Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Underdevelopment of a Developed Country

"Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it....... it aches!!!" - Bernard Levin

Our nation is a nation of costs and benefits, buying and selling, economic slump and economic boom. But what of our humanity??? What is our nation when we take away the price tags, the technology, the MONEY?? What do we possess?

Most people would say, well, we have American VALUES!! The hard-working, self-made man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps!! We have JUSTICE in courts. We have a fighting spirit that doesn't take "no" for an answer - it's people like that who won the Revolution!!

Yet, let's take a minute to consider these values for what they really are, which is a mere shadow of morality. The hard-working, self-made man attributes all his success to HIMSELF and LUCK, never stopping to realize that the man down the street who attempted the same process in his grab at success was unable to attain his goals. We define "success" as the "nice things" we own, the people we associate ourselves with, or the restaurants we frequent. Our possessions define our success, and even people fall under this category. Our courts define their own justice based upon personal moral opinion rather than definite moral TRUTHS, and rule according to how they FEEL rather than how things ARE.

This is NOT a society based on solid values - it is a culture of shadows!!! And, when we reach out frantically grasping for satisfaction in our possessions, in our friends, and in our lives in general, looking for contentment, for peace, for LOVE, we find that there is something missing, that our hands can't feel what we thought would be there - we're reaching out and touching the mere shadow of something greater!!!

Pope Benedict writes in Caritas in Veritate that, "In the context of cultural, commercial or political relations, it also sometimes happens that economically developed or emerging countries export this reductive vision of the person and his destiny to poor countries. This is the damage that 'superdevelopment' causes to authentic development when it is accompanied by 'moral underdevelopment.'”

It is necessary for a country to have things. Things help us, they are convenient. But it is even more important for a country to have GOD. Everything means nothing without God. God is the meaning, the love, and the light behind the shadows that we reach out to!!! We're simply blind to the Greater Being standing tall in front of us!!

Let us reach out always past the shadows of the "things" in our life to Our Lord God who loves us! Let us always pray for Our Mother Mary's guiding touch, that she might gently place her hand on top of our own, and lead it lovingly toward the feet of Our Savior!!!

Fides, Spes, et Caritas Christi Per Mariam,
Christina :)

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