The text makes...
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The text makes clear that the Messiah is concerned with justice, especially for the poor. We don't have much time to think of the poor in the weeks leading up to Christmas, what with all the money we wildly spend (on gifts that most recipients won't use or care much about this time next year). We are inclined to overlook U.S. Census Bureau statistics indicating that while 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty, only 1 in 8 whites endure this fate while 1 in 4 black Americans are impoverished. The evils of poverty are clearly exacerbated by such racial injustice.
Latin American liberation theologian Rubem Alves offers profound insights about how Christ and his future-oriented word overturns poverty and injustice. The greed and powers that keep people in poverty do not have a chance, he contends. Christ and the promise of the future "relativizes, desacrilizes, judges, and ultimately abrogates the ultimate messianic pretensions of the powers that dominate the established order" (A Theology of Hope, pp. 113-114). The messiahs of society who seek power over the poor lose their power when the true Messiah comes. Saint Augustine reminds us why poverty and injustice have no validity in light of Christian faith: "The poor and the rich are made of one clay; the same earth supports alike the poor and the rich" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 47). John Wesley well describes the Christian vision for overcoming poverty, a vision inspired by Pentecost and by the coming Messiah:
For as many as are possessed of lands or houses will sell them; and distribution will be made to every man, according as he has need… There will be partiality -- while, they are all one heart and soul, and only love informs the whole.
(Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, p. 284)
Latin American liberation theologian Rubem Alves offers profound insights about how Christ and his future-oriented word overturns poverty and injustice. The greed and powers that keep people in poverty do not have a chance, he contends. Christ and the promise of the future "relativizes, desacrilizes, judges, and ultimately abrogates the ultimate messianic pretensions of the powers that dominate the established order" (A Theology of Hope, pp. 113-114). The messiahs of society who seek power over the poor lose their power when the true Messiah comes. Saint Augustine reminds us why poverty and injustice have no validity in light of Christian faith: "The poor and the rich are made of one clay; the same earth supports alike the poor and the rich" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 47). John Wesley well describes the Christian vision for overcoming poverty, a vision inspired by Pentecost and by the coming Messiah:
For as many as are possessed of lands or houses will sell them; and distribution will be made to every man, according as he has need… There will be partiality -- while, they are all one heart and soul, and only love informs the whole.
(Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, p. 284)
