WHAT GOD IS DOING

I'm a little behind on this, but I just recently watched Bono's Keynote Address at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast.

It was a relatively stunning piece of work. He was refreshingly nonpartisan, giving props to the President and Congress for their accomplishments in addressing third-world debt and AIDS in Africa. He claimed that religious and political leaders had helped usher in an "era of grace." But he was also prophetically confrontational in calling the US to increase its "tithe" to the world's poor.

What was most interesting, however, about the homily was that Bono can preach. He was bringing it, and it was good. He didn't get political, expliciting condemning or criticizing administration policies on war or economics. He addressed the human struggle we face in balancing the convenience of "charity" and the uncomfortable demands of "justice" and "equality."

This is not about charity, it’s about justice. And that’s too bad. Because we’re good at charity. Americans, Irish people, are good at charity. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties; it doubts our concern, and it questions our commitment. Six and a half thousand Africans are still dying every day of preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity: This is about justice and equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we would let it happen anywhere else -- if we really accepted that Africans are equal to us.

Look what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to the misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature”. Well, in Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month -- a tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It’s annoying but justice and equality are mates, aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain in the ass. Seriously.

As a way of discerning the will of God when we take our faith public, Bono points out that wherever God may be, we know God is with the poor and the downtrodden. He says, "God is with us if we are with them." Sounds like a pretty simple calculus: If our actions are designed to benefit anything or anyone over "the least of these," it is suspect. Doesn't mean it's wrong, but it ought to come under some serious scrutiny.

The "money line" in the speech was when he recalls the wisdom of a spiritual advisor:

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life -- in countless ways, big and small. I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I - I'd be saying, "Look, I've got a new song...Would you look out for it. I have a family; I'm going away on tour -- please look after them. I have this crazy idea. Could I have a blessing on it."

And this wise man asked me to stop. He said, "Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing -- because it’s already blessed."

Well, let's get involved in what God is doing. God, as I say, is always with the poor. That's what God is doing. That's what He’s calling us to do.

I suppose the problem is that everyone thinks that what they are doing is what God is doing. We continually make and remake God in our own image.

May we all be blessed by our actions, not by our intentions.