Did you ever consider that your actions impact everything in this world? That you are responsible for - a co-creator of - the world we live in? Fr. Brian McCormick tells us, "YOU are the world," that all people are One, and what each of us does affects the whole.
This is the story of a how a remarkable man became a teacher and practitioner of how to live together as brothers and sisters on this planet of nearly 8 billion people.* Similar to Matthew Desmond in Poverty, America, he tells us how our greedy lifestyle is a major contributor to the poverty that pervades our American society.
In his work at the experimental ministry of Martin House in Trenton, NJ, Fr. McCormick was tasked by the Trenton diocese to study and address racism and poverty so that the Church could determine how it could best serve these needs.
Fr. McCormick charged forward on this mission, formulating and promoting soul-searching ideas about how society works and how it needs to be changed with regard to the poor. He sees human greed as the basis for poverty and many of society's ills. His ideas about greed and how it stems from a lack of recognition of the Oneness or the inter-relatedness of our world are controversial.
He challenges the church to take a leading role in guiding the "world conscience" to address society's ills, globally, and right down to the local level - with programs in the nearest center of poverty.
Fr. McCormick's ideas on how to make "Oneness" a reality, and the journey that formed the man and his ideas, take us on a thought-provoking path in this book. His meditations are sometimes startling but give direct insight into his unique way of thinking and facing the world.
You can read more about Fr. McCormick's work in Trenton in the companion book: A Radical Heart: Making Black Lives Matter Through Faith in Action by Mary R. Callahan.
*Ideas also put forth by Pope Benedict XVI - World Peace Day 2009, and Pope Francis - Encyclical, Laudato Si, In Care of Our Common Home
