By Ray McGovern
Here’s a link to a reflection on a parable applicable to these times (from Luke 16; hat tip to “Jesse”).
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-lenten-meditation-lazarus-and-rich-man.html
“There was a certain rich man** who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen, and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his sores.”
** Tradition has named the rich man “Dives”, but the word is simply Latin for the rich — today’s “one percent”.
As many will recall, the parable has the rich man coming to what the Chinese call “a no-good end”.
From “Jesse’s” commentary:
So too, nations that have been blessed can blind themselves to their excesses and offenses, while taking credit for the blessings that have been given to them. And so they misuse their power and wealth and great fortunes, granted to them by God, to oppress and subjugate others, satisfy their own vain purposes and passions. … And in their hardened hearts they hold their selfishness aloft, profanely, as the greatest good, the exceptional*** even as they oppress and plunder and murder.
*** Ray’s next commentary will be on what Russian President Vladimir Putin has said about the repeated claim that the U.S. is exceptional.