Who is my neighbour ?

In a typical food bank today, you’ll meet a pregnant woman desperate that Social Services don’t take her baby away because she’s not quite free of her addictions.  You’ll come across a weather- beaten fellow and his plastic bag of possessions, who’s “pitch” is outside somewhere.  You’ll find a person who has a relentless cancer that is gradually  eating away the body. You’ll find the addicts, the resigned, the abused, the chronically ill, and the literate alongside those who can’t read. People, just like you and me, but who’ve come upon hard times.
If Jesus came back as a man today, who would he befriend? Would he seek out the company of extremely nice, successful church people to whom bad news is what you read about in the papers about other people?
According to our sources of his life, Jesus spent a lot of his time with the under-dog. He not only condemned exploitation of the poor, but allowed himself to be surrounded by the sick and desperate, and healed them.
Let’s get back the real compassion in action shown by Jesus! In the Middle Ages, it was the church that started hospitals and schools. Let’s follow Justin Welby’s bold action and start to care.
The other day, exploring an old part of London, I popped into a church and discovered a model of a loaf of bread on a shelf. This was where the better off   church goers left a loaf for the poor in the late 17th century!
I think we’ve got a bit more than that to share now.

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