Generosity
Over a lifetime there are many stages in our celebration of Christmas. This year mine revolved round grandchildren, the news of the Asian tsunami breaking into the happy chaos of new toys and the remains of feasting. In the security and love of a family Christmas the stark contrast of the unfolding devastation was emotionally shocking. Since Boxing Day we have seen that widespread sense of personal shock result in the giving, in the UK alone, of £1 for every man, woman and child. It is generosity on a huge scale.
That generosity needs to continue beyond the point when the media begin to scale down their coverage. After the immediate relief work, the slow rebuilding of towns and villages, of roads and communications, of tourist hotels and fishing boats will take a long time. It will be a triumph of generosity and compassion, of international cooperation and political will, if all that happens steadily and efficiently over the long term.
But generosity is one thing, justice is another, and there will be no justice, and generosity will be wasted if these coastal communities, rebuilt and restored, then face the insidious and inexorable rise in sea levels that may, within a few decades, destroy them again slowly but surely. If we are really concerned enough to give so generously then we have to find the political will at the highest levels to do something about global warming and the emission of greenhouse gases. So our generosity has to mean that we actively support uncomfortable restrictions on our lifestyle, a rise in the cost of fuel, much higher airfares and far less travelling. We have to change the way we live, for the sake of the people whose lives we are saving today, and for the sake of our human civilisation. That is costly generosity, but costly generosity is the heart of our faith.
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