Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Jerry Songcog SVD – Madagascar
Saturday 11th Week in Ordinary Time
Records of the antipoverty organization, Oxfam, show that 8 of the richest persons own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people in the world. It reveals not only how much wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, but also how much poverty there is due to this inequality. It shows how much the world’s wealth is unevenly distributed, with a majority of people suffering from extreme poverty.
Such situation can be remedied when those who control the world’s wealth are ready to share their riches through just wages for laborers, active support for the most vulnerable and the poor so that they have greater access to education, health benefits, housing, water and food as well as the needed jobs and capital for investments.
Without personal conversion of those in power and in control of wealth, the march towards greater human equality will remain an illusion. When money becomes a god, we forget God and the the human person to whom God has given great importance. When people are so focused on increasing their personal wealth, other people become simply means of gaining riches and are not valued.
“You cannot serve God and mammon” as the gospel says. When we worry excessively about our future and personal comfort, we tend to hoard things for ourselves, without bothering to know if others still have what they need for a living.
Converting to God is to place Him above all and to trust fully in his Fatherly care. When we give importance to God and put faith in His fatherly care, we act as real brothers and sisters to others and, thus, we become more caring.
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