The other day, a question was posed to an unlikely group. Why are the poor served differently than the rest by the church? Isn't there the same spirit for all? A well meaning, (but I fear, naive) intellectual answered that Jesus was a counter cultural figure, and the poor aligned with the church at that its beginning for that reason. The church has since become part of the institutional life that cannot abide such a rebellion. My (rather heated) response was that, for many of us, survival is work- that one cannot have the luxury of faith or love if one has to work so very hard to keep one's life together. Faith is work- as is love. Life is hard, hard work.
So many things have diluted themselves in order to get noticed by us- churches use power point presentations (who does not get enough of those at work?) and our political candidates watch every answer they make so diligently that I don't even know if they are actually saying anything anymore.
I do not want a u2-charist. I don't want a body politic that kowtows to the opinions of us, their television audience, and not to the truth for which they work, while they watch their words with analytical precision so that we do not 'misunderstand' them. Do not come down to me- I want to work my way up to you. I want you to be larger than I am.
I think that we are all the poor. Yet, still, we know and work less than we should for what we have.
1 comment:
"I think that we are all the poor. Yet, still, we know and work less than we should for what we have."
I agree. I wish our culture weren't so focused on self promotion and one-upping and screwing the next guy.
When will we appreciate what we have and the impact our stuff has on others? When will we have enough?
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