The revolutionary message of Jesus will change the world
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By: Father Shay Cullen
The list of the world’s billionaires has been published by Forbes Magazine a publication that tracks the astounding wealth of individuals around the world. There are 793 of them now, 102 more than last year. Three of them are Filipinos. Every member of the congress save a few, are millionaires several times over. How can there be such wealth admits untold poverty? Thousands are leaving family and friends to work abroad to earn a decent wage.
In the poverty stricken Philippines (80 percent Catholic), an estimated 65 percent of the population are living below the poverty line and 2 percent own or control 70 percent of the wealth. The expanding gap between rich and poor in the developing world is the scourge of the sensitive and enlightened Christian conscience. Young people demand to know why there is poverty, so much injustice and inequality in the world where Christianity has been so prevalent and supposedly persuasive for over 2000 years. Has it failed to change the world and if so, why?
Perhaps history has an answer. Is it because after the first few hundred years of Christianity, the real message of Jesus was compromised. The rich and the powerful knew that they had to stop this dangerous belief that the poor had dignity and rights and were more important than the rich and system that kept them in power.
They realised how the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth was uniting and empowering the masses of the poor even in Rome and so they repressed it through persecution by throwing the Christians to the lions and the gladiators. When that failed, they strove to absorb and assimilate Christianity so as to stifle and reinterpret it to support and justify their oppressive and unjust society. Authoritarianism came to rule instead of love and service. The Christians came to wash the feet of the rulers and not those of the poor.
The revolutionary message of Jesus was then overshadowed by the secular trappings of earthly power that bled the Church of much of its spiritual power and mission to transform society. Even the Pope went to war. Eventually there was dissent and it split into the many denominations we see today. So much so that the other extreme has now been reached and we see so called Christian fundamentalists supporting leaders that launch and support pre-emptive wars, condone torture and human degradation and violation of human rights. They claim that God is behind them and will judge them right.
Christians are unsure about what side they ought to be on and what the guidelines of their mission in life are. “Blessed are the poor for theirs, is the Kingdom”, Jesus taught. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice for they shall have their fill”, “go sell what you have and give to the poor and come follow me”, “Whatsoever you do to these, the poorest of my brothers and sisters you do to me”, “Love one and other as I have loved you”, “no greater love is there, than to give your life for a friend”, He said. Our mission couldn't be clearer.
These challenging messages and many more are just too much for people in power and who make their millions by cheap labour, exploitation and devastation of the environment.
They are accustomed to a comfortable, secure and wealthy life style and while called to repent and share with the poor few ever do. The Gospel story of Dives who allowed Lazarus to die on the doorstep of his palace shows him begging forgiveness from the torments of hell. His change of heart came too late. The conversion of Zachary's was spontaneous when he embraced Jesus and this led to the redistribution of his wealth. That is the missionary challenge facing Christians - to work for a more just society where there are neither rich nor poor. This would be the Kingdom of Heaven. [End]
