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| Home / Stand with Poor |
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Live and work simply,
so that others can simply live and work.
 The average American worker is working longer and harder and for less money. The average worker now spends 200 more hours a year on the job than she or he did in the 1970’s.
(1)You would think that this increase in work time would translate into more wealth. Just the opposite is happening, more Americans are working harder and falling further behind. While the cost of food, housing, gas, energy, etc. has risen, wages have remained stagnant. People are running faster just to stay in place.
Coupled with this reality is the growing economic inequality and financial disparity. In the 1970’s, the wealthiest 1% of the population owned 20% of all private wealth. Today, the top 1% owns over 34% of all private wealth. (2)The situation that we are in today has no quick fix. There is no stimulus package or bailout that will resolve this crisis. We must prepare ourselves and our communities for transformation.
Franciscans have a long history of standing with the poor through the most difficult times. Francis himself touched by the plight of the lepers of his day chose to lay aside his life of privilege and take on the cloak and life of the poor person. He took Jesus’ words to the rich young man into his own heart, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor.”
At the same time, Francis comes to know a God who is good, all good, supremely good, all the time and to everyone. The present financial crisis is filled with fear, anxiety, and an overarching sense of scarcity. We have lost our sense of the God-given abundance that surrounds us. Our God is neither stingy nor distant. It is time to gather friends and neighbors to find ways to meet our economic challenges. There is a way out of anxiety and greed to a more relational economy.
(1) Statistic found in The Moral Measure of the Economy
(Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2007) by Chuck Collins and Mary Wright, 42-43.
(2) Collins and Wright, 67
Article written by Sr. Carol Besch, OSF
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