More years ago than I like to admit, I arrived as a first year at Cambridge. The Master of the College gave an afterdinner speech in which he told us that we were the chosen few, fortunate enough to have a place at the finest University in the country. He said that for each of us in the room, ten other bright young hopefuls had applied for our place and been rejected. He went on to tell us that with privilege came responsibility – responsibility to put to good use the talents we had and the opportunities that Cambridge afforded.
Having a greater awareness of the realities of life now than I did then, I have concluded that you don’t need to be chosen to grace the hallowed cloisters of an Oxbridge college for you to consider yourself privileged: if you live in a free country and had had half an education, you are one of the lucky ones. /
When I was a child, my parents used to take us out for walks in the country. If they saw a big house, they often remarked, “it’s nice to see how the other half live”. I’ve since pointed out to them that along with everyone else in the world earning more than three dollars a day, they are actually in the same half as the fraction of one percent who live in big detached houses in the country. It’s human nature to think of others as better off than yourselves, and to aspire to it. But that is not the truth of the matter, and aspiring to it is not the way of Christ.
Most of you here tonight are young, healthy and welleducated: you in a position where you can choose to cash in your good fortune for your own benefit, or use it for the benefit of those who didn’t get so lucky. The way that you do that can change throughout your life, as you, your capabilities and your understanding of the world changes. I hope that what I ask you to do tonight is just one step among many. The key thing is the decision you make about whether you care that the economic and political systems of the world exploit and abuse many of its people, or whether you simply say, "doesn't affect me", and proceed to build your own private heaven. So why should you choose to involve yourself? There are these words of Martin Niemöller: /
First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Socialist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me: there was no one left to speak up for me.
Martin Niemöller
The message is clear - don't just sit there booking your next ski-ing holiday, you might be next to be put up against the wall and shot. But you probably think that's unlikely in our comfortable backwater of a Western democracy (and you'd be right).
So why else might you decide to be involved? What about repeated message of scripture, that God desires justice e.g. Micah 6 v8? / And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6 v8
Or consider the story of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25: whether you read this as the truth about what awaits us after death, or simply as a parable, the point is clear: in this story we are "judged" not on the bad that we do, but on the good that we fail to do. Here in Northern Ireland socalled Christianity can simply amount to a list of things you don't do: don’t curse, no sex before marriage (especially if you get carried away and it makes you late for the wedding); don’t drink, you can't even fart on a Sunday. But some would accuse the same Christians of being happy to let institutionalised injustice run unchallenged here for fifty years of the last century.
On the basis of Matthew 25, if the account we have to give of ourselves is of the good we chose to do, not of the bad we chose not to do, who would have much to say in their defence?
But these reasons are more to do with fear or duty than with the business of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is love - love that is compassionate and willing, love that will give of its best simply because others are in need.
St. John the Apostle was supposedly known for delivering the same short sermon, regardless of the occasion or circumstances: “Brothers and sisters, love one another”. When members of his congregation asked whether perhaps they could hear a different sermon sometime, he replied, “When you have mastered this lesson, we’ll move on to another”.
Two thousand years on, I think he would still find no reason to change his material. /
If you consider yourself to be a child of God, and if that means more than just a recreational pastime, a Sunday evening social club, or psychological fire insurance, you shouldn't need selfinterest or a divine injuction to motivate you: you will be outraged at the way this world treats the poor and exploited. If a member of your family was abused, would you not do something about it? Well if you are a child of God, the poor and oppressed of this world are your brothers and sisters. If you want to call yourself a Christian, you have to expand your circle of concern - anything less is simply a circle of self-interest. / THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Chattering Classes Version

If you choose to ignore global injustice, and do not try to live simply as a gesture of solidarity, then I for one do not understand what you mean if you claim that your heart has been touched by the love of God. God calls us to follow him - and my reading of the Bible tells me that means solidarity with the poor. Perhaps then our witness will speak more truly of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Archbishop Oscar Romero said, "I am shepherd who, along with his people, has begun to learn the beautiful and difficult truth: our Christian faith requires that we submerge ourselves in this world" / THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Tell It As It Is Version

The lifestyles we choose demonstrate the truth of whether we really care about the justice that characterises God' Kingdom.
Here in Western Europe, we choose lifestyles that would need three planets to sustain our rate of consumption - the country run by these guys would need five (and they'd still start a war to try and take over a sixth)
We live in a "What's In It For Me?" culture - a culture that is in blatant contradiction to the Gospel of Christ, but Christians still spend their time and money on the house, the car, the holidays, the wedding, the shopping spree, the second house - just like everyone else, and rarely give a feck about those who weren't born with a winning ticket for the world economic lottery. In fact, they think it’s a bigger scandal that I just said an F-word in church than the fact that millions lack the basic necessities of life and freedom whilst we live in obscene levels of affluence. Denial is not just the name of a river in Egypt /
So far you may think I have talked more about solidarity with the poor than about Human Rights - if you think that, you just haven't made the connection yet. Check this out:
If you don't understand why it's blasphemous, try listening harder in church this Christmas. / “Whenever men and women are condemned to live in poverty, human
rights are violated.
If this outrageous and blasphemous assault on the poor is to end, it is no use for us to sit around and blame everyone else, and refuse to face up to hard choices ourselves.”
Joseph Wresinski
Human Rights is about a lot more than just writing letters for Amnesty International - and having urged people to do this for the last couple of years, I wanted to make that clear.
But I AM here in fact to talk specifically about confrontimg injustice - and indeed, to do more than just talk. I am here to appeal to you to act, and to provide you with the means of doing so.
Tonight, at the start of Human Rights Week, I am asking you to do two things. In a moment you will be given some materials. The case information sheet tells you about the situation of a victim of injustice. The card is for you to send them a message of hope - something simple like, "I have read about your situation, I am thinking of you".
Please, please honour the advice on the case information sheet about what it is appropriate to say - in almost all cases, you should not mention politics, and in many cases you should not mention religion either, do not even say you are praying for them - but make sure you DO pray for them. /
The second thing I want you to do is to challenge injustice by writing a letter to the authorities that can do something about it – release for the prisoner, prosecution of the culprits. All the information you need is supplied, including what to say. I quote here news of an outcome to one of last year's cases:
Amnesty International welcomes the release a few days ago of Eritrean gospel singer Helen Berhane, who had been detained incommunicado without charge or trial for two and a half years at Mai Serwa military camp.
Helen Berhane was among 2,000 detained members of banned evangelical churches in Eritrea, including her own Rema church, which has been subjected to sustained persecution by the Eritrean government in the last four years. She spent most of her detention in inhuman and degrading conditions inside a metal shipping container which was used as a prison cell. The authorities reportedly tortured her many times to make her recant her faith. In October 2006, she was admitted to hospital in Asmara as a result of new beatings. She was released in late October but is said to be confined to a wheelchair due to the injuries she sustained to her feet and legs. She refused to abandon her faith despite the threats and ill-treatment.
If you complete either in the time we have, simply return them to me at the end. Otherwise, either return them when you have completed them, or post them yourself - the details are on the sheet. Don't add insult to injustice by throwing them away. /
Christ is best served by men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbours;
by followers who are completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for the oppressed is a farce.
Pedro Arrupe