POOR EXCUSE: THE POOR YOU ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU

 

Reading the Bible, one early morning this Lenten reflection week, I came across with this thought-provoking story.

Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves.

"That’s criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year’s wages and handed out to the poor.”

They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.

But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me.” Mark 14:3-7

At a glance, the crowd’s reaction appeared to be apt. They stressed that if sold the expensive perfume could have earned a lot of money which they could have donated to the poor. Seeming to know where such a scheme would badly end, Jesus brushed them off. Rightly so.

Looking back, we know full well what fell on Sam Bankman-Fried, the Crypto King. Inspired by the Effective Altruism movement, he claimed that he wanted to make money – billions or maybe even trillions – so that he could do the best possible – give it all away to the poor. He planned to keep only one percent of his wealth, eventually giving the rest to the poor. To the bitter end, he was found later guilty of stealing billions of dollars from accounts belonging to his customers.

The Crypto King is the very picture of Judas who, in John's account of the story remarked, "This perfume could have been sold for three hundred silver coins and turned over to the poor." But, Judas had no concern for the poor; he was a thief and as he held the common purse, he used to help himself to the funds.

Jim Wallis, in his New York Times Bestseller book God’s Politics, narrated that in his speaking engagements, he asked the audience this question: “What is the most famous biblical text in America about the poor?” Every single time, he got the same answer: “The poor you always have with you.”

Misinterpreted, the statement is asserted as an excuse: “There is nothing we can do about poverty, and the poor will always be there anyway, so why bother?”

Many years ago, my wife and I, as a couple, were involved in the Couples for Christ’s work with the poor through Gawad Kalinga. Every weekend, we went off and turned up in a particular depressed area in the province and joined our community there in sharing our talents and resources to uplift the lives of the poor. A whole day trip to the province would pose a dilemma to my wife as a bank officer then. She was responsible for keeping the smooth operation of the ATM in the bank: specifically troubleshooting the machine every time it jams mechanically when a printed receipt gets stuck – hence halting the ATM operation.

Imagine this bleak scenario: in one weekend, at the peak of a crowded cash withdrawal, the ATM jams (right away she would get an alert message through her cell phone), and we are many hours’ drive away in the province. Question: What would we do?

At this point, such a bleak scenario could have justified this excuse: Why do we have to bother ourselves to go to the province every weekend? Our talents and resources are just like a drop in the ocean of poverty teeming with poor people who are always there anyway, swimming, if not sinking. Indeed, it’s a good excuse to stay home with our whole family, and recharge our batteries, to get ready for next week’s corporate rat race.

But, let’s pay heed to the very context when Jesus said: “The poor you will always have with you”. They were at the dinner table with a leper, an outcast, in Bethany – the house of the poor in Hebrew.

What Jesus is saying, in effect, as Wallis has figured out: “Look, you will always have the poor with you because you are my disciples. You know who we spend with, who we share meals with, who listens to our message, who we focus our attention on. You’ve been watching me, and you know what my priorities are. You know who comes first in the kingdom of God. So, you will always be near the poor, you’ll always be with them, and you will always have the opportunity to share with them.”

That’s clear as day. And so, before we go to the province, my wife and I would pray that the ATM would never jam. We would pray for the only solution to keep that trouble from happening. We would “pray over” the ATM asking God to take care of it while we’re taking care of His business.

Our “crazy” preventive solution had earmarks of the scene when the woman poured the perfume on Jesus’ head which elicited the crowd’s reaction: what a crazy act.

In that whole year when my wife was responsible for her bank’s ATM smooth operation, not a single instance throughout our provincial weekend trips had she got a message from her cell phone informing her that the ATM had jammed. And wonder of wonders! At the end of that year, she got the top ATM management award among hundreds of the bank’s ATMs operated all over the country for her performance.

M. Scott Peck, M.D. explains in his classic book The Road Less Traveled:

“In my primary identity as a scientist, I want and like proof. Being as much of a logical sort as a mystical one, I expect statistical proof whenever possible to convince me of things. But throughout my twenties and thirties and as I continued to mature, I’ve become more and more impressed by the frequency of statistically highly improbable events. In their improbability, I gradually began to see the fingerprints of God.”

Our CFC story is a specimen of “seeing the fingerprints of God” on the ATM. Amazing!

Final Question: Do you believe in the afterlife? If you do, then the poor is our ticket to Heaven. Here’s the boarding pass, notably, for us biding our time together in the pre-departure area.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Matthew 25:31-40 

A Blessed Lenten Week Everyone!

Head photo courtesy of Catholic Daily Reflection

Video clips courtesy of YouTube