In a newspaper article, we have found the following moving story:
“A little boy, with excessive duties for his age, searches for his father.
“Unable to study since he has to care for his sick mother, the little boy of eleven years, Carlo Alberto Santoya, has dedicated himself to searching for his father, Mr. Luis Santoyo Rojas, who he has not seen for two years.
“The child tries solely to obtain the help of his father to cure his mother, who has a triple fracture in the right leg as a result of a crash. The conditions that the boy and his mother live in, now that she cannot work, are the most precarious, because in the day she is permitted to rest a little in a home, but in the evening she and the little boy have to sleep in the street because there is no space to sleep in that apartment of Zaragoza 79.
“Carlos Alberto says that they cannot have a roof to sleep under because they cannot pay the rent:
“The few cents that I get doing errands or in other small occupations, because they don’t give me work as I am very young, we use to be able to eat at least once a day.”
“The boy doesn’t know where his father is, for this reason he wants to make use of the columns of the newspaper.”
Thus ends the article.
We are very surprised that this newspaper can make such a touching story and yet remain so impassive. It is the most powerful newspaper in Mexico, its owners or owner must be millionaires, and yet they do the story and remain so tranquil, as if nothing had happened, as if that poor homeless mother and that poor little boy were dogs. There is no pity for the homeless.
Nobody is capable of offering them a roof or bread. That powerful newspaper, after listening to the story of the child, had to give them somewhere where these poor homeless people could spend the night, even a miserable room, winter is coming and if these unfortunate homeless ones do not get a roof they will die of cold. A poor mother with a little boy between her arms froze to death in a park of the city already last winter. The unfortunate homeless mother had nowhere to spend the night, she tried to sleep in the park and there she died.
Homelessness exists in the middle of modern civilization. Is hardly believable that there be so many cruel and inhuman people. While in the palaces and in the rich mansions the powerful of the land sleep peacefully, on the streets mothers wander with their children looking for an eave big enough that the rain does not soak them, or a wet and cold park where they can sleep for a while. How can these unfortunates have a fatherland? Which fatherland? What fatherland? A fatherland where they do not have a roof? A fatherland where they do not have protection? What do the religions do? Where is the charity that they preach so much? Why don’t they apply it? We see sumptuous cathedrals and rich mansions everywhere but the homeless continue as always… there is no human charity, the priests of all the religions preach it, certainly, they preach it but they do not practice it.
It is necessary, it is just, that religions set the example. We need to accomplish the Social Christ on the face of the earth, in practice. That religions look after the homeless is essential, it is urgent for the priests of all the cults to teach charity in practice. The different religious cults could have special houses for the homeless. It is precisely the priests of the different religions who are called to look after the homeless.
And the state? What does the State do for the homeless? It is hardly believable that the governments of the Earth can rest easy knowing that on the pavements and in the parks of the cities mothers and children who do not have anywhere to sleep wander about; old people are dying of cold, and sick persons are without shelter. They must have the hearts of hyenas, to sleep so peacefully having on their shoulders the responsibilities of government.
The grand lords seem to ignore the tremendous truth that all human beings regardless of their social position or religious beliefs, belong to a large family, nobody can be more than anyone else in this great family. It is therefore absurd to leave any member of the human family in distress.
The results of such cruelty are bloody revolutions, violent dictatorships, political extremism, religious persecution, attacks on religious sects, etc.. Never has cruelty had good consequences. Political extremisms are a consequence of lack of comprehension and charity.
We need nations to live in peace and this is impossible while human cruelty exists, we should fight against cruelty with the weapons of charity.
The religions require temples in which to pray and celebrate their rituals. However it is necessary to understand that there are cities where there exist an excess of temples. We have seen two or three temples on one street. That is no longer right. We need to be charitable, the money that would be invested in so many temples can be invested in houses of shelter for the homeless. This is the road to the accomplishment of the Social Christ. Religions need to teach the world to live by religious principles, they must start a great social reform.
At present the world is in crisis. There is religious persecution in some countries. The time has come for religions to overcome this worldwide crisis by teaching humanity in practice the true path of the Social Christ. Today it is no longer enough to preach theoretically. Today the religions should teach practically.
The religions should give the example in order that individuals, the people and the states, should follow it.
When religions as a vehicle of eternal values teach in practice the need to give shelter to the homeless, then there will be sympathetic men who bring to the governments in-depth projects and foundations to create in an effective way the SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM. Who can resolve definitively and forever the problem of the homeless?
There is a need to begin to solve this problem right now. Let religions begin, fewer cathedrals and more houses for the homeless.
The state will continue, imitating the example. Someone should begin; let the ones that preach charity begin.
Samael Aun Weor
