. report on the State of Human Development, the following expenditures are needed in order to assure basic needs for all people.

Global Priority

Basic education for all costs $6 billion

Water and sanitation for all costs $9 billion

Basic health and nutrition for all costs $13 billion

Today, we spend more than $8 billion on cosmetics and the U.S. and Europe spend $17 billion on pet food. The USA has grown to be one of the most powerful economies in the world and is home to some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, but 35 million American citizens live below the poverty line.

What changing priorities do you want to make in how you use your wealth? Consider making a small change and stick to it over the next 30 days. For example, pass up that $3 iced latte at Starbucks in the afternoon and put that money aside to make it an ADDITIONAL charitable gift to an organization working with the poor here or abroad. The $3 per day will add up to $15 for the week; $60 for the month and more than $700 for the year.

That $700 could furnish a village school in the developing world through Auras House (www.aurashouse.com) or another reputable charity.