Reaching out amid lockdown

IKNOW we can never wipe out poverty entirely. There will always be poor, suffering people. Christ himself said as much. “The poor you will always have with you…” (Mt 26, 11) But this does not mean that we should not do anything, at least to mitigate that problem, helping poor people as much as we can. This is the very basic aspect of Christian charity. With the present dispensation of well-stocked. lockdowns and quarantines, we can Let’s be careful because we can just imagine how the poor people, easily fall into a severe case of quiet already suffering a lot during normal and deceptive self-indulgence. We times, are suffering today. I know can think that we are not doing that we ourselves have our own anything wrong because we are just share of privations, discomfort and by ourselves. This is a subtle form of inconvenience brought about by these self-indulgence and is definitely a sin. restrictions. But this does not detract Christ wants us to love everybody as us from our duty to do whatever we he has loved us, and love is not just can to help the more disadvantaged not doing anything wrong to others. ones. It is being truly concerned for them,

We simply cannot be aloof to the expressed in deeds. graver predicaments of the others. Let us always remember that if we Let’s be wary of the tendency to want to follow Christ as we should, we be unmindful of the others simply have to deny ourselves and carry the because we may not be suffering as cross. (cfr. Mt 16, 24) This is always the much. We can still eat and have our rule to follow, in good times and in bad. comfortable time. Our fridges are still The very least thing we can do to help is at least to practice some form of self-denial, especially in our food, drinks, comfort, use of gadgets, if only to show solidarity with those who are denied of the basic necessities of life during these times. Let us be very generous in this level of self-denial and self-giving.

But for sure, we can do a lot more. We should not forget that many people, with families to feed, have lost their job and their livelihood. And because of the many restrictions nowadays, many cannot report for work while many others cannot go home, stranded and quite broke. People in all forms of helplessness are numberless. Human misery has sunk quite drastically deeply these days.

We have to reach out to them. How? That’s another challenge to face. But there are always some ways. We are not yet dead when we cannot do anything anymore. Where there is a will, there

will always be a way! The human spirit, especially animated by divine love, can always find a way.

It does not mean we be imprudent and reckless in our zeal to help others. There certainly are risks to take. But if we plan things well, and bring them to our prayer, we can be sure that we can do a lot to help others in these difficult times with so many restrictions to contend with.

Offhand, I notice there are already some people organizing themselves to do some feeding programs to many. This is a very good initiative. They have tapped their own personal networks and other organizations for this purpose, and it’s working.

What I find more challenging is to identify those who seem not to need some help because they enjoyed a level of comfort during the normal times, but actually are in great need of help these days. The overt poor are always easy to identify. And we already have some appropriate structures for them. It’s the hidden and the new poor that are quite difficult to identify and to extend help.

If we bring this concern in our prayer, I am sure we can find the appropriate ways to reach out to them./

PN