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Charity Begins at Home
by David G. Duggan ©
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
October 26, 2023
Nobody would ever accuse me of being overly charitable. A coin here and there to a street beggar, a modest contribution to the church where I worship and the schools which I attended. Occasionally a tele-marketing fund solicitor gets through my defenses to reach into my heavily guarded wallet.
So, for the last five months I've been somewhat out of sorts dealing with a situation I've never encountered before: a tenant struggling to pay her rent. Sure, I've been stiffed by a client or two, and occasionally I've been on the bad end of a bargain. But this is different. The tenant lives on the same property where I reside, uses the same laundry machines, and bathes in the water and cooks with the gas I provide.
The tenant is a legal immigrant, single mother of two young children, including an infant brought to the apartment from the hospital where he was born. The absentee father has his own problems and can no longer provide support or maintenance. It is getting colder and I have a real estate tax bill due
next month. The social service agencies commissioned to take care of these problems and petitions have rendered no assistance. It seems like we have billions for illegal migrants but bupkis for those already here who have fallen on hard times.
Heartless as I maybe I cannot bring myself to commence eviction proceedings before the holidays and I cannot plead poverty. Is this some sort of cosmic payback for having saved my own pennies and not given more to support the church, the universities and the beggars who line every street in urban America?
The rich man built more barns to store the abundant grain he had harvested. He wanted to eat, drink and be merry for the rest of his life. God claimed his life that night. Luke 12: 16-21. Nobody dines from the grave. Yet I haven't built more barns and whatever harvest I have reaped was long ago. Do I demand payment or departure, or let the tenant feast off the years of my frugality?
In a month I will render unto Caesar. Will that which I don't receive from the tenant be rendered to God?
David Duggan is a retired attorney living in Chicago
