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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

www.geocities.com/tulsidas_ramayan

www.egroups.com/group/Sitaram

http://sulekha.com/chpost.asp?for...ilosophy&show=0&cid=75338

http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=3959&article_part=3

For I regard the troubles that befall us in the present time as
trivial when compared with the magnificent goodness of God that is to
be manifested in us. For the created order awaits, in eager longing,
with neck outstretched, the full manifestation of the children of
God... for the Creation itself has something to look forward to...
The Creation itself is to share in the freedom, in the glorious and
undying goodness, of the children of God. - paraphrase from Romans by
Metropolitan, Paulos Mar Gregorios, Delhi, 1987.

=======================

Kolkata Oct. 19.

Mother Teresa's beatification today puts her in line with four other
Roman Catholic religious persons from India so far declared Blessed
or beatified by the Vatican and assigned feast days in accordance
with laws of the Roman Catholic Church.Of the four, Blessed Joseph
Vaz was born on April 21, 1651 at Benaulim, Goa. He died in Kandi,
Sri Lanka on January 7, 1711 and was declared Blessed on July 6,
1997. Fr. Kuriakose Elias Chavara was born near Alappuzha in Kerala
on February 10, 1805. January 4. His cause of canonisation was taken
up in He was declared Blessed in 1986. Sr. Alphonsa Muttathadill, was
born on August 19, 1910 at Kudamaloor near Kottayam. She joined the
Fransiscan Clarist Congregation at Bharananganam in 1927 and received
the habit on May 19, 1930.r She was declared Blessed on February 8,
1986 at a function in Kottayam, Kerala. Maria Theresa Chiramel, was
born in Puttencheria near Thrissur, a, on April 26, 1876. She was
beatified on April 9, 2000.- PTI

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Sitaram comments:

When Moses gave a commandment prohibiting gleaning of the fields, the
greedy practice of going over the fields a second time to harvest
every last straw and grain, he added almost as an afterthought, "The
poor shall always be with you." Moses indicates that the gleanings
should be left not only for the poor to gather but also for those
beasts, domestic and wild, who seek relief from hunger.

Jesus echoed this afterthought of Moses, when one of his disciples
objected to the woman who anointed Jesus feet with precious ointment
complaining that the ointment might be sold and the proceeds given to
the poor. Jesus said, "The poor shall always be with you."

Some years ago, a well-intentioned Papal encyclical was addressed to
the topic of eliminating world poverty.

If we take Moses and Jesus words seriously, then is it a practical
goal to eliminate world poverty?

Intellectuals often speak of "gleaning" something from the texts
which they study. If we say that we "glean," we imply that we are
ourselves impoverished and pick up only what has been left behind by
someone else for us to find.

====================================

http://www.ideaexplore.net/find.p...&t=organizations,anti-poverty

http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showarticle?
item_id=1855

Hunger and poverty cannot be separated in analyzing the biblical
material. Hunger accompanies poverty. Famine can strike an entire
land, rich and poor alike, but it is still the poor who go hungry
while the well-to-do buy food from other lands (cf. Gen. 12:10; 42:1-
2). In both the Old and New Testaments hunger is linked with other
terms describing those who have been forced by societal conditions
into a marginal existence -- the poor, the needy, the widow, the
orphan, the oppressed.

God especially loves and cares for the poor: "`Because the poor are
despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now arise,' says the
Lord; `I will place him in the safety for which he longs'" (Ps.
12:5). "The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord and the poor
among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel" (Isa. 29:19). "For
thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in
his distress" (Isa. 25:4). God will not forget or forsake the poor or
the needy (Ps. 9:12, 17-18, 10:12; Isa. 41:17).
It is important to note that God's love for the poor does not imply
an acceptance of their condition. He loves them in order to deliver
them from poverty. It is regarded as an evil (Prov. 15: 15), and
God's response is to deliver his people from it. God promises not
merely to love the poor and the hungry but to be active in their
behalf: "I will satisfy her poor with bread" (Ps. 132:15).
The rights of the poor are delineated most clearly in the law codes
of the Old Testament; here concern for the poor is taken out of the
realm of voluntary charity. The clearest statement appears in
Deuteronomy 15:

There will be no poor among you . . if only you will obey the voice
of the Lord your God. . . . If there is among you a poor man, one of
your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord
your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand
against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and
lend him sufficient for his need. . . . You shall give to him freely,
and your heart shall not be grudging. . . . For the poor will never
cease out of the land; therefore, I command you, You shall open wide
your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor . . .

This passage suggests that if the demands of the covenant were fully
embodied there would be no poverty, but since Israel, like all human
communities, is a "stiff-necked people," some of its inhabitants will
inevitably be poor. Therefore, God's people are commanded to care for
them. This task is part of what it means to be the people of God, and
it is not an optional activity.

All of the Israelite law codes provide for the protection of the
poor. Persons were urged to lend money to the poor (Deut. 15:7 Cool

, but
the law prohibited the taking of interest. "If you lend money to any
of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a
creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him" (Exod. 22:25).
Garments or other items necessary for survival, if taken from the
poor as security for debts, were to be returned each night so that a
man might not have to face the night without a cloak (Exod. 22:26-27;
Deut. 24:10-13). So that the poor would not remain permanently in
debt, the law called for the remission of all debts every seventh
year (Deut. 15: 1-2; Lev. 25:1 ff.). If a poor man had sold himself
into servitude because of debts, he was to be given freedom in the
seventh year (Lev. 25:39-55), and he should not then be sent out
empty-handed but given provision from the flocks and the harvest
(Deut. 15:12-15). Israel's people were reminded that they too had
once been slaves in Egypt and in need. Too often in prosperity the
community of faith forgets that it was not always affluent.

Laws protected the poor man from losing his family property and
ensured that no one could accumulate an inordinate amount of land
(Lev. 25:10, 13, 25-34). The poor person was protected from
exploitation by the rich (Ex. 22:22-23; Deut. 24:14-15; Lev. 19:13).
Special emphasis was placed also on assuring the poor of justice
against the rich in the law courts, though partiality was not to be
given unfairly to the poor (Exod. 23:3; Deut. 27:19, 25).

Nowhere is God's concern for the poor and the hungry made clearer by
the prophets than in Isaiah 58. A better text for preaching on the
church's response to the hunger crisis could not be found:

"Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?"

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and
oppress all your workers

Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on
high.

Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a rush, and to spread sackcloth and
ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to
let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless
poor into your house;

When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from
your own flesh?

If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the
afflicted,
Then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the
noonday.

Much of the New Testament witness in regard to the poor and the
hungry is a reflection or development of the tradition of Israel.
Jesus could well be said to have radicalized that tradition. From the
very beginning Jesus identifies his ministry with the poor and the
oppressed. In Luke 4:16-19, at the inauguration of his public
ministry, Jesus preaches at Nazareth and chooses as his text Isaiah
61:1-2:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to
preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to
the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus often associated himself with the poor and with society's
outcasts and was criticized for it (Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34). It would
seem that Jesus and the disciples in fact adopted the life style of
the poor. In an incident recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels
(Matt. 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5) Jesus' disciples pluck grain
to eat while passing through the fields. Although the issue here is
that of the Sabbath law, the disciples seem to be exercising the
rights of the poor, and even the breaking of the Sabbath law is
defended on the grounds that the needs of hunger outweigh legal
strictures. When Jesus sent the disciples out, he required them to go
in extreme poverty (Luke 9:3; 10:4).

In his preaching, Jesus often spoke with concern for the poor and
indicated that they were especially blessed by God. "Blessed are you
poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger
now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for
you shall laugh" (Luke 6:20-21). The parable of the banquet (Luke
14:16 ff.) indicates that the poor may inherit the kingdom before
those of position in society. Perhaps most striking in this regard is
the passage on the great judgment in Matthew 25:31-46:

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me
drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you
clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you
came to me.

Jesus makes clear that he is identified with the poor and the needy
to the extent that acceptance of him is equated with ministering to
their needs. "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least
of these my brethren, you did it to me.

Jesus' attitude toward wealth is correspondingly negative. Riches are
at least an impediment to the kingdom and at worst a damnation. Along
with the Lucan beatitudes quoted above are included the woes: "Woe to
you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you
that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now,
for you shall mourn and weep" (Luke 6:24-26). The accumulation of
goods stands as a goal opposed to the service of God. "No one can
serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt.
6:24; Luke 16:13). The rich man is depicted as a fool in the parable
of the wealthy farmer (Luke 12:16-21). "Delight in riches" is one of
the thorns that choke out the seed of the Word in Mark 4:19. The
parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus effectively sums up Jesus'
teachings on the rich and the poor (Luke 16:19-31). Finally, there is
the harsh saying, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark
10:25).

http://www.schechter.edu/pubs/bookruthstudy_0305.htm

5. Notice that Boaz honors the laws of peah -- leaving a corner of
his field for the poor to glean. How might that relate to the inner
meaning of the "spiritual harvest" of Shavuot? Given that most of us
are not farmers today, how might we as individuals "leave a corner"
of our "fields"now?

6. Naomi reacts to Ruth's report of her day in the field by saying
(2:20): "Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not left off his kindness
to the living and the dead." How does that indicate to us that she
has changed? What is the text suggesting to us about how each of us
can transform another's feelings and behavior from depression and
sorrow to gratitude and well-being? From a sense of victim-hood to
hope?

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