All the Way to Heaven is Heaven-St. Catherine of Siena

When we examine our society, which is generally called capitalist (because of its methods of producing and controlling wealth) and is bourgeois (because of prevailing concern for acquisition and material interests, and its emphasis on respectabliity and mediocricy), we find it far from God's justice,

in economics, private and state capitalism bring about an unjust distribution of wealth, for the profit motivates decisions. Those in power live off the sweat of others' brows, while those without power are robbed of just return for their work. Usury (the charging of interest above administrative costs) is a major contributor to the wrongdoing intrinsic to this system. We note, especially, how the world debt crisis leads poor countries into greater deprivation and a dependency from which there is no foreseeable escape. Here at home, the number of homeless and hungry and unemployed people rises in the midst of increasing affluence.

As I read these words I find myself thinking about the words of those who are called by the Roman Church, separated brethren, in particular, Ron Sider-Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger; Donald Kraybill-The UpsideDown Kingdom; Dave Jackson-Living together in a World Falling Apart; and Clarence Jordan-The Cotton Patch Gospels, all of whom resound the words of Peter Maurin, "Our Lord taught us in his great sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, in his instructions to his missionary apostles, in his parables. His kingdom was not of this world. He spoke of humility and charity, and of the necessity to put on Christ, to partake of his divinity, to partake of his body and blood, and many went away sorrowing. He did not force them to believe. He wanted the freely given love of his creatures."

Having spent fourteen years living in community I have come to see that living together, having all things in common, is the answer offered to us by Jesus and his early assembly of followers. "And the heart and the soul of the multitude of those who had believed was one; and not even one said that any of his possessions was his own, but all things were common to them. And with great power the apostles gave testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:32-33). O, for the wonder, of finding that society once again, where God makes things to be much easier than we have made them (Dorothy Day); and where it is easier for people to be good (Peter Maurin).