Earlier this week I wrote about the importance of personal interaction as we seek to help people in need. The people whom Jesus describes in his parable are certainly in extreme need. That personal interaction – eye contact, listening, mutual sharing – is key to our having gospel encounters rather than mere transactions. But we can lose the social dimension in the personal – after all, Jesus called people in need were members of his family:
And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
So, how do we help the whole family? Sometimes the giving of help, one person to another, is not the best way to effect transformative change. Often it is treating symptoms, while the disease spreads unchecked. I’m thinking about this as my church’s Undie Sunday approaches, and with it the vision of bags of much-needed personal undergarments piled before the altar. This truly is personal care for those who are homeless. But what if we used those resources and that energy to eliminate homelessness entirely?
There is enough data and experimentation from around the country to show quite clearly that homelessness can be eliminated. If we take steps to keep individuals and families from becoming homeless in the first place, we save millions of dollars in emergency room visits, lost school and work days, food and even justice-system costs. We stop the cycle of homelessness before it becomes a part of a family’s pattern. We allow children to thrive in one school instead of constantly moving.We keep families in communities.
And what does it require? Money for rent, basically. Investment in rent subsidies for those with precarious finances could save us millions in tax-payer funded services. We wouldn’t need to collect underwear, or do shelter meals, or any of the important and well-meaning ministries we offer to those who are homeless. We could instead work to provide those who get the subsidies with the kind of community support and networks that most of us take for granted, that would hold us if we suddenly lost a job or couldn’t work. We could offer community instead of a hand-out. It doesn’t have to be an either/or – but I do believe that we put too much emphasis on hand-outs to people who are already in the dirt, and not enough on keeping them housed in the first place.
How does this connect to our spiritual life, which is what Water Daily is supposed to focus on? It’s an invitation to think about what is the best way to feed someone who is hungry or clothe someone who is naked. Along with asking God to send resources, what if we ask the Spirit to inspire strategies, the best way to foster systemic change.
Jesus said he could be found among those who suffer. That doesn’t mean we have to keep them suffering so we can find Jesus in them. We are to be in the business of healing, not just tending wounds. Jesus can also be found in those who’ve experienced transformation too – and he's often easier to spot.
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