A New Way

A few times each day a helicopter passes overhead and lands on the helipad of a five star hotel near Manila bay, a service to guests who would prefer to avoid our famous traffic. Its flight path goes over the national sports stadium in whose covered alcoves the homeless sleep and store their handful of belongings… so close, and yet so far. 

The distance between rich and poor here is greater than anywhere I have seen in the world. Unbridled capitalism and endemic corruption work synergistically to ensure an ever growing underclass and untouchable and increasingly isolated elite. Added to this, are the aspirations of the middle classes which can counter compassion and build walls against the poor. It all chips away at our humanity and increases separation and isolation. A big event like the Papal visit for example, sees the homeless shunted away by the government, dehumanized as an embarrassing problem. 

We must seek out a new way, of compassion and dignity. Everyone has a story but not all have a voice. 

I read a post some time ago and the chap who told the story was just sitting down for lunch at a simple outdoor carinderia (café) when a homeless man came shuffling along with a few bags in tow. He invited him to join him for lunch and they got talking. The homeless man had not always been so. He had worked all his life; he and his wife had a good home and life together until she became ill. Hospital bills quickly mounted and exceeded their savings until he had to sell his house and property to continue treatment. (Whilst the Philippines is a developing country, the medical fees are set at first world prices.) Eventually she died and now he was left grieving (although without regret) and had nothing left. 

He was making his way back to a province where he had relatives who might take him in and so his host bought him a bus ticket to that town and they parted company. Sometimes a few minutes to listen and a few pesos can lift someone up. 

How easy it was to help; how much easier not to bother to engage though, like in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Compassion is the better choice; the better choice for rich and poor alike.

Permanent Revolution

I heard a sermon once, the gist of which was that whilst the church’s mission is to evangelise the world; the world also seeks to evangelise the church. Whilst there are many examples of where this has taken place, a particularly prominent one I noticed is in the area of Catholic education.

Here in the Philippines there are many religious orders and many of them are involved in education, it’s their particular gift. Arriving centuries ago they set to work starting schools. Their founding fathers focus was generally the poor children, seeking to give them their faith and values and also a way out of poverty through a good education.

If we look at these same schools and colleges now it is a very different picture. Most are for the elite, the richest of the rich and their middle class poorer cousins. Whilst there will certainly be a proportion of scholarships, most are paying top dollar because the schools are the best. 

The poor alas will remain barefoot and living under the stars for some time yet. At some point someone was seduced by the dollar or the peso; maybe for the best of reasons, they could expand, have better facilities, all they had to do was play by the world’s rules and become what it wanted them to become. Such is the weakness of man. 

Another allied area is where they were nobbled, not by weakness this time but by their strength. Catholic schools have a reputation for being academically brilliant. I think this is true from primary schools to universities. All well and good, nothing wrong with that, until it becomes the primary driving force.

I have noticed that there is a tendency to hire teachers who are well qualified and competent in their chosen field whether it’s ABC or nuclear physics but not necessarily measuring up quite so well (or at all) as men and women of God. If the teachers are atheists or living lifestyles which are incompatible with Christianity can they really pass on the faith and values of the Catholic Church? Can they give what they do not have? The focus on academic excellence at the expense of its other purpose of making saints of the young is the most insidious worldly evangelisation.

They may become the most prestigious institutions and most sought after but fail to fulfil their stated purpose. By not being mindful of this struggle for mastery we risk being in the service of the enemy camp.

Leon Trotsky believed that for socialism to thrive and not become decadent, it needed to be in a constant state of flux or “permanent revolution” as he called it; (we might call it vigilance) he knew that any deviation from the ideal would be its downfall. As Catholics, as we know our enemy is far more powerful than tainted human nature alone, we should be all the more mindful and alert to his tactics.