Several homeless men take turns panhandling at the bottom of the exit ramp I take on the way to work. There is a different person there each day. As I get off the highway, someone is almost always standing there carrying a sign. The signs say things like “anything helps” or “rather beg than steal” or even “God bless.” If there is a line of cars waiting at the light at the bottom of the ramp, he (always a he) walks up and down the line, hoping for some luck.
I’ve never bought the idea that we shouldn’t give homeless persons cash because they may use it for booze. They might and that’s not good (though if I were homeless I’d certainly drink!), but I figure my obligation as a Christian is to be generous. If someone abuses my generosity, that’s not my responsibility. Christ never said, “Give responsibly.” He said, “Freely have you received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8). So if I’m carrying cash, I usually give something to panhandlers.
The problem is that I hardly ever carry cash. The last time I gave to one of the men at the bottom of the ramp, I had to give him quarters out of my toll road change jar. I felt the need to apologize to the gentleman for the inconvenience.
Recently I thought instead of giving cash, I can make a point of taking a bottle of water with me to work and hand it to the person at the bottom of the ramp. The Beard household is lousy with plastic bottles (since we recycle…eventually). It wouldn’t be any problem at all to grab a bottle, fill it with water, and take it with me.
I have yet to actually do this. It’s not that I don’t have time; I’ve been teaching mostly at night and my days are my own to write or to read. The problem is I just clean forget and don’t think about it until I’m at the bottom of the ramp, trying to give the homeless man dignity by saying hello without making him think I have anything for him.
I’m not very familiar with the Catholic Worker movement, and the Catholic Worker House here in Tulsa is more like a couple of families who try to live the lifestyle while staying in touch online. But I think that the Catholic Worker’s commitment to voluntary poverty is important because it forces us to remember less fortunate persons. I don’t mean this in the trite prayer-before-Thanksgiving way, but I mean it helps us to physically remember them. The hunger that we choose to feel is like a rubber band around our wrist telling us there was something we have to do.
When we don’t feel that hunger, we forget.
It never occurred to me to give out water bottles until the air conditioner in my car went on the fritz and started working intermittently. It was only then that I saw the men and thought, “Boy, they must be hot out there!” (Maybe if my air conditioner broke all the way I’d actually remember the bottles!) Voluntary suffering breeds empathy with involuntary suffering, and empathy breeds action.
My challenge for the next week is to utilize God’s grace to spur that action.
