Can you imagine what would happen if a group of people with untold resources, passion and energy started asking the question, “How do we hear the cry of the oppressed?”. What if they were actually willing to wade into the cultural, economic, racial, global and personal issues involved without fear, with the confidence that no matter how painful, messy and volatile it got, Jesus would guide them the whole way? You’d have some church on your hands. Rob Bell.
We see this kind of action in Saint Lawrence of Rome. “The Prefect of Rome, a greedy pagan, thought the Church had a great fortune hidden away. So he ordered Lawrence to bring the Church’s treasure to him. The Saint said he would, in three days. Then he went through the city and gathered together all the poor and sick people supported by the Church. When he showed them to the Prefect, he said: ‘This is the Church’s treasure!‘” Isn’t it amazing that Lawrence recognized what was truly beautiful? He didn’t bring gold and precious jewels, but he brought the oppressed, the rejected and the poor as the treasure of the church.
I’ve heard it said that you can find God in the poor and surely this was the case with Saint Lawrence of Rome. Do we still find this ‘treasure’ in the church today? Do we still find ‘God’ in the church today?