Rich blessed enough to share their wealth

Charitable altruism and peacemaking are both our national heritage and our destiny. But now we do not have debate or compromise that aim for an emerging synthesis that will benefit everyone. What we have is stubborn gridlock and a tangled web of lies that distort the gospel of truth. Selfish hands compete to handle and hold growing wealth that is diminished from what it could be and limited to the very few by bone-chilling greed.

We need a new beatitude relevant to our current condition: Blessed are the rich because they have most of the material wealth and they can share with the poor so the poor can pay their fair share of the taxes. Precious common ground and fertile fields of wealth are being turned into cruel arenas by misguided, shortsighted politicians where the rich and strong can maneuver to crush the weak and the poor. Do we really want the poor to take a permanent vow of poverty? It is time to cite the divine rule of law and love and render Caesar powerless to take from the weak and the poor what belongs to the weak and the poor and from God what is God’s.

George E. Bedingfield

Arlington Heights