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| Kelly Kapowski & Zack Morris |
Last weekend, Deacon Dave gave a great homily on our call to take care of what God has given us, especially human life in all its stages. A lot of times, when we think about caring for human life, we think of our opposition to abortion, or of caring for mothers who are carrying a child in their womb, or of making sure that the elderly are not euthanized. But, Deacon Dave last week reminded us, and our readings today also remind us, of another aspect of caring for our fellow brothers and sisters: our care for the poor and marginalized.
It’s ironic, because last Saturday morning I was watching “Saved by the Bell,” which was a favorite TV show of mine in middle and high school. I am a little ashamed to admit that, when I was in middle school I hoped my high school experience at Lansing Catholic would be like that at Bayside High. I am not as ashamed to admit that I also liked watching “Saved by the Bell” because I had a crush on Kelly Kapowski, one of the lead female characters. In any case, last Saturday’s episodes that I saw were a two-part Christmas episode where Zack Morris, the leading male character, meets an attractive young woman working at the mall, and he wants to date her, and then meets a homeless man in the mall bathroom. It turns out the man and the young woman are father and daughter. Zack is alerted to some of his stereotypes regarding homeless people, and does his best to help this family and give them a merry Christmas. It was a good lead-up to today’s Gospel and first reading.
Jesus in the Gospel today reminds us that, not only are we to love God, but we are also to love our neighbor. And the Lord tells the Chosen People through Moses that loving their neighbor means not mistreating aliens (a word that is not popular today but just means “a person from another place”); taking care of widows and orphans (who, in that day, did not have social security or welfare to sustain them; they were totally reliant on the community for their survival); and caring in general for the poor. We, as followers of Jesus, are held to this same standard, and are called as part of our care for human life, to do our best to care for the poor and marginalized.
In the “Saved by the Bell” episode, the producers did a great job of pointing out that the homeless are not homogenous in their circumstances. The father in the episode had been a computer programmer, and had been laid off by his company. He tried to find work, even traveling to a different State, but couldn’t get a job. I think often times we say, “the poor,” and consider them all the same. But there are different types of poverty, even within the category of financial poverty.
Caring for the poor can be difficult, because I believe that all of us want to help the poor, but we may not know how, and we may wonder about the person’s particular circumstances. Or maybe we feel that it’s the government’s place to care for the needs of all the poor, so that the poor will leave us alone. But we need to encounter the poor so that we can recall that they are human, created in the image and likeness of God, just as we are.
Still, there are different needs. One person can be poor because he has a disability that does not allow him to work. Another person can be poor because she lost her job and doesn’t have any savings to get her through unemployment. Another person can be poor because medical bills for an unexpected illness or injury depleted almost all financial resources. Or a person could be poor because they don’t want to work and would rather collect money from government programs. There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, which can seem frustrating or daunting. And yet, we are still called to assist the poor.
There are also structures that can sometimes encourage people to be poor, or rely on the government for their existence. There are people who want to work, but if they work, they won’t qualify for welfare, and the money they would earn in a job is less than they would get from welfare. Work is part of our responsibility as citizens, to use our gifts and talents for the building up of society, and contributes to assistance like social security and Medicare, but it also reminds the person of his or her dignity. It’s surprising to me that people with better financial and economic minds than mine don’t come up with a system where, if a person earned less from working at a job, the difference between solely being on welfare and the paycheck could be made up by welfare, thus taking care of people and helping people find the dignity of work, which, St. Paul says, we need to do if we are able.
But, as I mentioned earlier, caring for the poor cannot be pawned off on the government. It was Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” who complained that he paid taxes to care for the poor, so that should be enough. We are called, to the extent that we’re able, to assist the poor personally, even if that means donating time instead of treasure (and I know the North End Soup Kitchen and Catholic Charities can use some volunteers). Sometimes volunteering is the best way to help when we don’t know if the person begging at the top of the exit ramp truly needs the help (which I believe some do) or are trying to prey on people’s sympathies, though they could work rather than beg.
But no matter how we do it, God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–invites us today to truly see the poor, not as a homogenous group of people, but as individuals, created in the image and likeness of God. And as we look upon their suffering, to do what we can, even if just the smallest little bit, to show them the love of God by assisting them. In that way, too, we can be part of a culture that respects all life, from natural conception to natural death.
