The other day at a picnic I got into a discussion with someone about homelessness, self-sufficiency and drug abuse. The premise was that people with these problems ought to take classes in taking care of themselves and not bother us by being on the street anymore. I picked up my jaw, my Christian charity, and repeated my mantra first in my head and then aloud. “There but for the grace of God go I.” The conversation revolved around the illusion of self-sufficiency and the medical status of drug abuse and concurrent homelessness. I recommended a book I just finished reading called Radical Compassion by Gary Smith, S.J.(Society of Jesus) that is about his experiences here in Old Town. It is difficult to keep someone as 'other' when you know their back story.
I was reasonably satisfied with the conversation at the time, but the person I was talking to professed Christ, as do I, and I have been wondering why she and I have such different takes on our Christian obligation to the problems of homelessness and drug abuse. I don't know what her take is, but this is mine.
It starts with the question of salvation. And what salvation really means is freedom. Principally, our salvation from sin frees us from the fear of making a mistake(a sin)- fear which keeps us from doing anything at all. Salvation theory isn't about me going to heaven and you going to hell, its about me not worrying about going to hell for a poor outcome to a good intention. Christ died, and that death is all the restitution we need.
This leads to another one of the huge tenets of Christianity; to care for the poor, the sick, the widow, and the prisoner. Salvation theory actually makes this not only possible but imperative. Christ can and does ask of us to care for those with less than ourselves, and he has made possible for us the freedom to do so. His sacrifice exempts us from the usual human interaction of tit for tat.
Christianity does not ask anyone to fulfill their side of a social contract for services. We never have to wash our hands of a problem child or keep large databases of good deeds and taxes paid in order to calculate how much help or love or money someone deserves. They deserve whatever we can give them. Free of holding others responsible for the goodness of our deeds, we are then free to care with love and patience; to come to people where they are and do for them what can be done for them. God will take care of the details, we just have to be expressions of the love that He gave us for each other.
We at Saint David's aren't keeping any databases on who gives, but we have one for who receives. The website has a whole page devoted to trying to catch all the ministries we do for others. There are links to the organizations, lists of what donations we accept for delivery(during office hours, or call for arrangements) and what activities we need volunteers for. Please express your freedom (and maybe unload things that aren't worth the trouble of a whole yard sale.) www.saintdavidofwales.org/ministries/
