January 27, 2012                                                        Bill Mulcahy                                           Bill's previous article

  Poverty is Real!!!!!                               

We Australians can be a funny bunch at times. Just on twelve months ago Queensland witnessed devastating floods and a cyclone. Rising floodwaters subsided and the devastation, mud and mess and carnage became clearly visible. We witnessed ordinary citizens putting on gloves and gumboots, grabbing a shovel and broom and appearing in thousands at residences of people they didn’t know. They were an army of complete strangers, spirited with a kindness, and surely walking in the shoes of Jesus as they helped.  

We are all too championed at rallying in emergencies, but somehow within a few days/weeks the selflessness shown to unknowns dissipates as we return to our normal lives. The community spirit fades. But within our local communities there are people struggling with the coping of everyday life. This is our chance to walk the way of Jesus daily.  

The Australian Council of Social Services estimated that in 2011 there were around 2.2 million Australians are living in poverty. At 11 per cent of our beautiful population, this is a serious problem. This figure includes an estimated 500,000 children, 12 per cent of all our children and 120,000 that are homeless on any given night. But the majority of ordinary citizens see this issue clear-cut: “people who are homeless choose to be” or “people on the dole should get a job”.  

The ordinary citizens find the notion of poverty confronting: you know what you do when you walk past a homeless person, you cringe; you don’t engage their gaze and you simply walk by as if they weren’t there. Poverty does not only happen in “Third World” countries, it happens here too. Australian poverty is not identical to the poverty that exists in Somalia, Kenya or India for example. Poverty is relational to the culture it exists in.  

As individual communities within our great nation, we know we can be generous but we need to offer more support for our own that are living in poverty. What if a group of friends reached out to one family who may be doing it tough? An act of kindness, this is compassionate action. This is indeed the way of our Lord. Let us all keep our eyes and ears open and be willing to respond. As our very own St Mary of the Cross would be whispering to us: Never see a need without trying to do something about it. Lord, I will hold your people in my heart.

Blessings