Good, Better, Best

Learning the hierarchy of helping the poor

10/11/2018

Luke 11:5-13 Jesus said to his disciples: "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

Have you heard the proverb, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”? I believe that is the informal slogan for Heifer Project International that provides more sustainable support for helping the poor. Donating a heifer to a poor family provides meat and milk and even money. But notice the underlying dynamic at work between good and better.  Giving someone a fish is good because you addressed a daily need; but teaching someone how to fish is better because you addressed a life-long need.

A similar dynamic helped me discover my vocation to be a priest, that is, taking that dynamic a step further: not only from good to better, but also from better to best. As a young teen I felt a deep desire to help people; I suppose we all do to some degree. But it somehow occurred to me that there are two basic ways to help others. You can help them physically or materially by giving them food, shelter and clothing. But those needs only last as long as someone lives on earth. Another way to help is providing spiritual goods, like teaching someone about Jesus, or reading the Bible, or learning to pray. How long do those spiritual needs last? Obviously, forever. That is the reason I want to be a priest: to take care of people’s most critical needs, their eternal ones.

I did not know it at the time, but that is exactly how Jesus called his first disciples, by teaching them the dynamic of good, better and best. He found James and John, Peter and Andrew who were professional fisherman. He said very alluringly in Matthew 4:19: “I will make you fishers of men.” In other words, pay attention to this hierarchy of helping people. On the first level you give a man a fish (that is good), on the second level you teach a man to fish (that is better), but on the third level you train a man to be a fisher of men and nourish them spiritually, eternally (that is best). Before Peter, Andrew, James and John formed the hierarchy of the Church as pope and bishops, they first had to learn the hierarchy of helping others: good, better and best.

In today’s gospel from Luke 11, Jesus tries again to impress on his disciples the dynamics of good, better and best. He gives several situations where he compares two things: one is clearly better than the other. He says, for example: “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish?” The answer is obvious to anyone with a shred of common sense. But the example also suggests a spiritual parallel. Jesus is not only talking about literal snakes and fish, but he really means symbolic ones. The snake represents Satan and evil (like the serpent in the Garden of Eden), while the fish was an ancient acronym that summarized Christian belief. The Greek word for fish is ichthus, whose initials make up the phrase: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” That is essentially a one sentence summary of all Christianity encapsulated in one word, fish, ichthus. In other words, our Lord’s point is: avoiding giving your son a snake is good, and giving him a fish is better, but introducing him to the Christian faith, symbolized by the ichthus / fish, is best. Hidden in every teaching of Jesus is a hierarchy of helping: good, better, best.

Did you know this hierarchy of helping under-girds all apostolic activity of the Catholic Church? That is, just like Jesus taught his disciples the dynamics of good, better and best, so the Church carries on that task in every apostolic and charitable ministry she undertakes. The reason the Catholic Church operates schools is not only to educate young people, but ultimately so they will learn about Jesus. We want our students not only to reach Harvard but finally to reach heaven. The real reason we run soup kitchens or homeless shelters or clothes closets it not only to provide for the needs of the body, but to help people have faith (however indirectly) and clothe, shelter and nourish their souls. The reason we have Catholic hospitals is not only to heal the body, but ultimately to bring people closer to the Divine Physician, Jesus, who heals us spiritually and eternally. There is not only apostolic or charitable endeavor the Church embarks upon that does not have a spiritual goal as its ultimate aim.  If she is not providing the best of faith, she needs to abandon that activity.

The Catholic Church does not just give a man a fish and feed him for a day, we do not even teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime, but we also form him in the ways of ichthus, a fish that is really faith, and that fish of faith feeds him for eternity. That is the hierarchy of helping others: good, better, best.

Praised be Jesus Christ!