The pattern of this world is best perceived from the perspective of the poor

"You will always have the poor among you." This remark was made by the apprentice carpenter and wanderer, Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. He was, as it turned out, God's Christ in the world. As Christian faith has it, he is acknowledged as chosen for all times, as a guide for what is true, right and worthy.

A woman had poured a full bottle of expensive oil of nard over the Nazarene's feet. The fragrance spread all over the house. Some of those who were present began to moralize and say it was waste. The bottle should rather have been sold and the money used for the poor. But he said to leave her alone. "You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."

This incident is one among many which Christianity has pre-served as holy throughout the ages. There is a biblical treasury which contains retold moments when divine revelation has come through a temporal occasion. What happens is that light is shed from a higher perspective. And, from that light, clues to other, similar situations and contexts can be inferred.

What Jesus said can easily be taken as pessimistic or even cynical: There are always the poor and you cannot trouble your minds with them all the time. Many are tempted to see it that way. On further reflection, however, the words of Jesus have a sting. There are always the poor and if one takes them seriously one soon becomes aware of the fact that it is from their point of view that "the pattern of this world" is most clearly perceived. The poor have insights into the nature of wealth which go deeper than the insights of the rich into the nature of poverty.

The poor become victims of exploitation and oppression. That gives them the prerogative of interpretation as to what happens. Their experience is the key to discerning the forces that might be at work when injustice comes about. Thus it is in the nature of things, as it were, that the Son of God was born poor and died poor. This did not prevent him from rejoicing over the richness of life, when it offered itself, as it did when by lavish generosity, pure oil of nard spread its fragrance through the house of friends in the suburban village of Bethany.

During its long history, and from place to place over the sur-face of earth, the church of Christ has brought with it the chal-lenge of always being conscious of the plight of the poor. The concern has been to stand on their side and to see reality as it presents itself from below. In that the church has at times been more, or less, successful. Unfortunately it has often been less successful.

One cannot see one's own time in a true perspective and no-body knows what the future contains. One can only guess, and many are worried about the increasing divides between the rich and the poor of the world. Not only are human beings affected, but also the natural world, the resources of the sea, the casts of mind of cultures and the frail dividing line between war and peace. A feeling is growing that all life faces a global disaster unless the pattern of conversion changes our thinking. The rich Western world, and its Christianity, finds itself facing a moral di--lemma. The question is, if this part of the world collectively "by persistence turns its back on truth and follows evil".