Monday 30 January 2012

Forget the poor, it's the rich that need our charity

He earns £100,000 each week amounting to well over £5 million pounds each year but no one questions his right to that money, or his skills and ability that enable him to command such a sum.

He is not alone.
In the UK and Mainland Europe, there are literally hundreds more like him, with a spread of adoring supporters worldwide.

He is, of course, footballer, David Beckham.

Compare him, if you will with the vilified Mr Stephen Hester, the hatchet man brought in to turn around the disaster that was the banking icon, RBS. He has probably studied and trained for a similar period of time as Mr Beckham, admittedly, on a more academic pitch, but the value that Mr Hester brings is not one of entertainment.

He has averted a crisis of proportions unimaginable that would have had a major impact on the living standards of every man, woman and child, in the UK and beyond. The impact on the poor man, woman and child would have been disastrous.

Hester saved RBS (and the country) many billions, of which, his annual bonus of c. £950,000 seems small fry - what David B would earn in ten weeks!

But the tragedy of all this anger that is now directed at the banking community (bankers are the new estate agents) is, that we have overlooked just how much they need prayers and charity, for their future is a bleak one and I am not talking about a hardening of the arteries and type two diabetes.

We seem to have forgotten that Christ, when He walked the earth, was not overly concerned about the fate of the poor (because he knew what their fate would most likely be).
He was most concerned for the rich and their spiritual welfare.

Where was Our Lord to be found most evenings once His mission had begun?

Not preaching to the old and infirm, or young families with many mouths to feed - he was eating with the filthy rich, the tax collectors (bankers?) the pimps and the prostitutes, the business community.

He knew the danger that they were in and, on the principle of not finding a Doctor among the healthy, there He counselled, preached and guided.

Matthew 19: 23-24:
And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

6 comments:

  1. We could pray for the footballers too.

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  2. Gareth - of course, especially Gary Speed.

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  3. Richard,
    A difficult subject! Before my ordination I was the accountant to the Institute of Bankers...later the Chartered Inst. of Bankers. I left there in 1979,,,its Centenary year after a big celebration in the Guildhall attended by the great and the good internationally.
    If I had remained in civvy street I would now be receiving (?earning?) much more than the Prime Minister!
    Deserving? Definitely not!

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  4. Fr W - but you would have been deserving of our charity Father :)

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  5. Lol. Definitely in need of it......whether deserving or not!

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