By Anil Netto
We are called to be stewards of creation — and that is a heavy responsibility.

It means that we have to be deeply committed to protecting human dignity and the common good, which includes saving the environment.

Unfortunately, for most people, it is difficulty to see beyond their front gates. The same goes with the Church — we have so much difficulty thinking of the world beyond the perimeter of the church premises. So, most of our church activities are focused on the community that participates in the parish that we often forget there is life outside the parish and we become more and more insular.

But what then of the parable in Luke 14 where Jesus speaks of the heavenly banquet? Those with land and property and those who were too involved in their own personal lives had no time for the invitation.

21 ‘The servant returned and reported this to his master. Then the householder, in a rage, said to his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” 22 “Sir,” said the servant, “your orders have been carried out and there is still room.” 23 Then the master said to his servant, “Go to the open roads and the hedgerows and press people to come in, to make sure my house is full; 24 because, I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet.”

The question now is do we have time for those people “on the streets” in our parishes and in our homes? People on the open streets refer to those who are forgotten and oppressed — the outcasts and the downtrodden of society.

Actually if we talk about one Malaysia, we now can see two Malaysia’s in many areas: health care, education and housing, to name three essential sectors.

The rich are able to get access to top quality care at expensive private hospitals, send their children to private or international schools (20- 25 pupils per teacher) and live in low-density, “gated” communities.

The lower-income group and the lower-middle class have no choice but to seek treatment in under-funded government-run hospitals, send their children to crowded government schools and live in congested apartment blocks or flats. And then there are the urban settlers and other pioneers who are gradually losing their homes and their ancestral lands to make way for “development”. For instance, the Penan in Sarawak are struggling to save their land from encroachment by timber and plantation companies.

Much of this disparity is due to economic policies that widen the gulf between the rich and the poor. In many ways, we live in two different worlds. Think of the rich man, attired in the finest purple linen and feasting, surrounding by fawning servants, while outside, poor Lazarus lay by the gate, hoping for crumbs, and surrounded by dogs licking his sores. The contrast couldn’t be more stark. Just as a great gulf separated them in this life, a similar chasm separated them in the after-life.

It is not that God hates the rich and doesn’t want everyone to have a life filled with abundance. The question is how did the rich man get so rich in a land where 90 per cent of the people were poor? Or how did they accumulate so much land and property when ordinary peasants and villagers were losing theirs due to debt and being evicted from the homes they had lived in for generations?

The reality today is few can become rich without making unethical or selfish choices along the way. For example, would I rather work for comparatively lower wages and spend more of my time in the service of the least of Jesus’ brothers and sister (i.e. the poor and the oppressed)? Or should I spend all my productive hours in a high-paying job in the service of the rich — but then have little spare time to be of service to others in need? These are tough choices we all have to make.

Should I take up low-paying cases or jobs that would assist the poor or should I opt for the lucrative contracts that benefit or would put me at the service of the rich? Should I pay my workers a higher wage and force myself to live with smaller profits or savings — or should I pay them a pittance so that I can earn a much higher profit and go for that round-the-world vacation?

In our time, we have just seen how the wealthy financiers and investment bankers accumulated fabulous amounts of profit and wealth by passing on dubious financial instruments which, when they were later proven to be worthless, left many ordinary people in misery. The public had to foot the bill via bailouts.

Should I be part of an exploitative system that treats workers like cogs in a machine to be exploited and squeezed? Or should I be outside that system and instead work towards the transformation of the world?

Is it possible to remain inside an exploitative, oppressive system and hope to change the system from within? Or is it more likely that I will end up getting changed by the system so that more and more my actions and words will resemble those who are powerful, oppressive and wealthy — with nary a second thought to the exploited and the outcasts of society?

In today’s world, few can become wealthy without also contributing to environmental degradation and contributing to a culture of consumerism that rapidly depletes the world of its natural resources, whether it is oil, water, gas, timber and other raw materials.

That is why we need to always do a reality check to see if we are participating in the banquet of the kingdom or are just too busy to have anything to do with the transformation that is so necessary to create a world of love, justice and compassion.