in a powerful op-ed for Friday's Washington Post titled A pope’s pointed message
I am going to urge you to read it and pass it on. There are some key quotations from the Apostolic Exhortation released on Tuesday.
Robinson reminds us that in the statements about economic inequity Francis is not covering new ground - as Robinson notes,
The basic positions Francis takes on economic and social justice are not new; all recent popes have expressed a similar critique of modern capitalist society, including John Paul II, whose views on poverty and the need for community are often conveniently overlooked by those who would paint him as Ronald Reagan in robes.
If you want a real sense of Robinson's reaction, the final few paragraphs are clear:
Jesus commanded his apostles to give to the poor. Yet many elected officials who claim to follow Jesus’s teachings are determined to keep the poor from receiving health care, food assistance, housing subsidies and a host of other benefits. Inequality is celebrated as a virtue. Life, we are told with a shrug, is sometimes unfair.
But for Christians, Francis reminds us, life is supposed to be as fair and compassionate as we can make it. Money is a false idol, a golden calf. Our sacred responsibility is to one another.
Amen, Your Holiness. Amen.
Our sacred responsibility is to one another. If anyone doubts that, perhaps one need read no further than the Golden Rule. If one considers oneself a Christian, one should read Matthew Chapter 25.
Com-passio - we share one another's sufferings. So if I may on this day of Thanksgiving, when we express our gratefulness for what we receive from one another, I cannot help but remember two things from the Christian Bible -
From Galatians g:2: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
And insofar as he was human, even Jesus had to have his cross carried for him by Simon the Cyrene.
Peace.