Thirty-Five Cents

Some years ago, our family went to California to see "Phantom of the Opera" in San Francisco. We stayed with my brother, Harold, in Antioch and rode the Bay area Rapid Transit (BART) train to San Francisco. It stopped just a couple of blocks from our destination. The production was sublime, and we were all in a happy mood walking back to the BART stop when an obviously homeless man said to me: “I need thirty-five cents to have enough for a hamburger at Burger King.” I brushed him off, to my eternal regret, because he made the same request of my daughter, Marie, who was right behind me. She gave him what he asked, and he walked straight across the street and into Burger King.

I assumed the worst, that he needed the thirty-five cents for a bottle of cheap wine or for some other similar purpose. Marie took him at face value. She assumed he was telling the truth. She didn’t judge him – she just gave openly, with no valuation as to clothing, hygiene, or circumstances.

I, on the other hand, made snap judgments about all the things Marie didn’t: his ragged clothing, his lack of hygiene, his motives. Thirty-five cents – a paltry sum for me, something I would not miss if it fell out of my pocket. For the homeless man, it represented the chance to sleep that night on a full stomach, even though his bed might be a steam grate or a doorway with cardboard for a blanket.

There have been other instances of a somewhat similar nature in my life since then. We all have been accosted by those in need. Since San Francisco, I have tried to put myself in the beggar’s shoes (if he has any) and give without judgment to ease his (or her) circumstances just a little.

I know all of the arguments about street people and their nefarious motives. I am fully aware that my little gifts might be used to buy alcohol or drugs, or some other form of instant gratification. Nevertheless, the Lord says in Mosiah 4:16-19 [italics added]:

And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—

18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

There doesn’t seem to be any equivocation on the Lord’s part about motives, clothing, or lack of personal hygiene. Just, “succor those that stand in need of your succor.” Of course, we all make judgments every day. We must decide whether of not that car salesman is telling the truth or that garage-sale item is worth what the person wants for it, but there are times when we should forbear to judge too. Joseph Smith said:

Brethren, bear and forbear one with another, for so the Lord does with us… lest you and the children should suffer, and you thereby offend your righteous Judge.

But would we allow our own quick judgments to knowingly “offend our righteous Judge” by allowing His children to suffer needlessly? If we have within our means the ability to relieve, even very temporarily, the suffering of another, should we not do it? Sometimes, though, we may not have means to give. The Lord has instructed us concerning how we might be justified, even if we have no means to give. In Mosiah 4:24-25 He says [italics added]:

24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.

25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.

The Lord judged no one while he was on the earth. He condemned no one to suffer for sin. He still does not – He gives us every chance to repent of sin and find the path to salvation again. Our outward appearance is of no consequence to Him. He is infinitely merciful and kind, and when the final accounting comes, it will be immeasurably more complex and personal because he knows each of us, our motives, our desires, our commitment to Him, and to His children.

Our own pioneer ancestors were homeless more than once. They were driven from city to city, from homes that they worked hard to build, from land they cleared of deep forests to create prosperous farms, from family and friends, from places of peace and warmth to exposure to the cold and bitter winter. Some of them even died because of the harsh and unforgiving judgments of others. People judged them based on their own prejudices and covetousness for the things they had. But our ancestors never gave up. In His biography of Mary Fielding Smith, Daughter of Britain: Portrait of Courage, pp 125 – 126, Don Cecil Corbett says this about Mary:

In addition to Mary's great faith, a reserve of courage had sustained her in all her afflictions and crises. These two attributes, stronger than sinew, enabled her to surmount obstacles any one of which would have defeated the average person. It took the best in Mary to start from scratch to build a home and make a new life without ready means. In Nauvoo (formerly Commerce), her spirit was refreshed with new hope and promise. She watched a miracle unfold before her eyes, as the industry of a homeless people transformed the swampy shore line around the bend of the Mississippi into a desirable community. Street after street of homes came into being, extending up the slope to higher ground where a Temple was to be built. Nauvoo was to become the largest city in Illinois within the short breathing space permitted the Saints.

The Savior himself was homeless. He acknowledges this in Matthew 8:22:

And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

The point is that homeless people often have wellsprings of resilience and capability in reserve that only need to be nurtured to bless the world with their strength and ambition. The LDS Church’s Deseret Industries program is designed to help people achieve that potential. Their mission statement says:

The mission of Deseret Industries is like that of other divisions of the Church’s Welfare Services, to “help people to help themselves” …. Specifically, Deseret Industries helps people remove barriers to employment through the training programs made possible from ward members’ donations. The resources at Deseret Industries help members learn to overcome whatever obstacles prevent them from holding a job, and ward members can use Deseret Industries as a way to serve others in their community.

I do not have any desire to advise or challenge anyone concerning attitudes about giving or helping others. We all give in many different ways: fast offering, home visits, meals for those in need, priesthood blessings, visiting teaching and home teaching, financial assistance for missionaries, contributions to the various Church funds,  contributions to Deseret Industries. Yet the pull we experience as we walk past a beggar is real. The need to give something (“suffer not the beggar to putteth up his petition to you in vain”) is something we all feel, but often suppress with judgments or excuses.

So why do we “succor those that stand in need?” Simply because they, like we, are beloved children of our Father-in-Heaven. We need no other motivation or reason. D and C 52:40 teaches us:

And remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, for he that doeth not these things, the same is not my disciple.