The Problem with Generosity
Padre Blas Escobar is the parish priest in the town of Tamanique in El Salvador. I began communicating with him only a few months ago because though the church I attend has a long-time relationship with that community – providing scholarships, mostly for high school students through a collaborative organization – we haven’t had a strong relationship with our sister parish there.
We recently learned, however, that besides the disaster of the pandemic, many Tamanique residents were hit with the effects of a strong Pacific Ocean hurricane and needed extra help.
We sent money, both to the organization we work with and to Padre Blas, who responded with photos of the people who he helped with our funds and the essentials they bought with them. We now have a personal relationship with someone we know will make sure that whatever funds we provide go to people who really need help.
Actually, There Are Many Problems
Most of us understand the need to be generous. The Hebrew and Christian Bibles are filled with appeals to generosity, especially to the poor. But there’s a problem with being generous; actually, there are several problems.
First, many of us don’t personally know people who most need help and the temptation is to use that as an excuse to do nothing. Then we may try to decide who deserves our help and who doesn’t. We may hold the convoluted view that handouts hurt the poor by making them dependent.
Do we think these considerations didn’t occur to Jesus, and the authors of the New and Old Testaments?
We may worry about our finances, and I believe God expects us to be responsible stewards of our resources. But it’s also a temptation to err on the side of keeping the resources for ourselves.
Lack of Generosity No Option
We teach our children to save money and when older, to make wise investments. But do we teach them to be generous? For a Christian, especially, lack of generosity isn’t an option. Jesus was adamant. And for skeptics searching for God, I believe that generosity is among the ways we find him/her.
We shouldn’t try to compare ourselves to others when it comes to generosity, of course. We simply don’t know who of our friends and family are generous or not because real generosity requires that we “not let the left hand not know what the right hand is doing.” So judgment is also not an option. Jesus was just as adamant about that.
No, we must think only about how we ourselves can be more generous and about who most needs our help, giving priority to the poor.
Years ago, living in Latin America, I was shocked by the number of homeless and destitute people on the street, many of them begging. While eating at a restaurant in Bolivia, it was common to have a poor person from the street approach your table to get any scrap of food you were willing to give. I was smug enough to think that this wouldn’t happen in the U.S. Now, with millions of homeless people filling our streets, I suspect the only thing stopping them from doing the same are the restaurateurs who wouldn’t tolerate it.
Found Myself Judging
It’s also common nowadays to see people begging for handouts from motorists at stop lights. I have found myself judging whether they are “able-bodied” enough to work. But who made me the judge? Isn’t that God’s role?
Some people believe that instead of providing handouts, the system that creates homelessness and inequality should be changed. Or, programs should be established to help the poor. I agree with both these proposals, but what about the people who need help now? Can we ignore their needs in the meantime?
Apart from personal contact, or having your own Padre Blas, we can reliably help others through philanthropic organizations. Being Catholic, I rely on Catholic Charities in my diocese and internationally, on Catholic Relief Services. Whatever organization you choose, I recommend Googling it to learn the percentage of its budget that goes for administration versus direct help to people.
And if you’d like to help the people of Tamanique, contact me and I’ll give you info for Padre Blas or that of the Center for Interchange and Solidarity, the organization our parish works with in El Salvador. Both provide reliable ways to help people who need it.
