Newspaper Page Text
March 1,1979
PAGE 5
r
Why Should We Be Charitable To The Poor In The U.S.?
v.
7
BY DEACON STEVE LANDREGAN
“Charity begins at home.”
Oftentimes we regard them as purely political
or economic and see no religious or moral
dimension to them.
No, these words are not from the Bible,
although they frequently are quoted with a
reverence and certitude reserved for Holy Writ.
Where does charity begin? It begins with
Christ. Charity is love, not love in the narrow
physical and sensual sense of the popular ballad
r
v.
Throughout the Gospels is woven
the story of Jesus’ charity. The ultimate
sign of his charity is the cross. This act
and his victory over life tells us that our
lives, too, are everlasting. But if we are to
share the Kingdom with him, we must
become more and more like him. We, too,
must pray as he did at Gethsemane, for
strength to do God’s will. Like him, we
must combine prayer and action. Like
him, we must love God and our fellow
man. We, too, must relieve human
suffering whenever possible.
Jesus was the perfect example of
someone who linked the divine and the
human dimensions of life. And with each
generation, he places those among us who
seek and learn to link the divine and
human dimensions. Father Edward Leen
in this century was such a man. Each of
us is called to pursue ever greater
understanding. Each of us is called to be
fully human. Each of us is called to
become like Jesus. The paths we take are
diverse, but the destination is the same.
In Luke’s Gospel account of
Zacchaeus the tax collector, we see that
God is understanding. And when we
compare Luke’s story of the Pharisee and
Zacchaeus’ story, we learn something
about motives for our actions. And we
learn that God is both concerned about
us and anxious to forgive us.
From time to time, we need to
examine our motives for what we do. Are
we so caught up in our daily activities
that we are behaving more like machines
than people? Are our achievements Christ
centered or self centered? Are we giving
ourselves to Christ and others? Or are we
giving for our own self gratification?
They are the words of a pagan author, Terence,
who penned them about 200 years before Jesus
began his public ministry.
and movie, but love in the sense revealed by
Jesus in his life of perfect love for men and
women.
she died, we are only fooling ourselves. Death is
death and no other word changes it. Love is
love. It is something that we are called to by
Christ’s word and by his life. We are called to
love the Father as Christ loved him, and we are
called to love one another as Christ loved us.
God could have left us unredeemed,
unreconciled, separated from him forever. After
all, each of us has ratified our separation from
God by original sin through our individual
personal sin. We have validated humanity’s
decision for selfishness. God could have left us
unredeemed, but he didn’t.
Yet, we so easily say, he or she or they
don’t deserve help. They have gotten
themselves into it. Let them get themselves out
of it. Sort of reminds you of the parable of the
ungrateful servant, doesn’t it? You remember,
the one who was forgiven the great debt by his
master, then had a friend tossed in prison for a
much smaller amount. And how about the fact
that in the United States provisions are made
for the poor? There are food stamps, aid for
dependent children, Medicare, Medicaid, the
whole system of public welfare. Our tax money
goes for that, doesn’t it? Isn’t that charity? The
answer is yes. This will to help others on the
part of the government is consciously or
unconsciously the Gospel in action. But does it
relieve us of our public obligation to reach out
in unselfish love to others?
The answer is no.
Some centuries later, a wit completed the
couplet by adding “.. . and usually ends
there.”
Where does charity begin? Where does it
end? In an affluent society like ours, is there
need for personal charity?
As Christians we confront such questions,
in one form or another, almost daily.
Where does charity end? St. Paul answers
that in 1 Corinthians 13. “Love never ends.”
Yes, we agree. Love does not come to an end,
but people’s need for charity does. How nice it
is to be able to switch words around to suit
ourselves. Charity has such an institutional and
impersonal ring, doesn’t it?
Euphenisms help us avoid reality. When
we say someone “passed on” instead of saying
Nothing relieves us of our Gospel mandate
to love as Jesus did. Our obligation to be
charitable is no more or less than Jesus’
command to us to love as he has loved us (John
15,12).
To ignore that command is to return to
the greed and selfishness that Jesus died to
overcome. Charity begins with Christ. It never
ends. But we can close our hearts to it.
(
Father Edward Leen: Spiritual Humanist
< >
BY FATHER ALFRED McBRIDE, O.PRAEM.
Spirituality, like religion in general, rides
the tension wire between the divine and the
human. Some writers are so mystical and divine
that one wonders if they think of themselves as
angels. Other authors are so humanistic that
one may conjecture they have lost sight of the
mystery of grace. The great spiritual writers
seem more at home with both the godly and
human dimensions. Such was the Holy Ghost
priest, Father Edward Leen. A well educated
man — Rockwell College in Cashel, Ireland;
University College, Dublin; Rome’s Gregorian
University — Father Leen could very well have
remained an abstract intellectual with no
pastoral interests, nor any special spiritual bent
either.
Probably, the two years he spent in the
African missions helped temper a tendency to
bookishness and teach him how to link the
human, pastoral situation with the worlds of
philosophy and theology. Moreover, his
appointment as president of Blackrock College,
with the attendant administrative headaches,
would also free him from an exaggerated
preoccupation with the realm of ideas.
His experience in the missions moved him
to play a key role in the founding of the
Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary in 1924.
That was the same year he published a series of
articles on the Eucharist that earned him a
rebuke from the Irish bishops, who feared that
his opinions would lead to misunderstanding of
the sacrament. They asked him to retract his
articles, which he promptly did, declaring that
he had not intended by his writings to teach a
view of the Eucharist that would be at odds
with traditional understandings.
That experience with the Irish bishops
sobered his enthusiasm for writing for over a
decade. But from that time on he wrote a series
of books that won him worldwide acclaim,
especially from those interested in spirituality
and prayer. His first major work, “Progress in
Mental Prayer,” has become a classic. This book
along with “Why The Cross?” “In The Likeness
of Christ” and “The True Vine and Its
Branches” established him as a major force in
the area of spirituality. Central to his teaching
was the relationship between the person and
Christ.
Father Leen emphasized the immediate
presence of Jesus, full of love and forgiveness,
and the responsibility of the spiritual searcher
to become aware of this dynamic presence. In
contemporary terms Father Leen was stressing
the Christ of Easter, the Christ of faith to
whom we must turn for salvation and personal
growth. Not that he ignored the Christ of the
New Testament and its historical narratives, but
he always came back again and again to the
Jesus who lives now and wants to touch our
lives.
He spoke of Jesus in positive terms as one
full of mercy and concern. In this he moved
away from the excessive preoccupation of some
writers with Jesus as the strict judge ever
demanding our repeated repentance for sins.
Father Leen admitted the reality of sin and evil,
was ready to defend Christ’s role as judge, but
saw what was part of a larger vision of Jesus. In
“Why The Cross?” Father Leen offered a view
of the passion that studiously avoided making
the redeemed feel full of guilt for Holy Week,
and instead pointed to the deliverance from
guilt and sin which Jesus achieved for those
who accepted his work on faith.
Father Leen was deeply affected by the
20th century’s interest in psychology. This
offered him intellectual access to the human
side of the religious relationship with God. In
his book, “What Is Education?” he urged
religious educators to move away from the
abstract logical way of teaching religion and
turn to the affective, psychological side. In
doing this, he claimed, the love and mercy of
God will be noted more clearly and people will
obtain a better access to divine affection.
Father Leen loved Americans. After a
lecture tour in 1939, he declared: “Far from
finding a people who were materialistic in
outlook, I have come in contact with a
spirituality which has astounded me, and I
would say, abashed me.” Americans of those
years responded with equal enthusiasm. Father
Leen’s books were the most widely read in
seminaries, convents and adult education
groups during those years. Countless thousands
found spiritual insight and consolation in his
stylish prose — he wrote like Newman - and
inspiring writing.
He understood how to take contemporary
humanism, especially in its psychological
expression, and relate it to the adventure of the
Christian with Christ. He presents a Christ who
has affection for us. Small wonder that so many
of his readers returned that affection to the
Lord in kind.
ZACCHAEUS THE tax collector wanted to see the man
who had been curing people and attracting quite a crowd,
Father John J. Castelot writes. Since he was quite short and the
crowd was blocking his view, he ran on ahead and climbed a
tree. “Jesus passed directly beneath him, looked up and said:
‘Zacchaeus, hurry down. I mean to stay at your house today.’
Completely surprised and delighted at his extraordinary good
luck, he scrambled down, none too gracefully, and welcomed
Jesus to his house.” (NC Sketch by Jack Higgins)
“WE SO EASILY SAY: . . . they
don’t deserve help”, Steve Landregan
writes, “They have gotten themselves
into it. Let them get themselves out.
And how about the fact that in a
welfare state, provisions are made for
the poor. Our tax money goes for that.
Isn’t that charity? The answer is ‘yes.’
This will to help others on the part of
/ ”
the government is consciously or
unconsciously the Gospel in action. But
does it relieve us of our personal
obligation to reach out in unselfish love
to others?” A street person sleeps on a
Washington sidewalk in ironic contrast
to the shop behind him. (NC Photo by
Bob Strawn)
Zacchaeus
V
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
The story of Zacchaeus the tax collector,
told only by Luke (19, 1-10), is a delightful
one, composed with unobtrusive artistry and
not without a touch of visual humor.
The story line is simple enough. Jbsus, on
his way to Jerusalem, was passing through
Jericho. He had just restored sight to a blind
man and, not surprisingly, had attracted quite a
bit of attention. In fact, he was so surrounded
by people that it was difficult to see him. But
the chief tax collector of the area was
determined to get a look at him. Like the blind
man, he too “wanted to see” (Luke 18, 41).
Unfortunately, he was short and, even when he
stood on tip-toe, his view was blocked. But
resourceful by nature, he figured out a way to
satisfy his curiosity.
Just up ahead, directly in the line of
march, he spotted a sycamore tree, not very tall
as trees go (a Zacchaeus of the tree family), but
big enough for his purpose. Quickly he ran
ahead and scrambled up. In all likelihood he
was not very athletic (was he fat as well as
short?), and the running and climbing, made no
easier by his flowing garments, left him panting
and perspiring (Jericho is sub-tropical). Just as
he was congratulating himself on his cleverness
and catching his breath, Jesus passed directly
beneath him, looked up and said: “Zacchaeus,
hurry down. I mean to stay at your house
today.” Hurry down? He had just hurried up.
Completely surprised and delighted at his
extraordinary good luck, he scrambled down,
none too gracefully, and welcomed Jesus to his
house. However, the host’Ie grumbling of the
crowd dulled the edge of his happiness. In their
eyes he was, by reason of his profession, a
“sinner” of the type with whom the “better”
people did not associate. As so often happened,
everyone began to murmur against Jesus: “He
has gone to a sinner’s house as a guest.”
——
good works: “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes
on all I possess” (Luke 18, 12). But what a
difference. Zacchaeus was not boasting; he was
rather naively stating the plain facts, facts
which did not make him a saint but did
contradict the crowd’s low opinion of him.
For all his cleverness, he was quite
uncomplicated and transparently honest. He
didn’t deny being a crook. In fact, he more
than implied that he had cheated on occasion.
But his conscience always caught up with him
somehow and he made restitution, quite in
excess of what the law demanded (Exodus 21,
37: Numbers 5, 5-7). Jesus sensed this basic
goodness of the man — the childlike
ingenuousness of his climbing the tree told him
something — and he replied with equal
simplicity: “Today salvation has come to this
house, for this is what it means to be a son of
Abraham. The Son of Man has come to search'
out and save what was lost” (Luke 19, 9-10).
So many of the traits of Luke’s Gospel
shine through this story: joy, simplicity,
forgiveness, concern for the despised, universal
salvation. And it offers a corrective for Luke’s
readers who might have been discouraged by his
insistence on renunciation, his obvious bias in
favor of the poor.
Again, in the immediately preceding
chapter, he had told of Jesus’ encounter with a
rich official. In answer to the man’s eager
question about what he must do to “share in
everlasting life,” Jesus told him: “Sell all you
have and give to the poor . . . Then come and
follow me” (Luke 18, 22). But now Luke
hastens to reassure us that riches are not a
necessary barrier to disci pleship. Jesus
unquestioningly accepts Zacchaeus’ assurances
of generosity and does not demand that he go
all the way.
And, most importantly, he accepts
Zacchaeus.
The next verse (Luke 19,8) is, in the
opinion of some scholars, Luke’s own
contribution to the narrative. For one thing,
Zacchaeus addresses Jesus by his
post-resurrection title, “Lord.” Be that as it
may, the verse adds considerably to the
psychological drama: Zacchaeus stood his
ground and said to the Lord: “I give half my
belongings, Lord, to the poor. If I have
defrauded anyone in the least, I pay him back
fourfold.”
One is reminded immediately of Luke’s
parable of the pharisee and the tax collector,
which he has just recounted in the preceding
chapter. There too a tax collector was the hero,
with the pharisee being rejected precisely
because he had bragged to God about all his
KNOW
YOUR
FAITH
(All Articles On This Page
Copyrighted 1979 By N. C. News Service)
\ y