Serving Jesus in the poor and the needy

This 25th Sunday, the Church enjoins us to reflect on our attitude towards money, material things and our relationship with the poor and marginalized. If there is anything that has perpetuated poverty all over the world, it is injustice and inequality in the social class. Hence, Amos in today’s first reading decries the injustices meted out against the poor of the land. He wrote at a time when the rich took all the land, enslaved the poor in their farm lands, and exported food that could have been used to feed the entire citizens because of their gains in foreign currencies. The same situation menaces us today. If we look around we see poverty and the poor all around us. Sometimes the excuse we give to exonerate ourselves from the injustice they suffer is that , “they are lazy and not hard working!”I do not buy this opinion in-toto. Rather, a majority of them are where they are because of our greed and selfishness.
This is why Paul implores us to pray for everyone especially, Kings, Rulers, Leaders and all those In- charge. This prayer is necessary to pray for conversion because, once we are converted we eschew corruption, injustice, greed and oppression of the poor from our system. Once we understand this then, selfishness and egocentrism will disappear. We shall no longer think of ourselves alone to the detriment of others. We shall begin to consider the common interest and good of all. In the gospel, Jesus brings to light the fact that money and material things do not last forever, and therefore advises us on how to make use of them without losing our salvation. “The best way to invest,” a saying goes, “is to invest in human beings, especially the poor”. We should therefore learn from St Lawrence the martyr, patron of the poor and cooks, who presented to the Prefect of Rome fifteen hundred poor people he maintained as the Church’s treasure, instead of silver and gold. Therefore, we are not to manipulate the poor and needy for economic gains. Jesus Christ who is their defender will surely fight their course because of the injustices meted out on them. He has sacrificed himself for humanity, the poor inclusive, and therefore any form of injustice or oppression of the poor or weak as Amos decries will cry out to Jesus for vengeance as the blood of Abel did from the earth against Cain.