The prophet Jeremiah tells us that
those who put all their trust in human beings are cursed, while those who put
their trust in the Lord are blessed. We indeed have a choice in whom we put our
trust. In Luke, we hear Jesus' parable
about the rich man who refuses to hear the cry of poor Lazarus on his doorstep;
both Lazarus and this rich man receive their due reward or punishment when they
die. Again, we are told that we have a
choice in how we treat our brothers and sister who are poor, oppressed, or marginalized
in our world. And these choices have consequences for us in the eyes of the
Lord.
We have many in our secular society who
put their trust in material possessions and living comfortable lives, who do
not wish to serve the Lord or the least of those in our society. I think that
it is so easy for us to forget that the message of our Catholic faith can
really challenge us sometimes in things we often take for grant. In this context, I remembered what some of our
great theologians say about helping others, especially how it challenges the
way in which we view personal liberties and private property in our
country. Thomas Aquinas argued that
those in desperate circumstances could even steal to satisfy their basic needs
and they would be committing no moral crime, distinguishing between our human
rights and our natural rights. The goods
of creation are here to meet the needs of all people. The common good of
humanity, the good of those who are in desperate need, is more important than
the human laws that create and protect an unfair distribution of these goods
that favors the rich. St. Ambrose
reminds the wealthy that it is the hungry man's bread that you withhold, the
naked man's cloak that you store away, the money that you bury in the earth
that is the price of the poor man's ransom and freedom.
As we listen to the choices we have in
life that are addressed in today's Scripture readings, I wonder: Do we place
our trust in the voice of God, or do we listen to the voice of secular society
that we hear so strongly in our modern world?
Like the rich man who cannot hear Lazarus crying out on his doorstep, do
we block out the cries of the poor and the abandoned who are crying out to us
in desperation?
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