Month: December 2016

There are so many needs in society, it is evident that the government is a necessary entity in alleviating many of those needs.  A large aspect of the state and federal government is dedicated to assisting with housing, family services, food and nutrition, and financial assistance to help those in desperate situations.

The thought can be tempting to regard those services from the state, which we all contribute to in our taxes, as the remedy that exonerates us from personally becoming involved with someone in need.  This is addressed in part, in a text from Deuteronomy:

“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him.” (Deut. 15:7-10)

Every seventh year in Israel, there was a command to release everyone from their debts, as well as free anyone who had indentured themselves into servitude.  All civil debts were to be cancelled.

The text above deals overtly with the idea of being stingy with a loan, on the premise that in the following year, there would be no way to collect on it.  But in a broader sense, it addresses the idea that we might feel less motivation to helping someone if we felt that in the future, their deficit was going to be mitigated by an action from the community as a whole.   In the “year of release”, all of the debts of the person would be cancelled by civil decree.   So it would be easy for a you or I to say  “Hey, I know that person is in a desperate situation now, but a big program (the Year of Release) will straighten that out”.    This, the text calls an “unworthy thought”.

We still have a divine obligation to do whatever we can reasonably do.   Sometimes the personal caring and attention we give can be far more effective than an impersonal government program.   Sometimes it is that demonstration of love and caring that provides what is truly necessary.

There is nothing wrong with a state “safety net”, and we fortunate to have a society that does seek to help people in such ways– but we should never let the fact that government programs exist as an excuse for hardheartedness or lack of compassion.

In a society of laws, our thinking so often reverts to a simplistic notion of justice- people ultimately get what they deserve.   The hardworking rise to the top of the food chain.  The indolent sink to the bottom.   We like to picture ourselves as “self-made”… enjoying a status in life that we worked hard to achieve.

Although this vision of social and economic Darwinism may hold true sometimes, frequently the niceties in life we experience come from a degree of chance, rather than a formulaic outcome of our own design.

For example, the fact that you are reading this right now means that you live in an epoch with a written language, in a society that has harnessed electricity, and you have access to networked computers (The internet), giving you the ability to pull up essentially all of the cumulative knowledge of mankind, at your fingertips, within seconds.    That right there puts you in a more fortuitous position of 99.99% of all of humanity over the ages… and you didn’t do a single thing to effect where or when you were born.

If you have clean water, have access to a supermarket, and can buy your own food with no fear of going hungry today, you are even ahead of most people living in the world today.   Those are things to be thankful for.

It is important to recognize and be thankful for all the things we have that are simply a good fortune.   In doing so, we are more apt to recognize that the misfortune that might befall someone else is not a matter of “justice” or “karma” … sometimes it is simply chance event that befell them, rather than us.  And if we are honest about it, we realize that it could very well be ourselves in the same position.

This I believe is the foundation for cultivating a spirit of mercy for others.  Most people have heard the oft quote expression attributed to John Bradford (1510–1555) “There but for the grace of God, goes I” as an idiom with the same sentiment.  It is largely God’s grace and mercy which sustains the blessings in our lives.  We therefore have no grounds dismiss the misfortunes of others as earned or deserved.

Rather, the mindfulness of how fortunate we are should serve as the impetus for us to extend mercy and compassion to the afflicted.  What we do to render aid to the afflicted individual?  What is the most effective solution?

There is no one silver bullet for solving the problem of suffering in the world.  But we start by exerting ourselves to show compassion and mercy to those closest to us.   PeopleCorp is a loose confederation of volunteers who cooperate on local aid to those in need.   No one involved is a “hero” or “saint” in any spectacular sense.  Simply people who are grateful for what they have (which may be very little!)  and have compassion for others.

Aristotle said: “Let grace be that quality by which he who has it is said to render favor  to one who is in need, not in return for anything, nor that anything be given to him who renders it, but that something be given to that one in need.”