Market forces today drive businesses and the world economy.
Markets are supposed to be the most efficient ways to distribute goods and services.
If everyone worked for his own enlightened self-interest,
things would eventually work out right in the end for everyone.
People will get what they need and there will be no poverty.
But all too soon greed and selfishness come into the picture;
then inequalities happen and poverty spreads.
How can a handful of people be billionaires (about a thousand of them)
when almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
Often, I think of all what is going wrong in the world
and it is so easy to lose hope and even lose faith.
But if I look closely and really pay attention to facts,
the world has actually gotten better.
In a special issue of Time magazine early this year, with Bill Gates as Guest Editor,
that is exactly what several people did.
And their conclusion, our world is indeed getting better.
Consider:
- In 1990, more than a third of the global population lived in extreme poverty (the living on $2.50 a day threshold); today only about a tenth do. That is billions taken out of extreme poverty.
- Infant mortality has gone down from over 12 million a year to about 5 million a year now, going from 1990 until today. And the goal now is to get it below 2.5 million by 2030. One of the reasons for these numbers are the concerted efforts to contain childhood diseases. We have, for example, gotten rid of smallpox and on the verge of getting rid of polio.
Christ knew something about life and living
when he preached His Gospel of Life and of Love.
Yes, life can be difficult and He was willing to die on the cross
just to show us how to deal with life.
Life itself is a great gift and for that alone I am eternally grateful.
Like, nothing speaks better of the freshness and newness of life,
of hope and renewal than the streaks of first light at the break of dawn.
Every morning I wake up is another day in my gift of life.
Light is the energy that suffuses our entire world and keeps everything alive.
I imagine grace to be the divine light that sustains us
and enable us to be, to achieve and to become.
This is the Christ who promised eternal life to us, not death.
He proclaimed a good news where the hungry are fed,
And the lonely visited.
The last become first.
And sadness is turned into joy beyond measure.