Nun: Woe to you, oil executives!

The Carmelites of Indianapolis are emerging from their cloister onto the Web. Their slick-looking site, PraytheNews.com, publishes the weekly meditations of several nuns on a current event. (They also have a walk-through introduction to contemplative prayer, a four-part plan, perfect for Advent.)

In Pray the News, Sister Terese writes:

The Gospel paraphrased from Matthew 23:

The oil magnates and CEOs sit by the side of White House executives and eat at the tables of their congresspersons. They preach justice and fairness but they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear and lay them on the shoulders of the unemployed, the poor, the families struggling to make it, the widows and widowers; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to lower pump prices or fuel for winter homes. They do their deeds that are seen by others, for they drive cars that are big, and fly in private jets, and mingle with the powerful and the mighty. They love to have the places of honor at corporate meetings, and to be greeted with respect in the halls of the stock market and board rooms.

Woe to you, oil executives! For you lock people out of a share in the profits! Your pockets are lined with millions while you lay the burden on those lacking health care, decent housing, food, and voice to be heard.

We need to read the Gospel through the filter of today’s news. Maybe if Matthew lived in 2005, it wouldn’t be paraphrased.

Y'all heard it here first. Sister says shape up!