There is no beauty left in the world...

No true beauty anyway, everything is flawed, not grotesque but somehow less than what is should be. There are not grand causes and noble pursuits. When I look at any of the commitments I could make they all lack the passion, the dedication and the purpose that make an act an end in itself and not simply a step toward solving a problem or making one feel better about oneself. So I give an hour of my time to the poor, so what, do I really believe that I am making a difference with that one hour—if only to underscore the utter inequity of the need in relation to the resources offered. Can I truly walk away from that situation feeling a little bit better about myself, about the difference I have made?

These are all pitiful, illusory ends, disparate acts which add up to nothing and worse prostitute the potentially meaningful for the despicable end of betterment. Isn’t all that matters one’s identification with Christ, to share in His sufferings through touching the people He touched? Even He did not challenge the state of the poor but simply sought to be with them in their sufferings. Christ does not offer a solution, but rather the realization of a greater problem. It is true faith that accepts the immutability of this problem and in so doing relinquishes any reliance on one’s abilities to solve it.