There haven't been many tears shed over the conviction of wealthy entrepeneur and author, Conrad Black. Even though he is no longer a Canadian citizen the various media outlets in this country gave his trial and its outcome an extraordinary amount of coverage. Black doesn't seem to realize that he is likely to go to jail, certain that his conviction will be overturned on appeal.
Why is Lord Black of Crossharbour a man that people love to hate? He is a person of considerable intelligence, witty and personable among friends, a very good historian. The quick answer is that he is also greedy and arrogant. Of course these are not punishable offenses in a court of law, but we probably felt that he got what he deserved because of his air of superiority and entitlement.
When I pondered this I wondered if Jesus' comment that we better be careful not to fixate on the speck in someone else's eye when we are staggering around with a log in our own applies here. Those of us who live in the privileged global West have enjoyed opulent lifestyles in the past couple of generations, unparalleled in human history. In recent years it has been pointed out that this has been at the expense of those in other parts of our world and of the planet itself. Even though we have been warned by environmentalists and the broader scientific community that we will pay for our plunder we insist that it is our right to live this way.
There may not be a day of reckoning for any of us in a courtroom, but aren't we a little uncomfortable about our greed and arrogance? Jesus calls us to a life of simplicity and justice.
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