What does it mean to be a Saint?
There are a handful of people in
human history who have managed to realise a bit more deeply than the rest of us
have just how much they are loved by God. Because they have embraced this love
so fully they have a clarity of vision when looking at the world which enables
them to see more clearly what is really important and what is not so important.
Sometimes these individuals are recognised and celebrated, often they are not.
Giovanni Bosco was such a person
in his time. As a young priest working in Turin during the Italian industrial
revolution he was shocked by the poverty which was growing all around him,
especially the number of abandoned and neglected children. He was also shocked
by the reaction of the many wealthy people in the city which was to be blind to
the problem or to blame the poor themselves for being poor. So he took a leap
of faith and began welcoming some of the street children of Turin into his own
home. From there his work grew, in his lifetime he founded many children’s
homes and training centres teaching practical skills. He also wrote many books
on working with children and on the teaching of all sorts of subjects.
The Salesian congregation today
sees its vocation as the continuation of the work of St. John Bosco. Much of
the work they do is extremely good, among the poor and destitute children of
the world. Here in Cebu they run a youth centre in one of the poorest areas of
the city, they work with child prisoners, they run several technical training
centres for young people who would not otherwise be able to afford to be
educated, and they run a children’s home for abandoned children. They do a lot
of very good work.
However, here at DBTC where we
are based they also run a private school which charges fees which only the
wealthy can afford; and they have a further education college run on similar
lines. Here at DBTC the TVED department, where we work, is very much an island
of the less well off in the midst of a community with plenty of wealth. Such
realities are very much points of debate among the Salesians here, many of them
prefer not to work in the institutions orientated towards the rich.
For us there is no room for
judgement, after all Steph and I were lucky enough to be born into a country
where a good education is provided to all free of charge. The rights and wrongs
of private education are set against a very different reality here where what
those who cannot afford private education receive is normally substandard.
And yet there is still a
contradiction, St. John Bosco’s vocation was to serve the very poorest and let
the rich look after themselves, as indeed was the vocation of Jesus in his time.
Hence I can’t help feeling that whenever Christians, in any country, choose to
work for the rich they haven’t really understood clearly enough the vocation
God is calling them too.
Speaking these challenging truths
must of course start at home; otherwise I am not really challenging anything but
rather scapegoating my own inadequacies onto others. I am acutely aware of
Steph and mines failings in this regard having just spent two years in Paris
working with those far richer than any of the pupils in the Salesian school
here in Cebu. Perhaps it is in seeing the enormous inequality which exists here
that I am able to acknowledge and regret where I have been an accomplice to its
perpetuation.
But if your time in France was preparing you for the work you are doing now, is that a different perspective on viewing it in isolation? I really like your take on your new role. I think that what you have done up to now has all been part of God's plan to bring you to where you can serve him with all the skills and experience you need to do it so well.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your words of Affirmation!
DeleteI think Genesis 50:20 is the relevant verse. God can take the times when weren't are as good as we'd have liked to have been and transforms it into something better than we have a right to expect. When we mean well God takes us to have meant better!
This is an interesting question, and one that I've been thinking about a lot recently, for obvious reasons. While I don't feel particularly qualified to comment on the Christian perspective, I think it's also important to consider the difference that education for the rich can make. Think of the very bright little boy whose dad was determined that he would be a banker and not a scientist because there was no money in science. A teacher might have taught him that other things in life, from appreciating literature to taking the time to value family and friends, are also important. Or encouraged him to choose his own path in life, which might have involved making a brilliant discovery that would improve the lives of people across the world. And if everyone understood that money is not the most important, we wouldn't have a society where the poor are exploited so that the very rich can acquire even more wealth, even although they have so much that they don't even know what to spend it on. For the life of the poor to improve, the rich have to choose to bring that about too, and unless their eyes are opened to how the rest of the world lives, they won't ever do that. And if private schools can only attract teachers for whom these things aren't important, who is going to show the rich how to make those choices?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it's over-simplistic to argue that work for the rich is always inherently less moral. Is a doctor saving the life of a rich westerner really doing less important work than the one saving the life of a poor person in a developing country? I think the difference might lie in the sacrifices that the second doctor makes in his own life if he chooses to be in the developing country, so would your answer to the question be the same if the first doctor had the living standards of the second and gave any extra money he had away?
All of that said, my gut instinct is with you. I would prefer not to work for the very rich my whole life, would prefer to be giving more to children who don't already have so much. I hope that one day I will. But I would also like to think that if I do, I'll still be able to look back at this particular time in my life and think that I made a difference here too.
This is getting long. Just as well I'm getting to see you and Steph in person soon, so we can have some real conversations!
I take your point, and kind of half agree. I think that a persons immediate responsibility is do the best they can with what is in front of them, be that rich or poor.
DeletePoverty and riches aren't only measured in terms of money. Mother Teresa famously said that she thought the poverty of the west (lack of community, lack of purpose, lack of creative work to do) was worse than the poverty of the South (destitution, starvation and preventable diseases). I don't know whether she is right or not, I assume she knew better than I do! However he point does stand that there are poor people in Europe just of a different kind. The boy you mention who was unable to explore his own potential is suffering from a poverty of sorts.
I would look at the issue from a different perspective. Having excess wealth in a world where others lack basic needs lays a heavy burden of responsibility on those who are wealthy. I feel this responsibility. I am here as much (maybe more) to let the people here educate and (I hope) liberate me as I am to try to help them.
To be continued I am sure....