Another organisation designed to help others is ‘CAFOD’, which stands for ‘Catholic Association for Overseas Development’. They are very much like Christian Aid, except they specialise in long-term aid. This means that instead of offering a short term solution, such as providing the poor with food and water, they instead will provide people with the equipment or facilities they need to learn to do it for themselves. Their motto is ‘Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life’.
As well as joining voluntary groups, Christians can learn a lot from the way that other people have lived their lives.
Oscar Romero is one such person. He was a normal man living in El Salvador under the oppressive government at the time. He was a priest who spoke out about the way that the people of his country were being treated. In the late 1970s he became the Archbishop of Salvador, a move which greatly angered the government at the time. He openly spoke out in his sermons calling on the rest of the world to ‘come and save his people’. Even though he was only using non-violent protests he was well aware that speaking out in this way was putting his life danger. He encouraged the army to start a mutiny and ignore their orders. Soon before he was assassinated he said, ‘"I do not believe in death without resurrection," he said. "If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people’. This act of faith and tremendous strength brought hope and belief back to the disillusioned people of El Salvador.
It is the acts of these modern day disciples, which shows us the way that the teachings of St. Mark’s gospel are still being lived out today. People such as Oscar Romero and Mother Theresa are examples of this but even today there are many people carrying out the work of Jesus. Nurses and Doctors dedicate their lives to curing the sick and many people take up jobs that involve helping people in their everyday lives. My mum is one such example, as a very strong catholic she wanted to take up a job which allowed her to help those less fortunate and be a good Christian. She became a Care assistant, which involves her travelling to the homes of the disabled or those with mental problems and doing routine things that most take for granted but they are unable to do. These include washing them, cooking and cleaning.
When I asked her why she wanted to do a job that helped others worse off she said that she believed it was a Christians job to do as Jesus had instructed. She also believed in what Jesus had said when he called Levi, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." This means that Christians should do as Jesus instructed and helps the poor and cure sinners in the same way that modern day priests do.
