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God wants you to do as I say…
We wouldn’t want to dedicate too much space to this because people might get the wrong idea about where Italy’s semi-State religion is headed. We think though that our readers should be made aware of the latest papal pronouncements on wealth.
Pope Benedict XVI has chosen to remind the world in his Lenten message – (here), for aspiring religious fanatics – that “we are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession…”
His theme is not vulgar socialism, but rather almsgiving, which “helps us overcome this constant temptation (the attraction to material riches), teaching us to respond to our neighbor’s needs and to share with others whatever we possess through divine goodness.”
The Pontifex then, in what we take to be a savage personal attack on Angelina Jolie, points out the risk of ostentation: “The Gospel highlights a typical feature of Christian almsgiving: it must be hidden;” and reminds us of the appropriate biblical citation, from Matthew: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” Jesus asserts, “so that your alms may be done in secret” (Mt 6,3-4).”
In fact, the Pope makes this point twice in his brief message, also citing Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, who “forthrightly” recommends: “Never keep an account of the coins you give, since this is what I always say: if, in giving alms, the left hand is not to know what the right hand is doing, then the right hand, too, should not know what it does itself.”
This theological basis for sacred confusion may possibly be at the root of the evident misunderstanding between the doctrine of Christian humility and the Vatican set designers, who appear to suffer a truly fatal attraction for gold leaf…
30.01.08
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