Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

It was interesting this week to watch reactions to the proposed student loan debt forgiveness. I’m not a policy expert so I don’t know what impact it will have on inflation, education costs, or the like. I can, though, understand folks being annoyed if they’ve paid a lot on theirs and suddenly it seems like somebody else is getting something just handed to them.

Of course I understand that feeling because it’s the human condition isn’t it? We want things to be fair—the notion that someone is getting something more or something they didn’t earn triggers some deep-seated and very human resentments.

Of course, it took me just a minute to start thinking of the examples in Scripture when this kind of thing surfaced. There’s the parable of the laborers coming at the last hour getting the same reward as those who came at the first. There’s the prodigal son. There’s the whole concept of Jubilee, a time every seven years when all debts were commanded to be erased.

We hear, in the Epistle today, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

So suddenly I felt a little on the spot! I was feeling like this was a little unfair. But then Jesus was pointing out examples where he says the generosity of God is exactly like this. We’re all undeserving in some way. We’re all ungrateful at times. We’re all dependent on God’s largesse as everything we have is a gift from God. So we can certainly begrudge others what they’ve received but it becomes harder when we remember where our daily bread comes from—when we’ve prayed honestly, “forgive us our debts/trespasses as we forgive our debtors/those who trespass against us.”

Again, I’m not sure of the right fiscal policy but it does seem that the right attitude of heart is one of radical, even scandalous generosity. What God asks of us is not the world’s grudging scarcity but his open-handed, overflowing love.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert