Dear Editor,

No doubt there will be many lessons to be learnt from the horrible human tragedy in Haiti. The one that comes to my mind so clearly today is one that though you might easily call it “religious” you might not find so clearly stated in many Christian doctrines today.

Few Christians would dare argue that the ministry of Christ was not especially to the poor, but in all honesty should we not ask ourselves: if Jesus of Nazareth were alive in the flesh again today, would he not be walking the streets of Port-au-Prince with tears in his eyes?

Indeed in the meaninglessly affluent world of our grand churches and majestic cathedrals, there is good reason to believe that the true meaning of the ministry of Jesus has been sadly forgotten. Many also ask if Jesus’ simple truths have been corrupted by the same forms of religious hypocrisy he once spoke so clearly against in the Sermon on the Mount and the guidance given in the Beatitudes sadly lost in the traditions and rituals proclaimed as representative of today’s Christian faith.

That realised, then isn’t it true that regardless of how much aid arrives, regardless of how many lives are saved and regardless of how great we think are those whom we praise as helping their brothers, should we not ask ourselves with heads bowed in shame and with silence as the only answer: what were we doing for the people of Haiti an hour before the earthquake struck?

Isn’t that, when all is said and done, the most important lesson we can learn from this tragedy, the lesson of not really having learnt to be our brother’s keeper? Indeed, an hour before the earth shook us out of our false sense of security, our shallow complacency, should we not have been doing unto the least of these there in Haiti and all around the world what Jesus so long ago told us to do in the service of the Lord?

Ed McCoy

Florida, USA

mmhobo48@juno.com