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Protecting those caught up in armed conflict and the promotion of world peace also involves the UN in fighting for climate change, averting nuclear catastrophe and fighting injustice. Promoting global peace, security and prosperity is the primary mission of the UN and allied to this is the protection of the most vulnerable members of the global community. The UN asserts that "No one has the right to remain indifferent to abject poverty and the suffering of others."
In the light of this, it will have gladdened many that Her Majesty's Government this weed reinforced its commitment to the world's poor by refusing to make cuts in the Overseas Development Budget. At a time of great austerity in our own nation, the Government recognised that we have a great responsibility to the world's vulnerable and poor.
Not everyone agreed with their decision and on the BBC News, the Secretary of State for International Development was 'grilled' by the newsreader. Inevitably, the usual cry went out that Charity begins at home. That came as no surprise but when the newsreader went on to say that helping the poor was a luxury we can't afford. I wondered what sort of country I was living in. I still feel profoundly shocked and saddened that such a view was peddled on national television. It was clearly meant to provoke a reaction and thankfully the Secretary of State retained his dignity. A society which thinks only of itself and turns its back on he world's vulnerable and poor deserves to be labelled as self-seeking, self-centred and ultimate, self-destructive.
Of course that is my personal view whit which you may choose to disagree. That is the right of everyone. However, when I read today' Gospel, I was left in no doubt of what Jesus expects of me. Choosing deliberately to read from Isaiah, our Lord placed his manifesto firmly before his fellow Jews and, by its inclusion in the Gospel of Luke, he laid it to he Christian Church. If we follow Jesus then we too must bring good news to the poor, release to the captive (and that includes all who are enslaved by exploitation and the greed of others); recovery of sight to the blind (including those who are blinded by their own concerns) and freedom to all who are oppressed by others for their own power-seeking ends. Of course, as Jesus noted, there may be a cry of 'Doctor, cure yourself' which is another way of saying Charity begins at home. But I can't pray through these words of Jesus and ever be comfortable with a view that looks only to our own self-interest. I think it's always worth asking: What would Jesus have us do?
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