While reading an edidtorial in my diocesan newspaper about sacrifice and reward, a popular Lenten topic, I came across a new twist on a tired old phrase: "I've got mine" culture of entitlement.
Every day in my work as an editorialist I am bombarded by comments from people, either through online forum comments, anonymous comments for publication, letters to the editor or in mass e-mailing that reach my inbox from special interest groups. A majority of them echo that "I've got mine" sentiment. You know, "If government takes my money and shares it with (you fill in the blank), that's socialism" or "If we give people (again, you fill in the blank) for nothing, they'll start thinking they're entitled to it, or anything else we own" or "I'm tired paying taxes with my hard-earned wages so lazy, good-for-nothing (welfare recipients, illegal immigrants, whatever) can benefit (by attending school, getting health care, clothing, shelter, food, whatever) while I struggle to make ends meet."
That is also an entitlement culture, but I'd never looked at it that way. Community is important but too much of this "rugged individualism" can lead to a fragmenting of community, a fear that someone else might get something they didn't "earn" or that a neighbor might profit from someone else's labor.
Community is more than keeping up with the Joneses. Who is my neighbor? someone asked Jesus. He answered with a parable about a good Samaritan. To understand the shock value of that parable, to put it into context, we might substitute "illegal immigrant" or "Arab who might be a terrorist" or other label that is looked down upon or feared in today's culture. Jesus seems to be telling us both how to spot a neighbor and how to be a good neighbor.
If you are caught up in the "got mine" culture of entitlement, however, you are so smug about making sure that you've done a good job of planning, working and providing for yourself, you are blinded to the need to help each other without a need to deem the one in need worthy of our generosity. You are thinking "I work hard for my wages, and it is my right to use it to make my family's life more comfortable. And what would people think if I started just giving away my time and treasure? I'd be eaten alive. I'd be taken advantage of."
No, we are given gifts by God to share. Hence, the parable about the talents. To whom is given more, more is expected in return. That parable is not about investing more in the stock market to earn shareholders or bankers or brokers a greater return. It's about spreading that gift to help more people, using it to the best possible end, which is making sure that if you are aware of suffering in a neighbor and can do something to ease it, you should do so.
Who is your neighbor? It's anyone. It's the homeless, the terminally ill, the working poor, the outcast. It doesn't matter whether you think that person is "worthy" of being helped. It might not even be a fellow American. While we often invoke "God and country," Christianity is not limited to the United States of America, and God certainly has not declared that the USA is his chosen country or people.
Feed my sheep, Jesus tells his apostles. He also tells them that if someone takes the cloak off your back, offer to go home and get another one to give him. If someone slaps you in the cheek, turn the other cheek so he can also slap that one.
That is the kind of humility that Jesus tells us to strive for, so that self does not matter, and pride does not enter into the equation.
It's not easy, it isn't natural for us and it's probably impossible to fully achieve on Earth. But it's what we are called to do. Help those in need, use our gifts and talents for the good of the community, the church, each other.Do not worry about tomorrow. Look at the birds, and the flowers, and see how they do not worry about tomorrow. Our father in heaven takes care of them and he will take care of us.
So simple, and yet so impossible to grasp and embrace.
Yes, community matters, and community means a deep, fundamental concern for others, not just our friends and family, but everyone who is in need.
If we all adopted that attitude, we would not be arguing over how to pass legislation that will benefit us without risking giving something away to someone in need who might not have "earned" it. There would be no need for government safety nets like Social Security or welfare. We'd all be looking out for each other, and so, so much richer because of it. I am the peace the world cannot give, Jesus told us. And Jesus, the God made flesh who was for his entire adult life homeless, who never asked for more than his most basic human needs to be met (food, water, clothing to cover his body, time alone to pray), was a living example for us.
God help us.