‘In every community, there is work to be done.’

by Ronan

On my way to work this morning I passed a carpet van, and grimaced….. This was no ordinary van….It is common knowledge that the owner of the company concerned is a major player in the drug scene in Ireland. He uses that company to ‘explain’ his extraordinary wealth…but we’re not blind!… Not any more anyway.

Not too long ago I spent some time with Fr. Peter McVerry SJ in inner-city Dublin where he works with the city’s homeless. More often than not homelessness goes hand in hand with drug abuse and so I was introduced to drug users and ex-dealers alike. These homeless men and women where amazing people who lead heroic lives…they do drugs but that’s a side note.

Many of them had horrific stories to tell which gave cause for their adiction and as Fr. McVerry said ‘If I was born into and grew up with the experiences they had I’d be lucky to be doing as well as they are now.

I won’t begin to regail you with horror stories from the emerald city but I assure you that whatever you’ve been through will pale in comparison….I admit that now of myself. Drug dealers deal in the sufferings of others by preying on the weak of heart or will.

Even the ex-dealers amongst them were relatively innocent. The ones I came across were sucked, by dispair, into a downward spiral of despiration. The ’sin’ that is the sale of such narcotics starts at the top. Lower down the food chain you’ll find the desperate and those down trodden by society. At the top you’ll find cruelty and a room full of nonexistant consciences. The difference is that at the top you’ll find the cool and the calculated who refuse to ‘use’ because they know that it would mean an end to their empire. At the bottom are the ignorant…the relatively innocent…these are the ones who get jail time.

The death of Veronica Guerin was meant to shine a light on this world of cruelty yet the problem has since skyrocketed. There exists two parallel societies in Ireland and we are only aware of our own. Our laws protect our own. The difference between both is that in our society stealing is wrong….full stop! It’s against the law and that’s that. In their society stealing for its own sake is wrong but if it’s to feed yourself or your family….well that’s that!

What makes our way right and their way wrong?….anyway that’s going off track…Our laws are designed to protect the weak. Such an aspiration is only perfectly suited to our faith….the face of God is to be found in the poor…in the weak…in those who have succumbed to providence.

Our state has failed the weak if such a society exists and is so easily forgotten…if such a society is forced to suffer so we can exclaim in response to the news: ‘Oh, that’s awful!’ and then turn to the property section. This is a terrible way for anyone to be….but it’s damn strange way for ‘Christians to live.

“In every community, there is work to be done.
In every nation, there are wounds to heal.
In every heart, there is the power to do it.”

-Marianne Williamson

Monday, July 30th, 2007 and is filed under Views on News.