St Mary’s Cathedral
Friday 1st July 2005
MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY
Welcome:
This is one of the
occasions when I know it is right to say that you are incredibly welcome to St
Mary’s Cathedral. This is a momentous
weekend. To be honest, it is very simple. Eight men have the power to make a huge
difference to the lives of 100s of thousands of our brothers and sisters in
Africa – and in other parts of the world.
We are here to add our prayers and voices in song, drama and
silence. We are in solidarity with millions
of others throughout the world. Our
sashes will be a visible sign of our commitment to change. There is no doubt
that there has to be a major statement from the leaders of the European
Community about our concern and commitment to our sisters and brothers in
Africa.
I suspect that a good number of our
congregation tonight have visited Africa. I have very clear memories of living
with nomadic people in Kenya and Ethiopia, very poor people in Tanzania and
more recently with people living with HIV and AIDS in Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a scandal that we in the rich part of
the world don’t use our gifts, talents, imagination and wealth to serve our
kith and kin in Africa and other parts of the world. Thank you for being here this evening. Your presence is important. Thank you for your witness and support, there
is no doubt, it will make a difference.
HOMILY
About 20 metres
behind me there is a magnificent statue of Cardinal Basil Hume, unveiled by Her
Majesty the Queen a couple of years ago.
Only once in my life have I had to prepare a speech for a Cardinal, and
it was Basil Hume. The text he wanted to
use was the Gospel we have just heard, the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. One of the phrases he wanted to use was: ‘The
Rich man wasn’t bad, he just didn’t notice, he just didn’t notice’. The Cardinal had a picture in his mind’s eye
of the Rich man leaving his castle every morning, and simply stepping over the
poor man at the gate. The poor man was
simply not part of the ‘rich man’s world’, as someone once sang.
The brilliant thing
about you being here tonight is that you do notice, you are not oblivious to
the needs of the poor man, or rather the 800 million of our sisters and
brothers who live on less than $1 a day.
It is thanks to the huge MakePovertyHistory Coalition that far more
people throughout the world now at least notice the plight of the poorest. It is thanks to Live8, to Bono, to Bob Geldorf, CAFOD, Christian Aid, The Evangelical Alliance,
Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela Pope John Paul 11, and so many others, that more
of us do notice what is happening. It is
thanks to the media who give us the pictures and the words.
More and more people
now believe that it is indeed a scandal that 30,000 people will die in poverty
today, one every 2.8 seconds. This week
we remember the devastation resulting from the Tsunami in
But it is not enough
to notice. Here we are in prayer and
solidarity with millions of people throughout the world, folk who were at
Politicians have to
compromise – that is how it works, it is better to compromise than to go to
war. However, we don’t have to
compromise. We can go on demanding the
eradication of poverty. We can rail
against the fact that the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of
people living in poverty has already slipped from 2015 AD to 2147 AD – a mere 132 years. The goal to achieve universal primary
education has slipped to 2129, 114 years late.
The goal to reduce infant mortality by two thirds is now estimated to be
achieved in 2165, 150 years late, and so on.
We do not need to compromise, we must not compromise, we do need to go
on saying it as it is.
The Rich man in the
Gospel was not a bad man – he simply didn’t notice. But not noticing got him into bother. He ended up in ‘a place of torment’. The poor man found himself with Abraham, and
‘at rest’. The poor man’s wounds had
been licked by dogs, the Rich man is now in agony. There has been a great reversal, the ignored
is now in peace. The ignorer is
suffering. The Rich man offered no
hospitality to Lazarus (whose name means ‘God is my help’) and now Lazarus is
incapable of offering hospitality to the Rich man. Remember when we used to think that ‘Dives’
was the Rich man’s first name, it simply means ‘rich man’. The story is about
those for whom ‘God is their help’ – and it is clearly not the ignoring rich.
The fundamental tragedy is that the rich man ignored his covenant relationship
with Lazarus. He knew he was there, he
even knew his name, he used it when talking to Abraham, but he ignored
him.
The fundamental
tragedy today lies in our refusal to do what we can. There were 137 warships from 36 countries
in the
It is almost 10 years
ago since Pope John Paul 11 said: The eradication of poverty will only be
achieved when the poor themselves can take their fate into their own hands,
when they become part of the conceiving and putting into practice programs
which directly concern them’[1]
Lazarus was never
invited to participate in exploring his future, he wasn’t offered aid, he was
simply ignored.
We can learn from the
actions and attitude of the Rich man. It
is about metanoia, a change of heart, a ‘u-turn’ if you
like. Some u-turns are for making.
So tonight, as the
people begin to gather in Edinburgh and other places, we lift up our hearts in
prayer and in song, we lift up bands and sashes and pray that the rich and
powerful in the world will come together to give a lift up to the poorest of
our sisters and brothers throughout the world.
St Mary’s Cathedral
Live8