In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples of his coming death and resurrection. (During His life He does this on at three occasions, and they do not understand). He then tries to explain that the duty of a leader and a believer is to serve the ‘least’ of these.
Jesus puts a young child in the center of the group and says, “Anyone who welcomes one of these children in my name, welcomes me.” In the time of Jesus, children were completely powerless. The child in this story represents a person without power; a person easily controlled, abused or neglected. Jesus is talking about the powerless, the marginalized and those dependent upon others for their very survival.
Jesus tells us to welcome this person as we would welcome Him. How would I welcome Jesus? I would be respectful. I would be humble. I would take great care to offer Him the best that I have to give. I would seek knowledge.
We must give, talk, and feed the powerless with the same respect and humility that we would give, talk and feed Jesus. It is not enough to help the marginalized. We must welcome them the way we would welcome Jesus. We must do so with the same speed with which we would come to Jesus. If Jesus returned to earth today, we would rush to that place and welcome Him. We know where the powerless are and we must rush to them with the same speed with which we would rush to Jesus.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Amid one of Mexico's worst economic downturns . . .
AP Associated Press Writer – Tue. Sep 8, 10:48 p.m. ET
"The president said the government will turn more attention to the poor amid one of Mexico's worst economic downturns since the 1930s".
On the border some people are being hired at the factories, other factories remain closed. The people remain optimistic and hopeful. The peso that used to worth a dime is now worth 7 cents. This is an improvement over February, but prices continue to rise and the only thing the people understand is that the peso buys less every time they read new reports about the economy in the United States.
There continues to be very few (often none) tourists in the border-cities. The other main source of employment are the factories. A year ago, people talked about the absolute need for a just wage. Today they just hope for any wage.
A year ago, when we returned to a family living in a card-board house we sometimes saw that some of the food we delivered the previous week was still on a shelf. Today, the shelf is bare.
Mexico's President just proposed the cutting of three cabinet posts, a tax reduction on certain foods and a tax increase on alcohol and tobacco. His proposals would result in huge government savings. (Cabinet posts have huge staffs.) However, the proposals must be approved by the Mexican Congress.
In the meantime, the average mother and father do not know where to turn. Nor do the hundreds of thousands of teens that graduate last year.
"The president said the government will turn more attention to the poor amid one of Mexico's worst economic downturns since the 1930s".
On the border some people are being hired at the factories, other factories remain closed. The people remain optimistic and hopeful. The peso that used to worth a dime is now worth 7 cents. This is an improvement over February, but prices continue to rise and the only thing the people understand is that the peso buys less every time they read new reports about the economy in the United States.
There continues to be very few (often none) tourists in the border-cities. The other main source of employment are the factories. A year ago, people talked about the absolute need for a just wage. Today they just hope for any wage.
A year ago, when we returned to a family living in a card-board house we sometimes saw that some of the food we delivered the previous week was still on a shelf. Today, the shelf is bare.
Mexico's President just proposed the cutting of three cabinet posts, a tax reduction on certain foods and a tax increase on alcohol and tobacco. His proposals would result in huge government savings. (Cabinet posts have huge staffs.) However, the proposals must be approved by the Mexican Congress.
In the meantime, the average mother and father do not know where to turn. Nor do the hundreds of thousands of teens that graduate last year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)