by Fr Shay Cullen
The Good Samaritan, Théodule-Augustin Ribot, before 1870
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France [Web Gallery of Art]
It is truly an age of disbelief. Respect for the values of human life has plunged. People of Christian faith who declare belief in the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth that upholds the dignity and rights of the human person, stands with the poor and the excluded, shares with the refugees and the homeless, is at an all time low.
Faith in serving one’s suffering neighbor as a Good Samaritan, binding up the wounds of the stranger, reaching out to feed the hungry, working for peace and justice is lost in a world of materialism where the ideology is ‘greed is good’. Our prosperous world of money and power, wealth and possessions has created a generation of people that appears to be more interested in selfish satisfaction and glorification.
Much of the younger generation is absorbed with themselves, cut off in isolation by technology and gadgets and games from loving, serving human interaction. This is a lonely isolated generation. The selfie world is here with the Internet of things.
They seem to retreat into silence and inaction rather than take an open stand for the victims of human rights, child abuse and exploitation. Few march for peace and against racism and war. Where indeed are the cries of those who believe in the love of neighbor and the service to the oppressed and the exploited poor? They are drowned out by the noisy blare of mindless revelry and the drug- dependent pleasure seeking people.
Full post here.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925)
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati is a great example of a highly-gifted and joy-filled young man engaged, as a person of faith, in the work of the Church, especially among the many poor people in his native city, Torino (Turin), Italy. His relics have been brought to Krakow, Poland, for World Youth Day 2016, 26-31 July.