Has a selfish attitude of indifference taken global proportions? Yes, it's a reality. We are unconcerned about a lot of things. We are unconcerned about others. When lent season is on the way, this globalization of indifference is a verity that should be causing distress among many of us.
* When people are being persecuted in the name of religion in countries like Syria, Iraq and many African nations, we are mute spectators.
* When people die of poverty in many third world countries, we are unconcerned and live in luxury.
* There’s a lot of injustice and inequality around us but we are not bothered.
* Rich-poor gap is widening in many countries. While rich is getting richer and richer, poor remains poor.
* We're unmoved when churches in Europe and other regions remain empty and people turn away from God.
* People are increasingly losing the sense of sin and the Kingdom of God.
This selfish attitude of indifference is the theme of Pope Francis’ Lenten message this year. This attitude is self-serving and inward-looking. “Usually, when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure… Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference,” he says.
A report by charity group Oxfam recently said the richest one per cent of the world’s population will have more wealth than the remaining 99 per cent by next year. Oh my God, can you imagine the plight of a lion’s share of this “99 per cent” category?
According to the Oxfam report titled “Wealth: Having It All and Wanting More,” the share of global wealth owned by the richest one per cent has increased from 44 per cent in 2009 to 48 per cent in 2014 -- a trend that will eventually lead to the richest owning over 50 per cent of wealth by 2016. Moreover, the study found that the richest 80 people in the world now own the same amount of wealth as bottom 50 per cent of the population. This clearly is a case of inequality and points to the alarming widening of rich-poor gap.
On the other hand, internal strife, communal wars and religious intolerance are rising across the world. Many nations in the Middle East and Africa are facing major internal issues.
Pope’s advice: it is a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront. “One of the most urgent challenges is precisely the globalization of indifference. Indifference to our neighbour and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians,” Pope says.
This is inimical to our spiritual health. It leads to a throw-away culture and an economy of exclusion.
According to apostolic exhortation Evangelii
Gaudium, just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in
order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou
shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.
How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies
of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? “This is a
case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while
people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under
the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful
feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves
excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any
means of escape,” it says.
While globalising trade, markets and economies, we also globalised the selfish attitude of indifference.
Flooded
with news reports and troubling images of human suffering, we often feel our
complete inability to help. What can we do to avoid being caught up in this
spiral of distress and powerlessness? “First, we can pray in communion with the
Church on earth and in heaven. Let us not underestimate the power of so many
voices united in prayer! Second, we can help by acts of charity, reaching out
to both those near and far through the Church’s many charitable organizations,”
he says.Lent is a favourable time for showing this concern for others by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to the one human family. He says the “suffering of others is a call to conversion, since their need reminds me of the uncertainty of my own life and my dependence on God and my brothers and sisters”. If we humbly implore God’s grace and accept our own limitations, we will trust in the infinite possibilities which God’s love holds out to us. We will also be able to resist the diabolical temptation of thinking that by our own efforts we can save the world and ourselves, he says.
Yes, lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each communities and every believer. Above all it is a “time of grace” (2 Cor6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. “We love because he first has loved us” (1 Jn4:19). He is not aloof from us. Each one of us has a place in his heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us, Pope summed up his Lenten message.
