What can we do??

Solidarity (being one of the people) does not necessarily mean going to India or Sudan. There are many ways to be in solidarity with the poor and suffering. The first way truly is prayer. It is through prayer, offering up time with God in the name of those suffering, so that we will come to know God more fully ourselves. Christ did this in the garden before his arrest.

But this is not all that Christ did. He also acted, taking in the poor and suffering as his own. We are all family, related through God’s love in creation. We all exist because God is loving enough to will it. Who are we to decide who stays and who goes? Who are we to allow suffering while we live in comfort? Christ did not. I’m sure the spit, jeers, and whipping hurt pretty badly.

It is true that we do not have the means to actually go and change the world over night. Many of us cannot even travel very far to do so. But we do have the means to educate ourselves. Education is where it all begins! Education is how knowledge is spread. We can read of the lack of education in Guatemala and how that contributes to the poverty holding the country down. We can learn of the killing in Sudan. We can learn of the horrors of human trafficking. And we can then take that knowledge and spread it to others so that they too may know what is happening to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In Gaudium et spes, the Second Vatican Council says that we have a “sacred duty” to do so. To not is to ignore a call from God.

Are we doing enough??

“They will see this on TV and say, ‘that’s horrible’, and then go back to eating dinner”. (Hotel Rwanda)

Do we do enough for the world? Is it really enough to feel sympathetic whenever we see others suffering and dying on the news? Is thinking, “God help them” really enough?
So many people are suffering across the world for so many different reasons. Ethnic cleansing, human trafficking and racism are but a few evils filling our world. Yes, believe it or not, slavery is still around. And what is being done about it?

We knock journalists a lot. But how many of them have risked their lives to show us the truth? How many of them have been on the front lines of slaughters so that we could experience them? They don’t do it for fame. They do it because it is news—it is news that needs to be known and taken care of.

In 1994, Rwanda was torn apart by civil war—one tribe trying to literally exterminate the other. Yet the West, the countries with the ability to stop this unnecessary killing, pulled out, fearful that they would have another failure like in Somalia. If we are a world police, we are not one in that we should start wars, like in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather, we are one in that we should STOP wars. Did Christ ever sit by and watch others suffer and die. Did Christ simply offer a prayer for the end of suffering and then go back to dinner? Or did Christ get out there with those suffering and dying, experience their anguish with them and try to ease it?

Whenever we call ourselves Christians, we call ourselves Christ.

We are free to let Him in

I can’t imagine what it would be like to go to bed with gunfire constantly nearby. I can’t imagine what it would be like with killing in the streets and bombs flying over my head. Americans of this generation do not know what its like. The closest thing to this would be living in a crime-ridden neighborhood with constant homicides. Thankfully, I have not had to live in a situation such as this. But nonetheless, it is hard for us to know what it is like. None of us know what it is like to fear our own government. None of us know what it is like to have to suck up to those in power so that, if the time were to come, we would be able to ask a favor. WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH A STABLE, TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED LIFE.

And, because we have this freedom and blessing, we must take full advantage of it, and we must do so as Christians. We are not free to choose what we want. We are free to choose WHAT IS RIGHT. We are free and blessed to be sure that others may also be free and blessed. All people must be allowed to take full advantage of their God-given right to choose what is good and true.
We have plenty of work in our country. This is a country built on a dream of rising from rags to riches. But who are we to limit this dream to only certain people? We have many others knocking at our door, pleading to have a decent life, one which many of us already have. Why should we not let them in, especially those who share in our Baptism? Many of those who come as immigrants are devout Christians, simply trying to find the life which their own economy cannot provide. Yes, they are Christians. They are Christ.

Can we really turn away Christ?