I KNOW we can never wipe out poverty entirely. There will
always be poor, suffering people. Christ himself said as much. “The
poor you will always have with you…” (Mt 26,11) But this does not mean
that we should not do anything, at least to mitigate that problem,
helping poor people as much as we can. This is the very basic aspect
of Christian charity.
With the present dispensation of lockdowns and
quarantines, we can just imagine how the poor people, already
suffering a lot during normal times, are suffering today. I know that
we ourselves have our own share of privations, discomfort and
inconvenience brought about by these restrictions. But this does not
detract us from our duty to do whatever we can to help the more
disadvantaged ones.
We simply cannot be aloof to the graver predicaments of
the others. Let’s be wary of the tendency to be unmindful of the
others simply because we may not be suffering as much. We can still
eat and have our comfortable time. Our fridges are still well-stocked.
Let’s be careful because we can easily fall into a severe
case of quiet and deceptive self-indulgence. We can think that we are
not doing anything wrong because we are just by ourselves. This is a
subtle form of self-indulgence and is definitely a sin. Christ wants
us to love everybody as he has loved us, and love is not just not
doing anything wrong to others. It is being truly concerned for them,
expressed in deeds.
Let us always remember that if we want to follow Christ as
we should, we have to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt
16,24) This is always the rule to follow, in good times and in bad.
The very least thing we can do to help is at least to
practice some form of self-denial, especially in our food, drinks,
comfort, use of gadgets, if only to show solidarity with those who are
denied of the basic necessities of life during these times. Let us be
very generous in this level of self-denial and self-giving.
But for sure, we can do a lot more. We should not forget that many
people, with families to feed, have lost their job and their
livelihood. And because of the many restrictions nowadays, many cannot
report for work while many others cannot go home, stranded and quite
broke. People in all forms of helplessness are numberless. Human
misery has sunk quite drastically deeply these days.
We have to reach out to them. How? That’s another
challenge to face. But there are always some ways. We are not yet dead
when we cannot do anything anymore. Where there is a will, there will
always be a way! The human spirit, especially animated by divine love,
can always find a way.
It does not mean we be imprudent and reckless in our zeal
to help others. There certainly are risks to take. But if we plan
things well, and bring them to our prayer, we can be sure that we can
do a lot to help others in these difficult times with so many
restrictions to contend with.
Offhand, I notice there are already some people organizing
themselves to do some feeding programs to many. This is a very good
initiative. They have tapped their own personal networks and other
organizations for this purpose, and it’s working.
What I find more challenging is to identify those who seem
not to need some help because they enjoyed a level of comfort during
the normal times, but actually are in great need of help these days.
The overt poor are always easy to identify. And we already have some
appropriate structures for them. It’s the hidden and the new poor that
are quite difficult to identify and to extend help.
If we bring this concern in our prayer, I am sure we can
find the appropriate ways to reach out to them.
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