"Let them eat cake!"

We mean well, we really do, when we try to say nice things upon seeing the plight of others.  “Send them away so they can find something to eat, Master,” his followers told him, as if so many of them could find anything of substance in that wild country.

“Let them eat meat,” said Emperor Hui of ancient China, when hearing his poor subjects were short on rice.  And Queen Marie Antoinette is said to have expressed that famous line, “Let them eat cake,” on being informed French peasants were starving during a great famine, as if they could get their hands on enriched foods at a time when no food was attainable.

The response of the Master in that first story was to tell his followers they themselves were to provide food for the hungry.  Never mind that, in the ordinary, this was an impossible task.  But the Master was no ordinary thinker or doer.  He certainly was not one to let the obvious get in the way.

Our temptation, even in our best moments, is to judge the source of the need in others.  “Is his sickness his fault or his parents?” we ask, just as those same followers of old did.  “If you are out of work or are not rich, it’s your own fault,” our leaders echo.  Surely the poor and the sick and the lost are to be blamed for their own situation.

And even if they are? 

The Apostle Peter said it this way, “What I have I give you.”  No questions asked.

A man and his little son walked into our food pantry yesterday.  We were closed, our shelves waiting to be refilled this morning.  It was raining out and the two had gotten wet on their long walk, only adding to their plight.  The man started to explain.  “I lost my job two months ago and…” Sometimes people want someone to listen to their story.  In this case, he was trying to show just cause for his asking. 

“Never mind,” I said, “you can come back for more tomorrow.  For now, I’ll give you a few things to hold you over,” as I grabbed a loaf of bread, a can of stew, and a couple other items as well.  You don’t need to prove anything to me, I was thinking. 

According to one Chinese saying, “a person who has integrity and honor won’t accept food handed out in contempt.”  The story goes that a man passed by a beggar, looked down at him and with contempt threw him something to eat.  Looking up, the beggar smiled, not the way the benefactor had expected. 

The poor man said, “Sir, I am poor in my body, but not in my ethics.  I would be grateful so much if you would treat me the way you want to be treated – like a friend.  But since you treat me like that, you do not save me, because I would rather die.”

This benefactor probably thought that all he had accumulated was his own doing, much like the man in the parable who loved building bigger barns with which to hoard the work of his own hands.  Yet those who love God know that everything we have is a gift, not of our own making, but of divine love.  We, who really own or create nothing, are mere stewards of that impossible grace.

One of my all-time favorite passages in Scripture is the one where the writer says that when Jesus saw the multitudes, he had compassion on them.”  His first response was not to evaluate or to calculate or to postulate.  It was to have compassion.

How do we have compassion?  The Golden Rule is a good place to start.  Treat others as you wish to be treated.  Doing to others as you want them to do to you is a principle found among great teachings the world over.  The truth is we only understand compassion as we realize our need for compassion ourselves.  In the end, we learn to give, not out of our bounty, but out of our lack.