Whatever You Do for the Least of These...

"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me," Jesus said in Matthew 25:40. 

The lowest persons can be different in everyone's eyes. To me personnaly, they are those whose humanity is not recognized, whose basic rights are denied for the sake of the powerful.

I am often asked why I keep writing about the Papuans. My answer is simple: "Who has ever heard of them?" Some people consider Papua to be a distant and foreign land.

However, they don't always realize that when they relax on a park bench made of beautiful blond wood, they are actually sitting on a small piece of Papua, on wood harvested from one of the world's most important primary forests, now threatened by the ruthless corporations that exploit it shamelessly. How sad that Papua's forests are dying, but how even sadder that Papuans are the first to die, in our indifference.

Fifteen years ago, the late Radio France journalist Patrick Pesnot described Papuans as "victims of the greed of the big Anglo-Saxon companies that search the mountains for gold and copper and pollute their land irreparably. Victims of the soldiers who serve as bodyguards for these industrialists. Victims of a system that excludes them and constantly seeks to destroy their civilization and their beliefs... In short, their souls!"

So, which people, if not the Papuans, are suffering the most on earth? For this I pray: O God, You created the Papuans in Your image and redeemed them through Jesus, Your Son. View their suffering with compassion and grant them the freedom they desire.

Note:

West Papua or Papua for short is a former Dutch colony that declared independence on December 1, 1961. However, Indonesia annexed the region a few years later through a sham referendum known as the “Act of Free Choice” or Pepera. An estimated 500,000 Papuans were killed during the six decades of Indonesia occupation. In recent months many Papuans, especially those living in the mountains, have been tortured, shot and killed, while thousands have been forced to flee their homes due to increased Indonesian military operations.