rby Gibson Sebastian
Through the Bible, Jesus and the prophets tell us to take care of the poor. The Ten Commandments say to love your neighbour as yourself. In the Gospels Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus. In Acts 10:31 the angel said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.” All these incidents tell us that we as Christians will have to dig into our pockets to help the poor. As long as I can remember there were poor people living in our community and had on many occasions, as a kid and through the encouragement of my parents, given food or money to them. Why are we faced with these problems in our societies? What can be done to eliminate the problem?
As a Christian growing up, I was always taught to take care of the poor by providing for them. Many years later I realised that giving them handouts was not the means to an end, it just perpetuated the situation. The poor in our society need help to get them out of their predicament. Starting in 2000 the Smith Family began to publish reports on poverty in Australia on a regular basis. The Smith Family is a national, independent, social enterprise that supports disadvantaged Australian children to create a better future through education. At the Conference on Child Poverty, Education, and Health in London on February 26, 2001, Horst Köhler, Managing Director of International Monetary Fund said that the ways we nurture and equip the children of today will shape the world of tomorrow. It is through organizations like this that a nation and the world at large can address some of the issues on poverty.
In the local scene we through our churches and other organizations can participate in providing proper care to the less fortunate through organizations like St Vincent de Paul, Care Australia, World Vision and many such organizations. There is a need to teach our young the importance of reaching out to the poor. We cannot call ourselves Christians if we do not help the poor, for Jesus said, “even a drop of water given in my name will not go unrewarded.”
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