32.  On Beggars

Dearly Beloved,

Rev Robert van der Weyer and his wife Sarah have been responsible for the publication of hundreds of  Dearly Beloved Letters but Robert's own DB letters have taken us on wonderful excursions through life where we are confronted with the human condition and the pitfalls of trying to apply basic Christian principals to the way we behave, especially where other people are concerned. In a recent letter (19/07/21) he challenged us to describe how we should deal with beggars.

Beggars are a real challenge to us. The first problem is that, like Christ's teaching on adultery, He really sets out hard rules. In Matthew 5:42 He states unequivocally:

"Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away."

Furthermore he incites would be followers to give everything away first and then follow him. He points out the generosity of the widow who gives a mite to the Synagogue and points out how important a mite is for her economy and survival. He tells the story of Dives and Lazarus, the rich man dressed in purple, living in opulence and the poor sick man dying of illness in the street outside and of course he tells of the fate of the neglectful Dives, tormented for eternity and longing for the generous act that he denied to others during his life.

So what do we do? Well we do what we are not supposed to do and we start judging the beggars. What will they do with the money? Will they buy class A drugs or just return to the alcoholism from which they have recently had a brief respite? Is the person a fraud who tells you their mother has just had an accident and asks you for money to pay for a taxi to visit her in hospital? If so that is surely a good reason to deny their request? However, my daughter, who now goes to Quakers, when a schoolgirl said on this matter “if this person is so desperate that they have to set up a deception to obtain money, then surely we should give to them anyway?” Or we reason that someone who is too persistent or too aggressive is unworthy of alms. Or we go out of our house with no cash in our pocket or handbag so that we have a hard excuse not to give if we are asked.

The simplest solution to these problems is to set up a regular donation to a local charity which will benefit local beggars by offering them food, accommodation and other forms of assistance. If it is a good charity you can rely on the staff to parse the beggars so that the drug addicts are diverted away from the drugs or to a curing regime and who will see that the alcoholics and their alcoholism are managed as best they may.

I arrived in Cambridge almost three years ago. One night at about 11 o'clock my wife and I were accosted by a sequence of eleven people begging over a period of about fifteen minutes. I vowed then to make a regular donation to a local charity dealing with the homeless and down and outs. Have I done so? No.

Kyrie eleison me, peccator.

Perhaps self-enlightenment is the most positive consequence of having to deal with beggars for often the beggars don't benefit from the interaction.

Peace,

Paul.

Completed 19 July 2021.

Photo: Paul Munton
Water Spouts on Gonville and Caius College in Trinity Lane Cambridge.



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