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This site is a Roman Catholic fiction and commentary blog written in the epistolary style of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. More »

Mobile Loaves and Fishes

By Prof. Ernest Thornberry
July 23rd, 2007

Mobile Loaves and Fishes

Dear Bunglehorn,

I’m sure you recall the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) from your studies of the Enemy’s Handbook. The sheep are praised for feeding and clothing the King while the goats are condemned for ignoring him. Neither recognized the King when he revealed himself to them. The story foretells Parousia and the final judgement of nations. The treatment of the Enemy’s people ultimately mirrors one’s acceptance or rejection of him.

“Whoever receives you, receives me.”
Matthew 10:40

How, then, could you allow your patient to volunteer for Mobile Loaves and Fishes? The apostalate is predicated on feeding the homeless! Do you expect his heart to harden? If you believe as much, you’re a greater fool than I thought.

In every American city, there is an elephant standing at an intersection in the form of a beggar. At every red light, people are forced to evaluate their own goodwill. These are opportunities for you and I to plant the seeds of judgement: Stop drinking and drugging. Stop expecting that the world owes you something. Get a job! We ought to be celebrating; a generation bemoans the apathy of her youth.

You twit. You’ve allowed your patient’s Guardian Angel to intercede. He’s gone the extraordinary step of wanting to investigate homelessness in a land of vast wealth and opportunity. He’s attached himself personally. Arguably, it would have been better for your patient to give a dollar to every panhandler he meets, a proverbial fish that enables the beggar’s dependency. Actually going out to mingle with the poor, as the Son of Man did, may prove to be catastrophic. Have you not been reading the monthly Threat Matrix reports from HQ? Despite our efforts to squelch this apostolate, it continues to grow.

How could you allow this to happen?! It’s bad enough that your patient drags himself out of bed Sunday mornings to attend Mass. But you’re surely losing your grip when he shows signs of living his faith. His simple acts of goodness are a witness to the Enemy’s goodness. He is becoming a mirror of the Enemy.

The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me.
Mark 14:7

You must put a stop to this immediately. As always, you have a few angles to play. One is his time. Inundate him with the mundane necessities of work and family. Cause him to oversleep on his volunteer days. Cause him to skip lunch, so he’s hungry and feeling ill by the time he leaves work. I don’t care what you do, by all means, block the volunteerism. With luck, he may lose interest.

When he does volunteer, direct your attention on the freeloaders. There are always people looking to exploit the system out of sheer desparation. These people have lost hope, lost trust in others. Thanks to society’s shift toward functionalism, where people are valued by their contributions, it’s hard for the homeless to see how they are loved simply for who they are, in the image of their Creator, even while they’re receiving direct provisions.

Unfortunately the MLF apostolate has an insidious facet: your patient isn’t giving away his food and clothes, he’s giving away other people’s food and clothes. Such an arrangement removes personal judgement and makes it easier to volunteer. His Enemy-like behavior becomes simple: Just Give. Your patient’s heart will surely soften as people express genuine gratitude for his gifts; they’ll love him by his mere presence!

In this state, do you think he will care that freeloaders are taking more than their share. No you fool! He’ll gladly give a woman three bags, while others get one. This is closer to the Enemy’s sense of fairness than man’s sense of justice. Have you forgotten the vineyard owner and his laborers? (Matthew 20:1-16)

Therefore, you’re only option is to remind him of those who will not receive because a freeloader took more than their share. Of course, this is disconnected logic, similar to an American child being made to finish his peas because children are starving in China. Your goal is to reorient him toward man’s justice, in conflict with the Enemy, in order to harden his heart.

It’s a long shot, but hopefully he’ll miss the forest for the trees. As is often the Holy Spirit’s modus operandi, he probably won’t see the fruits of his labor in this ministry. If you can focus his attention on the freeloading, the opportunists, the grabbing mobs of desperate mothers, he’s apt to miss the simple love and goodness behind his actions.

Warmest Regards,
Wigglebrick

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