The wisdom of charity

Christendom yesterday began its liturgical countdown to Christmas with the lighting in churches, chapels and homes of the first of four candles on Advent wreaths—real or artificial greenery in circular form that stands for God’s eternity.

Christians down the centuries have developed different ways of naming the candles, which symbolize the four millennia that separated the time of Adam from the birth of Jesus Christ.

According to one tradition, the candles stand for the Jewish prophets who foretold Christ’s coming, Saint John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the wise men from the East who brought presents for the Christ-child. In another tradition, the candles stand for hope, peace, joy and love or charity.

Charity in the form of material gifts that provide some relief to our economically hard-pressed countrymen will always be for us Filipinos a prized gesture for concretizing the  Christmas message of peace on earth to people of good will.

Economic analysts prophesy further turmoil in the global market. In Cebu City, the campaign against mendicancy has been intensified. Yet commuters still give alms to boys and young men who sing carols or blurt out Christmas rap inside or in the street next to jeepneys. Pedestrians still hand out food to the homeless on the sidewalks.

Such realities are a testament to our people’s unflagging generosity but are also an indictment of the government’s failure at social justice.

Citizens continue to give what little aid they can to beggars, street children and jeepney carolers precisely because the concerned agencies appear slow and inefficient at bringing street dwellers home or providing them with a truly welcoming environment in whatever shelter we have.

How goes work in Cebu City’s Department of Social Welfare and Services and allied offices like the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor, Squatter Prevention Encroachment and Elimination and Task Force on Street Children?

Will the day dawn when streets will be cleared of impoverished persons because our taxes have been judiciously used by these agencies to reverse the fortunes of the unfortunate?

Until then, government authorities must understand those who will heed the pitiable look in the eyes of those who beg and their moving pleas for some coins to buy food, rather than anti-mendicancy stickers that encourage order but at the bottom line vilify prompt aid to those in need.

People of good will do not want to foster dependence on doleouts among those who have less in life. At the same time, however, their consciences won’t tolerate their passing the buck to the government whenever they encounter in the street their ill-clad, ill-fed neighbor.

Give a man a fish and he’ll have food for a meal. Teach him to fish and he’ll know how to find food all his life. True. But you can’t teach anyone who’s far too malnourished to learn.