Chapter two, verses 14 to 18, of St James reads: "Take the case, my brothers, of someone who has never done a single good act but claims that he has faith. Will that faith save him? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, `I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty', without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead. "Say to whoever challenges you: `You have faith and I have good deeds, show me your faith apart from actions and I, for my part, will show you my faith in the way I act.' "
Strong words at any time. If you take a drive from Dublin's north inner city out to Howth you observe different landscapes. In parts of the city there is of some of the poorest housing in Europe and then at Howth there are the sleek yachts ready to sail. Or you can go out into south Dublin and drive through leafy, plush residential areas. The two worlds exist side by side, yet they are separate worlds with the occupants of both never interfacing.
Anyone driving through Dublin's "less well-off" areas for the first time is immediately forced to come face to face with the luck of the draw. It really is a question of where you are born. The graffiti on the walls spell out the sense of alienation of many of the residents. Most of our prison population comes from poor and deprived backgrounds. Anyone who says that stiffer penalties are the answer is just not in touch with reality.
Driving through parts of Dublin's inner city you can't help thinking of the words of St James. Any idea of preaching pious platitudes to those who are eking out an existence is true humbug.
It is difficult to hear all the talk about the so-called Celtic Tiger and the great condition of our economy and then think of the poor in this land of ours. We have people living in some of the worst conditions in Europe. Talk to those working in our hospitals and ask them what it's like being a public patient on a waiting-list.
No one who calls him/herself a Christian in Ireland can be complacent about the current situation - especially when there are people making embarrassing sums of money while others are left flounder and end up being destroyed.
It's just not good enough to say there is equal opportunity. That does not square with the reality and every Christian has both the obligation and privilege to make it his/her business to see to it that people are not left on the margins.
It is a nonsense to say that we will always have the poor. It is a nonsense to say that those who are poor are responsible for their situation. Of course it is a complicated and complex problem. But St James seems to be quite clear in his stance. Stop preaching any sort of pious nonsense; instead, get out and do something for those who are on the edge of society.
There is a growing tendency to preach an ideology that makes "me feinism" holy. It has become the mantra of modern Ireland. The final argument is that if something makes a profit it is holy and right. Have we lost our minds? We may be in the process of losing any faith we had, but it would be a disaster to lose our reason as well.
We have a great ability to look back in time and analyse the mistakes of previous generations. Have we the prophetic ability to look at our own situation and realising what we are doing wrong? As long as we have desperate housing and shoddy hospital conditions we can boast of nothing, never mind calling ourselves Christian. St James would laugh at us.
M.C.