Once a man in his twenties appeared at the door of a parish house asking for money. He didn’t look ill, disabled or handicapped in any way. But because I’m a good and helpful man I wanted to know something about his needs. I don’t remember his story but I do remember it sounded like a made up one. He asked me for money to pay for one night in a nearby B&B. When I offered to go with him and pay from my pocket he suddenly had to go and fetch his wife. He would be back in a minute; but I was completely sure he would never return. And I was right. A few days later I was going to a local train station to pick up my mum. Dressed casually I didn’t look like a priest. Suddenly I was approached by a young man in his twenties asking for money. As you rightly guess that was the same one. He didn’t recognise me but I did him (photographic memory). This time he honestly admitted he was collecting money for alcohol. Despite his honesty I politely refused.<\/p>\n
Since the 1840\u2019s European countries have been introducing elements of social welfare following the pattern of Germany governed by Otto von Bismarck. The idea behind it was making people\u2019s lives easier and more bearable in difficult times of sickness, unemployment or old age. Help from the state was only a support. But we get used to the easy life very quickly. Living on benefits became for some people a lifestyle. Last week a Highland councillor was sentenced to jail because he\u2019d been receiving undeserved benefits. Fraudsters don\u2019t care about anyone else; they live with their hand in our pockets.<\/p>\n
On the other hand the welfare state\u2019s idea is a highly evangelic one. Helping people in need is a test of the true faith according to Saint John: \u2018You can\u2019t love the invisible God if you don\u2019t love your brother that you can see\u2019<\/em>. But loving people doesn\u2019t mean giving money and goods away without concern. That\u2019s very romantic but a completely impractical way of helping. Actually in many cases this is the simplest way to make people dependant on aid. Last week in the news I saw a report about a refugee camp in Africa where people have lived for over 20 years based mainly on international aid. Although that\u2019s a very important and noble thing to do it\u2019s made people practically unable to live on their own.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s gospel there is a woman looking for help from Jesus. Her life has been a nightmare because of the mental problems of her daughter. \u00a0She is shouting after Jesus making his disciples so embarrassed that they ask him to \u2018give her what she wants\u2019<\/em>. They are not generous and sympathetic \u2013 they are irritated. The woman is a troublemaker, turning their lives into a nightmare. She\u2019s desperate to seize the chance to change her life; the disciples are desperate to get rid of her. There isn\u2019t a real interaction between them and the woman. Jesus\u2019 reply is not encouraging: \u2018I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel\u2019<\/em>, while she is a pagan. In these words I feel there\u2019s irony. Many Jewish people despised other nations and looked down on them. Many believed the Messiah would be sent only to the Jews. And now those proud Jewish disciples ask their Messiah to cope with a woman and a pagan. What a shame!<\/p>\n Meanwhile the woman comes up and Jesus starts talking with her. He tries to recognize her problem, her motives and her approach to it. The difference between the disciples and their Master is that he meets a woman and is looking for the best possible solution. He wants her to stand on her own feet and look after her own life. And this is what real help is about: to support people in taking on again responsibility for their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once a man in his twenties appeared at the door of a parish house asking for money. He didn’t look ill, disabled or handicapped in any way. But because I’m a good and helpful man I wanted to know something about his needs. I don’t remember his story but I do remember it sounded like a made up one. He asked me for money to pay for one night in a nearby B&B. When I offered to go with him and pay from my pocket he suddenly had to go and fetch his wife. He would be back in a minute; but I was completely sure he would never return. And I was right. A few days later I was going to a local train station to pick up my mum. Dressed casually I didn’t look like a priest. Suddenly I was approached by a young man in his twenties asking for money. As you rightly guess that was the same one. He didn’t recognise me but I did him (photographic memory). This time he honestly admitted he was collecting money for alcohol. Despite his honesty I politely refused. Since the 1840\u2019s European countries have been introducing elements of social welfare following the pattern of Germany governed by Otto von Bismarck. The idea behind it was making people\u2019s lives easier and more bearable in difficult times of sickness, unemployment or old age. Help from the state was only a support. But we get used to the easy life very quickly. Living on benefits became for some people a lifestyle. Last week a Highland councillor was sentenced to jail because he\u2019d been receiving undeserved benefits. Fraudsters don\u2019t care about anyone else; they live with their hand in our pockets. On the other hand the welfare state\u2019s idea is a highly evangelic one. Helping people in need is a test of the true faith according to Saint John: \u2018You can\u2019t love the invisible God if you don\u2019t love your brother that you can see\u2019. But loving people doesn\u2019t mean giving money and goods away without concern. That\u2019s very romantic but a completely impractical way of helping. Actually in many cases this is the simplest way to make people dependant on aid. Last week in the news I saw a report about a refugee camp in Africa where people have lived for over 20 years based mainly on international aid. Although that\u2019s a very important and noble thing to do it\u2019s made people practically unable to live on their own. In today\u2019s gospel there is a woman looking for help from Jesus. Her life has been a nightmare because of the mental problems of her daughter. \u00a0She is shouting after Jesus making his disciples so embarrassed that they ask him to \u2018give her what she wants\u2019. They are not generous and sympathetic \u2013 they are irritated. The woman is a troublemaker, turning their lives into a nightmare. She\u2019s desperate to seize the chance to change her life; the disciples are desperate to get rid of her. There isn\u2019t a real interaction between them and the woman. Jesus\u2019 reply is not encouraging: \u2018I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel\u2019, while she is a pagan. In these words I feel there\u2019s irony. Many Jewish people despised other nations and looked down on them. Many believed the Messiah would be sent only to the Jews. And now those proud Jewish disciples ask their Messiah to cope with a woman and a pagan. What a shame! Meanwhile the woman comes up and Jesus starts talking with her. He tries to recognize her problem, her motives and her approach to it. The difference between the disciples and their Master is that he meets a woman and is looking for the best possible solution. He wants her to stand on her own feet and look after her own life. And this is what real help is about: to support people in taking on again responsibility for their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-a"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}