I am realizing more and more just how much of a barrier money can be in relationships. The same beggars on the street that you see day after day can either be your best friend or very cold to you, all depending on whether or not you give money. Anyone you do business with will try to charge you too much, usually double or triple the price they would offer to a native (and for the record, I hate bartering).
Even at Nabo Jibon I saw it today. The men in the TB ward asked me how much it cost for the plane from America to Kolkata. Obviously I didn't have to tell them, but I don't like holding back information when I feel like it's a reasonable question. I gave them a conservative estimate for a one-way ticket as half of a round trip. Their eyes and faces told me what they were feeling inside. They couldn't believe that I could have so much money to spend on a trip to Kolkata. It was a small fortune to them. Far more money than any of them have ever had at any one time. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they've never known anyone (other than the volunteers) that had that kind of money. Just my ability to come to Kolkata creates a wall of money between us.
In a world that looks at people first by what they have, are true relationships across class lines truly possible? I need to believe that through the power of Jesus love, these relationships are possible.
3 comments:
Personally, I don't think that it's possible to have more than a casual relationship across such a stark class boundary
Not trying to team up on you or criticize you here, Ian, but to me it sounds like you don't believe this. You just want to believe it. I may be wrong but you might not have a lot of experience with such relationships: so what is this belief based on?
Tolstoy, as you know, was a member of the aristrocratic upper class in Russia. In the last few decades of his life he began to spend time with the peasants, do manual labor, help them repair broken roofs, learned to repair shoes. And he genuinely befriended them. When he died, thousands and thousands of peasants attended his funeral.
Over spring break I spent two days and a night with homeless people in Pomona. The hospitality and love they showed *me* far surpassed anything I've done for anyone or much of what I have seen in loving acts of Christians for the poor. I would definitely say I had more than a casual relationship with some of them: especially Al, Lester, and The Crow.
It is naive to blindly accept such statements as "love knows no boundaries" or "love conquers all" or the many such statements in the bible - IF they are left at that - IF one does not try to put them into practice, to try to understand them through *experience*. Such is faith. When one lives and experiences faith, it is not blind. The true mark of whether or not one believes is how he lives his life. If he devotes himself to such a way of life, we all might be surprised at what happens. Phil is young and inexperienced. But if he keeps this sort of stuff up, I do know that "the power of Jesus" will prevail.
"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and not tried."
-G.K. Chesterton
Ian, when I said "I need to believe," I certainly didn't mean that I currently do believe that with my whole heart. I've seen little pieces of it myself, and I certainly know people that have had some pretty amazing experiences of it. By need I mean that for my experiences across those barriers to ever be worthwhile, I need to go into it with an attitude that it is possible and work for it. I meant it as an area of growth in my relationship with Christ, and through Christ with the poor.
whoops, forgot to sign my name for that last one!
This is Ethan.
(aka anonymous monk)
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