Thursday 11/6/14

The news this week has been dominated by elections. On Monday, it was all about what the polling numbers said. On Tuesday it was about encouraging people to get out to vote and then monitoring the results. Yesterday and today featured analysis of the results as well as thoughts of what the future will hold. The democratic process is important, and should be effectively covered by the news media. Unfortunately, that means some other stories are going to fall through the cracks.

One such story is the one of Arnold Abbott, Dwayne Black, and Mark Sims. On Sunday, the three men, the latter two of whom are Pastors in their respective Christian Churches and the former of whom is 90, decided to perform some corporal works of mercy. They prepared some meals and headed out around Fort Lauderdale, Florida to distribute them to the homeless.

They were arrested.

Last Friday a law took effect in Fort Lauderdale which effectively banned public food sharing. It also placed very specific regulations regarding camping, laws against panhandling, keeping personal property in public, and strengthened the penalties for going to the bathroom outside. The laws were introduced back in January, and their purpose was made clear at the town hall meeting where they were first brought up: to discourage homelessness in Fort Lauderdale.

I am all for discouraging homelessness. Homelessness is bad. It is a terrible thing that people cannot afford a home. I don’t think it is right that a person need to rely on handouts to eat. I don’t believe anyone should have to be exposed to the elements with no hope of relief. Let’s combat homelessness, but not like this.

Fort Lauderdale’s new laws are not going to eliminate homelessness, they are just going to drive the homeless out of Fort Lauderdale and into neighboring towns. That is a problem. When you force the homeless out of big cities, they end up in small towns. Most of these small towns do not have any sort of facilities to help the homeless. When was the last time you saw a public restroom open 24 hours in Hanover or Norwell? How about a homeless shelter? A hospital? Cities also provide busy corners where the homeless can panhandle. The homeless congregate in cities because it is one of the only ways they can survive.

There are seven corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the sick, ransom the captive, and bury the dead. These are things which we are all called to do as Catholics.

In Luke’s Gospel, a scholar of the law asks what must be done to inherit eternal life. Jesus turns the question back on the scholar asking what he thinks. The scholar replies that one must love God with all your heart, your being, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. As the story goes on, Jesus uses the story of the Good Samaritan to show that everyone is our neighbor.

How do you show love? The easiest way to answer the question is with examples. Think of someone you love. Maybe it is a mother or a father, a sister, a brother, a best friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend, a husband or a wife, a son or daughter. Now imagine that person is starving. What do you do? You feed them. Imagine they are homeless. Would you even hesitate to offer them a room in your home or at least a couch for the evening? We take care of the people we love. Even when the situation is a result of their own bad decisions, love compels us to act with mercy. That is how love works.

Now apply that love to your neighbor, whoever it is.

That is what Arnold Abbott, Dwayne Black, and Mark Sims were doing last Sunday when they were arrested. They could each face up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail for their “crime.”

Sometimes the laws of God and the laws of man are opposed to one another. It always results in a difficult situation. We are called by Christ to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” but when the two are in direct opposition to one another, the right course of action can become very difficult to discern. The good news is, we live in a democracy, and when laws are unjust, we have an opportunity to fix them.

In this case though, I don’t think you can go wrong by showing a little mercy.