PARADISE LOST

by David G. Duggan ©

www.virtueonline.org

December 28, 2025

In my 35 plus years of being a landlord I’ve never had to evict someone–until now. After more than a year of non-payment, and eight months of legal proceedings, the sheriff finally escorted this tenant, and her young child from the apartment they had shared for three years. Welcome to C[r]ook County, IL.

Undeterred and defiant, this tenant somehow made her way back to the apartment, dismantling a lock and ripping off the “No Trespassing” sign the sheriff had pasted to the door. On Thanksgiving and two days before Christmas I caught her in the apartment and ushered her out. On Christmas Eve the locks were changed.

The Bethlehem story of Mary and Jesus and Jesus’ parable about the vineyard owner and the murderous tenants (Matt. 21: 33-43) loom over this saga. But there is no Jesus here and I haven’t been killed (yet) for seeking my due. The courts awarded custody of the child to the absentee–and estranged–father who has been jobless for more than two years, not paying support for his children and their mother. Meanwhile the apartment’s furnishings haven’t been removed. I can’t bring myself to call a scavenger to haul away this fractured family’s memories of happier times.

Though now somewhat faded, What Would Jesus Do has become a sort of guidepost to those facing moral dilemmas. Whether I needed the rent more than the tenant needs free housing seems a pointless exercise. Why should I bear the brunt of others’ irresponsibility? Jesus didn’t quite endorse the “wretched end” which the crowd hearing His parable thought the tenants deserved. But He said that the kingdom will be taken away from them and given to those who will produce fruit.

On the cross, Jesus offered paradise to the repentant thief. I have no paradise to offer this tenant and the Chicago climate may not be conducive to raising wine grapes. But I can pray that this tenant can come to her salvation by realizing that the grace earlier shown her has limits. Eternity showed no mercy to the other thief who died waiting for a miracle rather than accept Jesus’ reward for taking the just punishment for his sins.

David Duggan is an attorney. He lives in Chicago and is a frequent contributor to to VOL.