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Today's gospel was on the beatitudes (Luke 6:17, 20-26). I was in the
midst of putting together a 10-minute presentation on HUNGER for a
hunger lunch at a local school on Ash Wednesday. This made it hard to
read the front page article of today's paper reporting that some of
the world's wealthiest food lovers flew to Thailand to indulge in a
dinner which carried a price tag of $25,000 US a head. Tax and
gratuities (and airfare) not included.
In an article entitled "Rich are getting richer, the poor are poorer
- yet Jesus invites the poor into the reign of God before everyone
else", I was reminded that gross inequality between rich and poor has
been a theological concern since Old Testament prophets Isaiah and
Amos harangued Israel's ruling class centuries before Christ. The
earliest Christian theologians saw the moral decay of the Roman
Empire as the fruit of a growing chasm between rich and poor. They
urged Christians to avoid employing too many servants, or indulging
in grotesquely wasteful banquets and other displays of wealth.
The welcome and hospitality with which the simplest fare is offered
often makes a banquet. Dawn Williams' grandfather arrived in Chahal,
Guatemala, driving from North Carolina - an extremely difficult trip
even for those much younger - late one rainy and dark night - we had
no electricity then. When he awoke in the Fathers' house next
morning, Dawn and I offered him a breakfast of eggs, beans, and
tortillas. He said it was the best meal he had ever eaten. At noon we
woke him up, to join us for lunch at the Annex, the house where we
lived with 8 or more volunteers. There were eggs, beans and
tortillas. Again, he thanked everyone and assured them that it was
the best meal ever. At dinner time we drove up to the Sisters' house
for dinner. Guess what? We had eggs, beans and tortillas. And Levi
said: "The food is so good in Guatemala. This is the best meal, I've
ever had."
Many people in Central America don't have eggs and beans. I've often
heard people talk of only having tortillas with salt. I never figured
out the "salt." May be it makes you less hungry.
In Pope Benedict's first letter - Deus Caritas Est - God is Love - he
wrote: "Within the community of believers there can never be room for
a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life."
At church this morning we sang: "We are the face of God, the
reflection of God's Light, the mirror of God's Love." This is what I
saw in an article in the last section of today's paper. A Vietnamese
woman came to the USA to look for her son who had left 20 years
earlier as a boat person. Over the years, she had received news from
him but then the letters stopped and she decided to go to the USA to
find him. As I read this moving story, all I could think of was the
story of the Prodigal Son except here God is a Mother. (The story is
from the Los Angeles Times. It is by Mai Tran and Christopher
Goffard. Here in Edmonton it was entitled "Desperate mom defies odds.
It someone finds a link for it please pass it along. It not, I would
be pleased to photocopy it and mail it)
Cecily
P.S. Referring back to the January 29 reflection, someone wrote:
"Just picked up this reflection, and want to share with you what the
Pastor of a church in Florida said after the hurricane struck there
and their new church was demolished. a reporter said, "I suppose you
will not have church now that the church is no more?" the Pastor
replied, "Of course we'll have church. The PEOPLE are the church!"
