Outline Catholic Teaching on wealth and poverty (Q1) Catholic teaching basically tells us that wealth can be used for good or evil

Another parable that Jesus taught is The Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man had no regard for the poor Lazarus who would come to The Rich Man's door to beg for food that had fell from The Rich Man's table. When Lazarus died he was taken up to a feast in heaven with Abraham but when The Rich Man died he suffered great pain and asked Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his tongue, Abraham replied "Remember my son, that in your lifetime you were given all the good things, while Lazarus got all the bad things. But now he is enjoying himself here while you are in pain". Christians learn that they will be severely punished in hell if they are ignorant towards the poor, and also we learn that it is a lot harder for the rich to enter heaven than for the poor to enter heaven this is because the rich are always being tempted with material goods, this leads them to forget the poor and forget God.

In the Gospel of John it is written "No one can be the slave of two masters; he will hate one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" This teaching tells us that wealth can lead us away from God.

Jesus once told a parable about the end of the world. Jesus said that he would separate the good and the bad as a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats. The good were sent to heaven and Jesus said "For I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink ... lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me ..." The good people were puzzled and asked when they had done this, Jesus replied "As you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." The bad people were told that they were going to hell because they did the opposite to the good people and Jesus said, " As you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me". This parable warns Christians about the consequences if we neglect our wealth and fail to help the poor. Jesus warns us that we will face hell as the punishment.

Finally it is written in Timothy that, "Love of money is the root of all evil" This extract shows us that money will lead us away from God.

All of these biblical teachings tell us how money and wealth can lead us away from God and can make us dismissive of poverty. They also teach us that our wealth should be used to help others especially the poor and that all things on earth have been given to us by God and also we have to share all our good things

The Catechism teaches us that "God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebuke those who turn away from them."

Also the Catechism teaches us that "Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility towards those which are unable to ensue the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events."

These teachings from the Catechism tell us that the rich should give to the poor; that could mean richer nations giving to the poor, or a rich person giving to a poorer person. It always supports the Biblical teaching that we should share God's gifts.

The Vatican 2 told us, "...the council asks individuals and governments to remember the saying of the Father 'Feed the dying of hunger because if you do not feed him you are killing him."

We can learn from this that it is our responsibility to make sure that anyone in need of help, is helped by us, because if we do not help them then it is our fault if anything goes wrong.

Ahsan Zia 10B

R.E Coursework Mrs McDiarmid