Business and finance.
Power and politics.
Science and technology.
Entertainment and leisure.
These are things that seems to be driving the world today.
Much of the news is about these
and events in these areas always hog the headlines.
But life is much richer than these.
We need to celebrate and to preserve the beauty that there is in nature.
We need to celebrate families and small communities where love lives and is nurtured.
We need to celebrate the arts through which the human spirit is uplifted.
We need to celebrate our faith which gives us a glimpse of what we truly are.
Poverty and wars are a scandal because we have the resources
and the wherewithal to banish these twin scourges forever.
Last year saw a record number of billionaires in the world.
And last year alone, their collective wealth increased by $762 billion.
According to Oxfam, (a confederation of independent charitable organizations
focusing on the alleviation of global poverty)
that amount is enough to end extreme poverty seven times over.
Many of us are lonely and afraid, this in spite of the fact that
we have never been more interconnected than today.
Yet there are so many of us willing and able to lend a hand
and give comfort to one another.
All we need to do is to cross that road
or to reach out and extend a helping hand to that stranger
or person in dsstress.
There is so much frenzied activity with people in a hurry to get to nowhere.
People are busy doing nothing,
We need to stop and listen,
be touched and be moved and be changed
by the presence of others and of God in our lives.