Until his death, I corresponded with a secular Israeli friend who was completely devoid of any religious feeling. In the early months of our correspondence, I wrote him that if I had to be someone on the margins of society--a prisoner, a prostitute, a drug addict, an unwed mother--I would rather take my chances with secular people than religious ones.
While religious people are often generous to the poor, that generosity not only fails but often turns into its opposite when someone lives in a way that challenges the received wisdom of the religious. Think of the Magdalens, the unwed mothers who were virtually imprisoned as slave labor in convents. Catholic reform schools were often brutally cruel.
Religion, it seems to me, often functions to improve the treatment that members of the ingroup receive from each other but worsens the treatment that "outgroups" receive.
I was heartened last week to hear a sermon by Father James Nero when he said that God's love is available to all people of good will and that while Christiand don't have to abandon our faith to follow someone else's, we should listen with respect to other people's religious experiences because God loves them and reaches out to them too.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
The 7 Corporal Works of Mercy
Karen Armstrong, in A History of God, distinguishes between belief and faith. Belief is the belief in theological propositions while faith is the act of trusting God for everything. I have neither belief nor faith, it often seems. Hence, I decided to set aside questions about the theology of Jesus, which troubles me, and focus instead on the teachings of Jesus. In this spirit, I am focusing on the The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy, which are:
1. Give food to the hungry
2. Give water to the thirsty.
3. Clothe the naked.
4. Welcome the stranger.
5. Visit the sick.
6. Visit those in prison.
7. Bury the dead.
On the first Sunday of Lent, I read an article in the church bulletin challenging parisioners to perform each of the 7 works. It could be simple, like giving a drink of water to someone, or more elaborate.
I have tried to perform each of these works but I admit that I am fudging a little bit.
I participate in one of those child sponsorship programs. The family gets food aid every month. This qualifies as giving food to the hungry. Because the child also gets medical and dental care, I guess this sort of counts as visiting the sick--by making it possible for medical professionals to "visit" them. I know, that is cheating but I don't happen to know anyone who is sick right now.
I am donating a small sum of money to Catholic Relief Services and asking that they earmark that for their projects that provide clean drinking water to impoverished people in the third world.
My church has a program that asks people to donate long-sleeved t-shirts to farm workers in the area, who need protection from the sun, insects, and plants. Hence, clothing the naked.
Welcoming the stranger is a little problematic. My understanding is that in the Middle East of Jesus' day, welcoming the stranger did NOT mean bringing a cake to the new neighbor and saying "Welcome to the Neighborhood." More likely, it meant providing food and a place to stay for the night for visitors to the town.
I am a loner and don't want people in my house. Instead, I will make a donation to habitat for humanity.
Visiting the sick has been covered.
Visiting in prisons is difficult but I do write a former student who is serving a very long prison sentence. Perhaps I am visiting via letter.
Burying the dead is also problematic but this can be done indirectly but requesting masses for the recently deceased. I guess that works.
A useful thing for me to do is to put my change in a jar each day. After a month or two, I have accumulated enough money to make a reasonable contribution to a charity that helps the poor. I admit to saving the quarters for parking meters and tolls and donating the smaller coins. This is a ridiculously small effort for such huge problems as world poverty but if ten people did this, they could make a huge difference for one person or one family in a poor country.
1. Give food to the hungry
2. Give water to the thirsty.
3. Clothe the naked.
4. Welcome the stranger.
5. Visit the sick.
6. Visit those in prison.
7. Bury the dead.
On the first Sunday of Lent, I read an article in the church bulletin challenging parisioners to perform each of the 7 works. It could be simple, like giving a drink of water to someone, or more elaborate.
I have tried to perform each of these works but I admit that I am fudging a little bit.
I participate in one of those child sponsorship programs. The family gets food aid every month. This qualifies as giving food to the hungry. Because the child also gets medical and dental care, I guess this sort of counts as visiting the sick--by making it possible for medical professionals to "visit" them. I know, that is cheating but I don't happen to know anyone who is sick right now.
I am donating a small sum of money to Catholic Relief Services and asking that they earmark that for their projects that provide clean drinking water to impoverished people in the third world.
My church has a program that asks people to donate long-sleeved t-shirts to farm workers in the area, who need protection from the sun, insects, and plants. Hence, clothing the naked.
Welcoming the stranger is a little problematic. My understanding is that in the Middle East of Jesus' day, welcoming the stranger did NOT mean bringing a cake to the new neighbor and saying "Welcome to the Neighborhood." More likely, it meant providing food and a place to stay for the night for visitors to the town.
I am a loner and don't want people in my house. Instead, I will make a donation to habitat for humanity.
Visiting the sick has been covered.
Visiting in prisons is difficult but I do write a former student who is serving a very long prison sentence. Perhaps I am visiting via letter.
Burying the dead is also problematic but this can be done indirectly but requesting masses for the recently deceased. I guess that works.
A useful thing for me to do is to put my change in a jar each day. After a month or two, I have accumulated enough money to make a reasonable contribution to a charity that helps the poor. I admit to saving the quarters for parking meters and tolls and donating the smaller coins. This is a ridiculously small effort for such huge problems as world poverty but if ten people did this, they could make a huge difference for one person or one family in a poor country.
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