Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, October 27, 2007


Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such
a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature,
whether sacred or profane, out of which profit
cannot be squeezed.

- Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, author,
and philosopher, born on this day, 1466


So, nothing new, right! Here we are, 600 years later. And what Erasmus observed of his time is uncannily descriptive of ours. I’m reading an interesting book called “Journey into Islam”, by Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Here is what he says about the effects of globalization: “Poverty kills thousands of people annually through the lack of health care and food; about one billion people earn less than a dollar a day; and, as if to mock these figures, 358 individuals own more financial wealth than half of the world’s population collectively. ….. Admittedly, societies have faced the … problems cited earlier …. Excessive interest in amassing material wealth (Ah, our Erasmus!) … (but) it is the scale and scope of globalization today that, without restraint or balance, places humankind at a dangerous point in its history.”

Have you heard about the Theology of Abundance (or “Blessing”)? It says that if you love God you will get rich (at some level). So, does that mean that all the radically poor - shall we say half of the world’s population – does not love God, and so God is punishing them?? You see (I hope!) the idiocy of such thinking. And could any so-called “theology” be more of an affront to a poor carpenter’s son, a naked saint, a Buddha with a hut for a home, a Sufi poet?

And yet they all thought themselves rich beyond imagining - and they were.

I consciously adopted a way of reminding me of where my riches lie. I give many things away. And when I move, I sell everything or give it to someone. I keep only a few treasurers of the heart and a few beautiful things. But in 40 years, my dear friends have gone with me in heart and spirit, and they constitute my riches - along with those who taught me how glorious the World can be, and how exquisitely beautiful, from a Laurentian lake to the Arizona desert.

Many seek profit out of the sacred and the profane. “Globalization” will churn its inevitable way, for I have little faith in Faith these days to teach balance and generosity.

But I’m going to try and follow the path over whose gate is written the words, “Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth”.

Brian+