May Day: St. Joseph the Worker Day - International Workers' Day
Food for thought:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man... (James 5:1-6 RSV)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I give my advice: it is best for you now to complete what a year ago you began not only to do but to desire, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not. I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, "He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack." (II Corinthians 8:9-15 RSV emphasis added)
2 comments:
Speaking within the context of the Christian community (which I believe St. Paul was), the ideal and concept of equality and charity has been and continues to be realized to one degree or another, both individually and collectively.
However, the world operates under a different set of rules than does the Christian community.
The rules of the world are, I think, best summed up in the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition (of Star Trek lore); a few are of especial note:
ROA# 10 Greed is eternal.
ROA# 9 Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.
ROA# 21 Never place friendship above profit.
ROA# 6 Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity.
ROA# 23 Nothing is more important than your health - except for your money.
And the First Rule of Acquisition:
Once you have their money, you never give it back.
These are the worlds rules.
We may not have to play by them but we do have to live in the world where they are active.
And to think we can effect some sort of ideal equality by utilizing the coercive powers of government is folly.
As C.S. Lewis commented, "No one who says 'I'm as good as you' believes it himself."
The only equality that exists in this world exists in the size of one's bank account.
And it will continue to be so until our Lord returns and makes all things new.
PAX,
Mother +C.
My reply is here.
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