A particularly sad aspect of contemporary society is its constant promotion of self-indulgence! Such an influence makes loving God and loving our neighbour all the more difficult. A self-indulgent society encourages us to see no value in another people, seeing them simply as competition. Even causing us to use others for our own gain. In spite of this influence many people in our world today are suffering and our self-indulgent society can see no profit in helping them: “What good will it do me, helping the poor?” – they might ask themselves. The notion of helping others, because they bear the image of God, carries with it no element of personal gain, at least not here on earth. It takes great courage to withstand the temptation to care only for ourselves. It takes an act of faith, trusting that God is with us, when we try to help others, because such actions stand in opposition to a self-indulgent culture that sees being charitable as weakness. Being charitable and considerate towards others is the Christian thing to do. We may not fear the end of time, or even the end of our own time – our death – but we must fear giving in to a world of self-indulgence and its rejection God’s love and His call to us all to be compassionate.

… walk the mile and bear the load.