A Thinker for our times...

by: Peter Maurin

Share your wealth
God wants us
to be our brother's keeper.
To feed the hungry,
to clothe the naked,
to shelter the homeless,
to instruct the ignorant,
at a personal sacrifice,
is what God
wants us to do.
What we give to the poor
for Christ's sake
is what we carry with us
when we die.
As Jean Jacques Rousseau says:
"When a man dies
he carries
in his clutched hands
only that which
he has given away."

Why not be a beggar?
People who are in need
and are not afraid to beg
give to people not in need
the occasion to do good
for goodness' sake.
Modern society
calls the beggar
bum and panhandler
and gives him the bum's rush.
The Greeks used to say
that people in need
are the ambassadors of the gods.
We read in the Gospel:
"As long as you did it
to one of the least
of My brothers,
you did it to Me."
While modern society
calls them beggars
bums and panhandlers,
they are in fact
the Ambassadors of God.
To be God's ambassador
is something
to be proud of.

At a Sacrifice
In the first centuries
of Christianity
the hungry were fed
at a personal sacrifice,
the naked were clothed
at a personal sacrifice,
the homeless were sheltered
at a personal sacrifice.
And because the poor
were fed, clothed and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
the pagans used to say
about the Christians
"See how they love one another."
In our own day
the poor are no longer
fed, clothed, and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice
but at the expense
of the taxpayers.
And because the poor
are no longer
fed, clothed, and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice
the pagans say about the Christians
"See how they pass the buck."