Heart Of Stone

It might have been the worst day EVER to go to Sacramento and advocate for fairness and justice in the state budget! On Wednesday (May 20th) a bus full of staff and volunteers and guests went from St. Anthony’s to the state capitol to do just that. It was “Hunger Action Day”, an annual plea to the Governor and legislators to notice that certain upcoming bills and budget plans will either help or hurt California’s most vulnerable citizens.

The headlines on Wednesday were all about what had happened the day before. In a special election, two thirds of those voting basically told those officials that they’d done a bad job of trying to “fix” the budget and sent them back to the drawing board. Within hours the Governor was making threatening noises about totally eliminating social assistance programs! (Why? It wasn’t the widows and orphans and homeless who’d failed to do their job and create a fair, just and comprehensive budget.)

Bet even before that special election, the mood in Sacramento was something less than generous. Replying to a request for a meeting on Hunger Action Day, a budget aide to the Governor had emailed us to say that even though they’d meet us, there was nothing to discuss or negotiate. And he closed with these remarkable words: “WHEN POCKETS ARE EMPTY, HEARTS MUST HARDEN.”

Really? REALLY?

For those of who have been privileged to be at table with San Francisco’s poorest citizens here at St. Anthony’s Dining Room, we know just the opposite to be the truth. The poor are notoriously more generous than the rich. It’s why they are “God’s favorite people”.

When times are tough, hearts soften and burst open so that they can hold ever more tender mercies. The glorious history of the human spirit is not the story of hardened hearts, but rather the legacy of warm, open, loving and generous hearts – especially those that ‘rose to the occasion’ when times were toughest.

Think of Frank Capra’s legendary movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. On the one hand there’s Mr. Potter, the selfish, mean-spirited, bitter and lonely, heard-hearted banker. But opposite him is George Bailey, the soft-hearted Savings & Loan operator whose goodness and generosity almost do him in. Saved from the brink of suicide by an angelic messenger, he lives to realize that he is the “richest man in town” because of all the needy friends he’s helped.

For your reflection, here are some other hard-hearted thoughts and quotes.

“And when Pharaoh saw …, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart, he and his servants” (Exodus 9:34).

“He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.” (Abraham Lincoln)

“If you haven’t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.” (Bob Hope)

“Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.” (Golda Meir)

“A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.” (Mother Teresa)

“I know I have a heart because I can feel it breaking.” (The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz)

“Cold, hard heart,
Cold, cruel heart
What’s it gonna take
To break your cold, hard heart ? (Jon Bon Jovi)

Hard hearted Hannah, the vamp from Savannah,
Pouring water on a drowning man.” (Ella Fitzgerald)

On the day last summer when Tim Russert died, his friend Bruce Springsteen remembered words the NBC newsman had told him years before: “The best exercise for the human heart is bending down to help someone else up.”

We can only hope that during these tough times, perhaps over this holiday weekend, our friends in Sacramento will get some really good heart exercise!