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candystripper -> Community Obligations? (2/9/2006 4:30:29 AM)
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February 9, 2006
St. Jerome Emiliani
(1481?-1537)
“‘The father of orphans and the defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God gives a home to the forsaken; he leads forth prisoners to prosperity; only rebels remain in the parched land’ (Psalm 68).... We should not forget the growing number of persons who are often abandoned by their families and by the community: the old, orphans, the sick and all kinds of people who are rejected…. We must be prepared to take on new functions and new duties in every sector of human activity and especially in the sector of world society, if justice is really to be put into practice. Our action is to be directed above all at those men and nations which, because of various forms of oppression and because of the present character of our society, are silent, indeed voiceless, victims of injustice” (Justice in the World, 1971 World Synod of Bishops).
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St. Jerome lived during the time of the Plague in Italy, and tended the sick, the prostitutes and the homeless. Eventually, he succumbed to the Plague himself.
Perhaps our circumstances and communities are better off than his, but i feel we still owe an obligation. Everyone can do something, no matter how small.
candystripper
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