the rich man.

[Danno2281]

And if you spend your every waking moment trying to find some way to fill your stomache because you have not eaten for days, and your head hurts due to the hot sun, your bones ache due to freezing nights, and your heart is broken because you are left alone to survive less then an animal, see how much effort you take to run to some shelter miles away to clean up just so you don’t smell so bad to make sure those well to do’s are not uncomfortable with your presence, begging and pleading in worship in our Fathers house…The picture you paint does not exist in NYC where soup kitchens and food pantries are available, and where some of the most generous to the poor make a serious effort to help them. Besides. we are talking about people who have voluntarily embraced poverty for the sake of the gospel.

I see all together too many stances and statements made like what you have, and all I say in each case, they are a sad piece of work my friend in desperate need of a huge wake up call of repentance and pennance, surely I hope they become just like the ones they look your nose down upon, surely I pray for it to happen to humble themselves enough to realize the true value and nature of our faith. Christ would be ashamed to keep company with the likes of these that put abhorrent statements (and just how is it abhorrent to say that cleanliness is possible for the poor? Did Christ, invited to weddings and the homes of the well to do, stink?) like this on the most needy of our society. Posting twice in a short time,(the subject posts are more than a week apart - look at the dates!) in my book like this, obviously means you are in desperate need of correction, that heart is of stone, which is why I come down so hard here, and it’s out of love for them as well as you I do so.(Friend, you are sitting in judgment of me, and you know nothing of who I am or what I do).

Go drop everything you have and know and live as these little ones you persecute (Wow! Now I ‘persecute’ the poor because I maintain that the poor need not be filthy!) for a few days, you will see just how hard they have it, if you have a problem with some homeless person worshipping next to you because they smell, take them home and give them a shower, a meal, and cloth them yourself, otherwise, keep your mouth shut and your eyes closed and your nose plugged, you are not worthy at all to even be in their company in the first place!!!

Get a grip on your misplaced anger, friend.

 

[prodigalson12]

Such compassion for the downtrodden just warms my heart, … sadly, this is so much the case of too many of us. We go about our business, attend mass and our church services, not at all realizing what we take for granted is a total luxury for too many.

Sure we have many of this and that, but that’s all on paper, put away your high and mighty and your props and join the ranks of these people for a few days or weeks and try to use some of that this and that, you’ll see it’s not so easy, there are waiting lists and stips and requirements, it’s not a matter of just popping in to some place and you have a roof over your head and food in your belly at all, Join their ranks and see where you end up with, in your mindset and mentality…the very last thing you would be concerned with is being all pc and perfect just so you can sit next to a well to do, fed, housed, and loved person in the pew next to you, absolutely you would be there as you are, and that’s who you are at the moment.

Good idea on starting the other thread, I will do just that…

 

[Danno2281]

Such compassion for the downtrodden just warms my heart, … sadly, this is so much the case of too many of us. We go about our business, attend mass and our church services, not at all realizing what we take for granted is a total luxury for too many.

Sure we have many of this and that, but that’s all on paper, put away your high and mighty and your props and join the ranks of these people for a few days or weeks and try to use some of that this and that, you’ll see it’s not so easy, there are waiting lists and stips and requirements, it’s not a matter of just popping in to some place and you have a roof over your head and food in your belly at all, Join their ranks and see where you end up with, in your mindset and mentality…the very last thing you would be concerned with is being all pc and perfect just so you can sit next to a well to do, fed, housed, and loved person in the pew next to you, absolutely you would be there as you are, and that’s who you are at the moment.

Good idea on starting the other thread, I will do just that…

I guess you’re writing from a computer in a library, since you obviously have no such encumberance as a posession. I wish you peace.

 

[djeter]

Fr. Barron’s thoughts on the Beatitudes (I always thought this was the best thing I ever read about them and never forgot it):

Jesus describes the overcoming of this addiction with the evocative word “blessed,” *malcarios *in Greek. In Luke’s version of the beatitudes, we find a pithy presentation of what the view from the center is like.

First we are told “how blessed (malcarios) are you who are poor” (Luke 6:20). We notice that there is none of the softening offered by Matthew (“poor in spirit”), but a simple and straightforward statement of the blessedness of being poor. How do we interpret what seems prima facie to be a glorification of economic poverty?

Let me propose the following reading: “How lucky you are if you are not addicted to material things.” One of the classic substitutes for God is material wealth, the accumulating of “things.” Like any drug, houses, cars, and property provide a “rush” when they first enter the system, but then in time, the thrill that they provide wears off, and more of the drug must be acquired. This rhythm continues inexorably and tragically until the addict is broken by it….

Luke’s beatitudes continue with “How blessed are you who weep now” (Luke 6:21). Again, we are struck by the oddness of the claim: how fortunate you are if you display the outward sign of greatest anxiety and depression. Might we translate it as follows: “How lucky you are if you are not addicted to good feelings.”

We live in a culture that puts a premium on good feelings and attempts to deny or medicate depression. But feeling happy is just as much a false god as wealth or power. It is, in itself, only an emotional state, a fleeting and insubstantial psychological condition that cannot possibly satisfy the deepest yearning of the soul; yet it is sought with as much compulsive frenzy as any other drug.

We feel the “rush” of pleasure and then, when the thrill fades, we try at all costs to reproduce it at a higher pitch. It is in this context that the addictive use of drugs, alcohol, and artificial stimulants, as well as the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure in sex and at the table are to be understood. The person who lives in the center, the place of detachment, escapes (fortunately enough) this trap.

Luke’s Jesus continues: “Happy are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22). What could be stranger than this seemingly masochistic dictum? Again, some light might be shed if we translate it in terms of our hermeneutic of detachment: “How lucky you are if you are not addicted to the approval of others.” Status, attention, fame are among the most powerful and insinuating of the false gods who lure us …

Jesus told his disciples: “Woe to you when all speak well of you” (Luke 6:26), and Winston Churchill said, “Never trust a man who has no enemies.” The one whom everyone loves is in spiritual distress, since the good-will of the crowd has undoubtedly become that person’s idol. As so many of the saints — and Jesus himself– witness, the path of spiritual freedom brings one almost inevitably into conflict with those who are still in chains. Those who have placed themselves in the Christ-center rest secure even as the approval of the fickle crowd waxes and wanes.

Other reflections on the Sermon on the Mount here:

payingattentiontothesky.com/2009/05/29/reflections-on-the-sermon-on-the-mount/

dj

 

[prodigalson12]

I guess you’re writing from a computer in a library, since you obviously have no such encumberance as a posession. I wish you peace.

I own very, very little. My computers are not top of the line, not worth anything, market value wise at all, but are necessary for work, I do web design as well as work for myself building commercial cabinets, and 100% of the marketing is done online. I also have a cell phone, but understand, these cost me money to keep, for the isp and cell bill, and the place I park my trailer at and my shop/work space, yet even the latter, only have three walls, so when it’s cold outside, it’s cold inside. I even own a car, used to own a truck as well, but had to sell it to keep my things online and to eat…What about you?

My points here, is the calloused attitude I’m seeing towards those on the down and out, if you walked in their shoes for a day, you would have a totally different opinion.

 

[Danno2281]

I own very, very little. My computers are not top of the line, not worth anything, market value wise at all, but are necessary for work, I do web design as well as work for myself building commercial cabinets, and 100% of the marketing is done online. I also have a cell phone, but understand, these cost me money to keep, for the isp and cell bill, and the place I park my trailer at and my shop/work space, yet even the latter, only have three walls, so when it’s cold outside, it’s cold inside. I even own a car, used to own a truck as well, but had to sell it to keep my things online and to eat…What about you?

My points here, is the calloused attitude I’m seeing towards those on the down and out, if you walked in their shoes for a day, you would have a totally different opinion.

If you have seen a caloused attitude toward the poor in these posts, it is not derived from those posting; Not a single post has denigrated the poor. What has been asserted is that poverty is not incompatible with cleanliness. Do you believe that Jesus walked about stinking and filthy the better to attract people to the Good News? Sorry, my friend, but dirty does not beget detachment from the world.