"Place not your trust in idols!"

65. Here is the promise which Our Lord makes us: "You shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances" (Ezek. 36:25-27).

Let us not be mislead by this magnificent biblical language. It is not an appeal to fine sentiments, to bring about a mere material sharing, however worthwhile and effective that might be. It is the most farreaching proposal that could ever be put to us. The proposal of God, who comes to offer each one of us liberation from our idols and to teach us to love. This commits our whole being, reunified in this way. Then we can overcome our fears and our selfishness in order to be attentive to our brothers and sisters and to serve them.

Our idols are all near us. They are our longings as individuals and as communities, whether we are rich or poor, for material goods, power, reputation and pleasure, viewed as ends in themselves. By serving these idols, the human being is enslaved and the planet impoverished (Cf. § No. 25). The profound injustice suffered, by those who cannot meet the bare necessities of life, is precisely the fact that they are forced, by necessity, to seek material goods above all else.

The heart of the poor Lazarus was freer than the heart of the evil rich man, and through the voice of Abraham, God not only asks the unrighteous rich man to share his feast with Lazarus, but demands a change of heart and acceptance of the law of love, in order that he become a brother to Lazarus (Cf. Lk. 16:19 ff).

It is by freeing us from our idols that God will enable us to set about transforming the world, notonly by increasing riches of all kinds, but above all by directing the work of humanity towards the service of all. The world can then rediscover its original beauty which is not only the beauty of nature on the day of Creation, but the beauty of the garden that was perfectly tended and tilled and rendered fertile by the human being, at the service of one's brothers and sisters, in the loving presence of God and out of love for God.

"Fight hunger by changing your lifestyle" is the motto which has emerged in Church circles and which shows the people in the affluent country how to become the brothers and sisters of those living in poverty(⁹³).