How We Pay Our Debt To Others In Our Work - 2

We continue with our discussion of paying our debt to others with our work. Today we consider how we can pay our debt to those individuals beyond our immediate circle of family and friends who need our help.

Most of us understand the desirability of charitable acts. It's part of loving your neighbor. But, as we've seen, in Working Your Way into Heaven, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski has explained how and why we actually owe a debt to persons in need, people we may not even know personally. And debts must be repaid. But while our initial response to this call, to this debt, might simply be to get out our checkbooks, there's more to consider than how much money we can afford to assist others.

What happens, for example when we don't have the means to repay this debt with money? What happens when simply meeting the financial obligations we have to our families exhausts our means. We just don't have any money left over beyond that which provides the necessities of life. It's not uncommon, especially these days, and most especially in cases where only one parent is working, with the other staying home with the children. There's nothing left to go around after we pay for food, clothing, shelter, and the costs of educating our kids. But that doesn't mean you can't pay your debt to those in need. While money does seem to be the primary means of alms-giving for most of us these days, we should remember that wasn't always the case. It may be hard to fathom, but for centuries most people possessed very little money throughout their lives. Indeed, there still exist vast swatches of our world where that remains the case. Hundreds of millions still live in what we might consider "primitive" or "backward" conditions in agrarian cultures.

With that in mind, let's look at how our work can help us pay our debt to those in need, whoever they are and wherever they may be, whether or not we make enough "surplus" money beyond our own needs. We want to be sure we understand that addressing their needs is both urgent and critically important. Even as we recognize the vast need that exists, we'll attempt to show how each of us can address their needs in our ordinary daily work.

As for the vastness of the need, take China for example. With all the talk about China's economic ascendancy, the fact is the majority of Chinese live in a state of relative poverty far from the recently prosperous cities   The vast majority. Why do you think the Chinese, despite two decades of trying, have never been able to develop an economy that grows from domestic consumption, rather than exporting their labor and products to other countries? It hasn't happened yet and it's hard to see how it's going to happen anytime soon. Most people in China, even today, simply don't have the means, the surplus, to spend in a consumer economy.

And China's not alone here. Have you ever been to India? What about Africa? Many of us in the developed world simply have no idea how "the other half" lives. And let's not forget that needy people exist, even here in these United States.

Before we continue, let's remind ourselves that material poverty alone does not define the universe of those in need. If it did most of us here in the United States should be skipping around laughing and singing. After all, compared to much of the world, we're pretty well off. And that's true even though we've seen a tiny segment of the population become incredibly wealthy while most of us have languished - for decades. Even recognizing that unfortunate trend - one which appears to be creating the first significant signs of unrest as our national elections draw near - we're still doing all right. The fact is spiritual poverty, unhappiness, emotional distress - all of these exist side-by-side with material prosperity. And they always have. But for now, for simplicity's sake, let's just focus on poverty.

For now, though, given the length of these introductory remarks, we'll have to bring today's discussion to a close. But next time, we'll look at an example of how God feels about the plight of the poor. We'll see why relieving the plight of the poor will take more than just providing material assistance by looking at an ancient but shocking illustration of those who exploit the poor for their own benefit.

Meanwhile, as we go about our work today, whether our work provides a good living, or just enough to get by, let's remember to thank God for His gracious generosity.