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21 May 2012
Steve Colbert
“If you don’t have it, don’t spend it.” As far as common sense goes it doesn’t get any more self evident than that. But are there certain things that are absolutely essential, things that we cannot abandon, without sacrificing values that make us who we are?
This was evident last week when the Irish Government stated that is was still committed to keeping its UN target of allocating 0.7 per cent of gross national income to overseas aid by 2015. We are in a time of cut back, redundancies and closures and one could be forgiven for thinking that the future looks a bleak. You would think that this would be a time when we need to look after our own first, after all charity begins at home.
Ofcolaco Holy Family Centre run by the Daughters of our Lady of the Sacred Heart for children who are orphans
However a recent Dóchas survey that found 79 per cent of Irish people believed it was important that the Government continued to do its part to help alleviate child malnutrition, improve health care and support education in some of the poorest areas of our world. In fact Ireland will spend €639 million on overseas aid this year.
This announcement by Joe Costello TD was made on the back of a Concern campaign that is focused on the first 1,000 days of a child’s beginning from pregnancy to two years old. The emphasis, in particular, will be on nutrition with research showing that problems in infancy can last a lifetime.
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It doesn’t make financial sense. We haven’t got the money and we’ll need to borrow to meet these commitments, but there are things that are worth making sacrifices for. If our brothers and sisters are in real need then we are obligated to help, more than that we are commanded to help by a God who has blessed us in so many ways. The prophets of the Old Testament are clear on the call to justice for the oppressed. We need only look to Micah 6:8 to understand that this is what God asks of us, only this, “to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God.”
I’ll be off to South Africa this coming Saturday with Sr. Susan Jones, a Holy Faith sister, to explore the possibility of volunteering in some of the Missionary of the Sacred Heart projects. We’ll be visiting some of our youth projects, a hospice in Johannesburg and the Holy Family Centre in the Northern Province. I’ll keep you updated.