Have & Have Not

Jesus did not make up the story about the widow’s mite in this
weekend’s Gospel. It was a common parable. In fact, almost all
cultures cherish stories about the generosity of poor people. Jesus
simply made it a part of his teaching.
Most of us are so far from a personal experience of real poverty
that it makes no real sense. It is merely an abstraction, like the
trillions of dollars on the other end of the economy. Even when we
see pictures in living color, even when we cry over it, the real
experience remains foreign to us. Yet, without personal experience
of Gospel realities, we are reduced to believing someone else’s faith,
living someone else’s religion.
Only those who have truly been there, for instance, know that the
difference between a smelly outhouse and a sanitized bathroom is
much more than a way of handling human waste. It is nothing less
than a different way of being a body! Or, the bond of human kinship
with the man who came to shut off the gas but relented is not akin to
growling about utility rates.
We need to understand and to emphasize that it is not just a
matter of money, but a way of life, a way of experiencing our
humanity. Different kinds of people emerge from different sets of
experience. Poverty cannot be counterfeited. You and I could quit
our jobs, give away all of our possessions, sit naked on Poverty Road,
and we would still retain our capacity to succeed all over again.
Poverty is not attained by sympathizing with the poor or giving
things up! As long as we are in charge of our lives, we are not really
poor!
This is precisely the difference between the haves and the havenots,
which simply cannot be finessed. People are in charge of their
lives or they are not. And though there are nice and mean people on
both sides of the poverty line, their conditions are radically different!
People without possessions are in a position to be grateful for
what little comes their way. They expect inconvenience as a part of
their lives. They accept suffering in stride. They do not hope to be
first or best or most. They more easily look to God for sustenance!
Whereas, unpoor people are more easily independent. They are
intolerant of suffering, and they wonder why God lets bad things
happen to good people. They are even liable to the blasphemy that
God must reward their efforts with success, and perhaps the hidden
suggestion that they might even make it without Divine assistance!
If all of this is true, is there any hope of salvation for any of us?
I sure hope so! But, we are sure going to have to make some changes
in our lives. First of all, whether we got what we have by fair means
or foul, whether the fault is personal or social, whether we cannot
imagine doing without anything we have, the undeniable fact is that
we have an unconscionable proportion of God’s goodness. We owe
some of it to others who are truly less well off than we are.
I would also guess that we need to rectify our basic attitude
toward poor people. Even if a particular person is truly offensive and
another person does not actually deserve our help, even if those are
lazy and these cheat on welfare, nevertheless, their condition places
them closer to Gospel values than our own condition.
Finally, I would guess that the more tightly we hold on to our
possessions, we ought to be that much more humble. We should also
be intensely grateful, and extremely generous! And maybe a little
scared! Conversion leads to the capacity to be able to let go of selfreliance
and possessions and to recognize our true dependence on
God!