C. S. Lewis

[JRRTFAN]

Here’s a quote from C.S. Lewis. I’d be interested in the thoughts of the Philosophers in this section of C.A. Forum:

“I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know. God may call any one of us to respond to some far away problem or support those who have been so called. But we are finite and he will not call us everywhere or to support every worthy cause. And real needs are not far from us.”
— C.S. Lewis

This has many implications and is over flowing with truth. At the same time, how can one ignore human suffering on a giant scale outside one’s immediate surroundings (where there is also plenty of suffering to go around)…

 

[GEddie]

Becoming emotionally overcome, in situations where there is nothing to be done, has never helped anybody.

Our thought capacity, like everything else in our life, is limited, and there is really nothing we can do as private persons about world-class catastrophies. Not that we should ignore occurrences that are far away, but lower our sights to people and issues that are nearer, and ask the Holy Spirit for the “Jesus” thing to do.

God Bless and ICXC NIKA.

 

[Charlemagne_II]

Lewis makes an interesting point. The State has overcome the function of the Church as a provider of charity for those in need. The State wants to solve all problems, local, national, and international. But the State is no more infinite than we are as individuals. That does not stop the State from assuming that it has the infinite power to tax the citizens or to plunge the citizens into infinite debt to themselves.

Lewis makes a point that was precisely the point of Jesus speaking to the multitudes. But Caesar has usurped the preaching of Christ. The fruits of our labors are no longer give from the heart. Instead, they are seized from our hands and spent to keep Caesar in power.

And both parties in power are equally predatory.

 

[JRRTFAN]

Lewis makes an interesting point. The State has overcome the function of the Church as a provider of charity for those in need. The State wants to solve all problems, local, national, and international. But the State is no more infinite than we are as individuals. That does not stop the State from assuming that it has the infinite power to tax the citizens or to plunge the citizens into infinite debt to themselves.

Lewis makes a point that was precisely the point of Jesus speaking to the multitudes. But Caesar has usurped the preaching of Christ. The fruits of our labors are no longer give from the heart. Instead, they are seized from our hands and spent to keep Caesar in power.

And both parties in power are equally predatory.

Rather than predatory politicians you don’t think he might have been thinking about local charities and churches?