CATHOLIC NEWS EDITORIAL

She is undoubtedly the saint of the last century most associated with poverty and destitution.

She stands as sign of contradiction amidst what Pope Francis calls a ‘throwaway culture’- a culture that discards its unborn, the destitute, the elderly, the mentally and physically challenged, and those who just can’t fit into mainstream culture.

Three weeks later we are confronted with the Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus, that poor man who lay at the rich man’s doorstep and covered with sores. He, too, was part of the throwaway culture of his time.

For St Teresa, he was Jesus in “his most distressing disguise”- a popular phrase of hers. At her canonisation Mass, Pope Francis spoke of her “stooping down” to help others, bending low with arms outstretched to the indigent of the world.

This stooping down is a powerful biblical metaphor, for in Jesus, God “stooped down” to reach out to us in love and compassion.

As we celebrate 40 years of republican status - admittedly a short time - and in the light of the depressed economy with more bad news on the horizon as hinted by the Prime Minister, we need to ask ourselves what have we promised ourselves to do for those in “his most distressing disguise”? For whom have we decided to stoop down? Chief Justice Ivor Archie gave us an example at the recent opening of the law term - children.

The harshness of children’s incarceration was more a sin than a deterrent. Many children come in “a most distressing disguise”- anger issues, issues of neglect and poor education, issues of violence and sexual exploitation.

He called us beyond that to offer hope and rehabilitation, which we cannot offer unless we see beyond the tribe. This is what the rich man failed to do - “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they may not come to this place of torment too” (Luke 19:27).

Even after death he was for his tribe, as we often are in this tribal politics that intoxicates the land: the tribe of ethnicity, class, religion, geography, party affiliation. The people of La Brea are not part of our tribe, so we need not bother too much about them.

We have read of compensation for La Brea fishermen, but that is not enough. We have to “lick their sores”- get down there and engage in authentic listening; hear their medical concerns and provide medical assistance; pick up the dead fish; and stick our fingers into the tarry sand.

More generally, we need to be in touch with neglected communities. This, of course, will involve an inversion of priorities: no more mega-constructions that are not really necessary but rather a diversion of resources to neglected communities and groups.

May this Republican Day find us stooping low, keeping our ears close to the ground, ensuring the voices of the disenfranchised are not drowned by those who already have it nice.