Once upon a time, there was a young man who grew up in a small mid-western town. In high school, he had been relatively popular with the other kids. He was co-captain of the basketball team and class vice-president during his senior year. He made more A’s than B’s in his pre-college classes. When he graduated, he went away to the state university on an athletic scholarship and earned a degree in business administration.
In his class in high school, there was a young woman who liked him very much, but from afar. She wasn’t part of his crowd. She wanted to be a cheerleader, but couldn’t afford either the uniform nor the time. She worked in the evenings at the neighborhood McDonald’s to help make ends meet at home. When she graduated from high school, she entered the local community college but left at the end of the first year, when her father died, and she had to help her mother support two younger sisters.
The young man, Charlie was his name, did much better. After college he went for his C.P.A. and got it on his second try. He joined a newly organized company, and a few years later, became its vice-president for finance. In the meantime, Sarah, the young woman I’ve been talking about, started to work at a local department store. She met a young assistant manager there. They got married, had two children, a boy and a girl. But Sarah’s husband drank a lot and met a woman he said he loved more than he did Sarah. They divorced and Sarah was left with the two kids. She lost her job at the department store and began to wait tables during the day, so she could be at home in the evenings when the kids were out of school.
For Charlie, life went well. He, too, had gotten married. His only regret was he didn’t have enough time to spend with the family, with his wife and two sons. With the new company, Charlie had to work late every evening. On weekends, he had to play a few rounds of golf with his business partners and their clients. But he made it up to his wife and the boys with the new house out in the suburbs where the schools were good.
Sarah didn’t live in the suburbs. She had a small apartment in town. On weekends, she took the kids to the zoo and to the park. Sometimes, she would take them to a movie at the mall, but she preferred renting videos because she didn’t feel safe being out after dark. Besides, most evenings she was busy helping them with their homework.
In matters of religion, Charlie was more or less indifferent when it came to doing anything about it. He went to church at Christmas and Easter and on those Sundays when it rained, and his golf match had to be called off. But he made up for it by the checks he sent along with his wife when she attended every week. He was very proud his wife and the kids went as often as they did, but he never told them that.
Sarah, on the other hand, had to wait on tables every Saturday, and on Sunday mornings. She didn’t get to church on Sunday very much, but there was a church between where she worked and her apartment. Every day or so, she would run in for a few minutes to pray. It made her feel warm inside, although she was sad that she seldom got to see the church all lit up for services and filled with people.
Meanwhile, Charlie’s wife began to take her religion seriously. The suburban church she attended had a mission downtown. Every Sunday afternoon, she and the boys went there to work in the soup kitchen. One cold Sunday in November, she convinced Charlie to join her and the boys at the mission. Charlie grumbled, but since his golf match had been called off at the last minute, he went with her. Now as it turned out, Sarah also helped at that same mission every Sunday afternoon. She joked about it being a busman’s holiday, since she waited on paying customers the other six days of the week.
Charlie was obviously annoyed with being there, but he was trying to put on a good show for the boys. He knew he had to teach his sons about charity and helping others less fortunate than they were. He figured, so long as he didn’t have to get too close to smell any of the dirty folk who held out their empty plates, it might not be too bad an experience. He was a little surprised when he saw Sarah cleaning up the plates. He thought he had recognized her from high school but wasn’t sure.
It, also, happened that on this very Sunday in November, a sociology class from the university had decided to help out at this particular soup kitchen, as part of a class project. After the homeless men, women and children had been fed and had left the soup kitchen, the sociology students, along with the other volunteers, washed up the pots and pans and put away the tables and chairs. It was then time for the sociology students to interview the workers. In addition to actually helping out, the class assignment was to find out: “why do people volunteer to do charity work.” The class divided itself into three groups.
The first group approached Charlie. The second group went to talk with Sarah.
And the third group wants to talk with you. About why you, personally, volunteer to do charity work. Their questions are more important than any I might have for you. For the next minute or so, I’d like each one of you to reflect on what questions you might imagine these young adults are asking Charlie, Sarah and you, and what answers you have for them. For, perhaps, these students come with a teacher who reminds us how vital it is to give from what we have, no matter how insignificant we might judge it to be.
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time; November 10, 1991
1 Kg 17:10-16; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44