The Best of Friends

The Social Service Committee, in a friendly parish, took a decision to abstain from helping anyone who says that he is in need, if it knows that he is addicted to smoking cigarettes. It assumed, in this rampant price hike in Lebanon, that if the needy smokers stop smoking, they can help themselves. This decision struck me. It reminded me of a friend who once told me what he had said to his son when he “caught” him smoking. The son was about fifteen years old. He said to him: “It is not appropriate for any person to spend money, for which others have toiled, on his own pleasures”! Do I hear anyone say that I am unjust to the needy, or that I show that they are not worthy to enjoy anything in life? Donations consist of discernment. Wasting what helps the poor with their bread and medicine... is a crime. The best of friends are those who teach us the truth!