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Third Week of Advent - Friday
December 17, 2004
He will judge the people with righteousness,
And the poor with justice.
He will defend the cause of the oppressed.
He will save the poor and crush the oppressor.
Psalm 72
Defender of the Poor
The world we live in today is not the one God intended. God created the world with enough of everything for the needs of man. Yet today vast numbers of people suffer from extreme poverty and deprivation.
Every day 25,000 people die of starvation. This is not because God did not provide for them. The world has enough food to provide over four pounds a day per person for everyone on the earth. The problem of hunger is not caused by a deficiency in God's providence, but by a dereliction in man's stewardship. Americans spend about $30 billion a year on weight loss products, more than many of the world's poor nations spend on food.
God intended that his bountiful gifts be used for the needs of all. Yet the distribution of the world's wealth is marked by striking disparities. Three billion people - half the world's population - live on less than $2 a day. The three richest individuals in the world possess more wealth that the gross domestic product of the world's 48 poorest countries combined.
In the never-ending quest for greater profits, the wealthy nations are turning to outsourcing to reduce labor costs. Yet outsourcing hardly benefits poor nations. In South Asia alone, some 134 million children work 16 hours a day in factories and fields under extremely harsh labor conditions for an average wage of less than 10 cents a day.
Many of the poorest nations spend more on arms than on the health and education of their people. And the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council sell almost 90 percent of those arms to them at exorbitant profits.
God has not abandoned the world. He has promised to send his Anointed One to restore justice to the earth. He will defend the cause of the oppressed, and crush their oppressors. Whose side will we find ourselves on when he comes?
O Antiphon
Come,
Wisdom of our God Most High,
Guiding creation with power and love,
Teach us to walk in the paths of knowledge.
Sponsor a Child - Give the best Christmas gift ever. For as little as a dollar a day, you can make all the difference in the world for a child who otherwise has little hope for tomorrow.
World's Wealthiest - a list of those who hold a disproportionate share of the world's wealth. See who they are and how much they are worth.
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