Love one another. It seems like a simple enough command, and yet in practice it has proven to be quite difficult for us. We live in a world where we all too often only look to the good of ourselves, and don’t even notice those suffering around us. Let me be clear: suffering can take many forms, and a lot of them are un-noticeable enough to us that they are easily passed over. It often takes an active interest in others to pick up on these things, and yet that is exactly what we are called to do. We are called to lay down our own lives for those around us. This does not necessarily mean being martyred in the traditional sense; It can also be by simply dying to self enough that we can then recognize the suffering in those we encounter. This is the daily laying down of one’s own life that we must pursue to truly fulfill our calling and love our Lord by keeping His commandment.
To do this is something that we cannot will or decide on our own. We must ask for the help of God, and then accept the grace that will come of that. That seems to be the hard part. Our Lord hears our prayer and responds by giving us the innate knowledge of what we must do to fulfill it, but we often find this to be out of our comfort zone and then fail to act. We must also pray specifically for the grace of the Holy Spirit to be infused in us, and to strengthen us, so that we can be more accepting of God’s will. How often have we said to ourselves, “It’s a shame about the homeless situation,” or we see the plight of those who are ill or without the necessities, and then we still pass them by without doing anything? We tell ourselves we’re busy, or it’s simply not a good time, or perhaps that it’s not safe to engage like that with someone we do not know. In truth, we do need to be careful these days about who we engage with directly, but that does not mean we have an excuse to ignore. We must still find ways to safely engage. Perhaps we do this by having someone along with us, so that we are not alone when we provide some form of help, or perhaps we simply provide funding so that others can directly engage and will then have the needed resources to do so. What we cannot do is nothing. We cannot fail to act.
In our first reading, we hear of how the spirit was poured out upon the gentiles that Peter encountered, and that he recognized God’s lack of partiality based on earthly standards. We are not called to judge or decide who is worthy, and who is not either, we leave that to our Lord. As he told us, He would sort out those who were among His flock later. That leaves to us the task of taking care of the whole flock. That is our mission. We do this by word (sharing our faith), and by action (living our faith), and part of that action is charity toward those who are in need. It has been said that one cannot learn about our Lord when one’s stomach is empty. That is one of the founding principles of many of the Catholic charities, as well as those of other faiths. You have to address the whole person. It is very crucial though that we do not leave out either aspect, because while people need to eat and have shelter, they also need hope, and that hope best comes from knowing our Lord. He can provide in the long term, He can heal, He can bring people to a new way of living if He is known to them. We all have a role to play in this, we all have some way we can help. What we simply cannot do is leave anyone to the world, because it is not a world that Loves our Lord. Think, then pray, then be open to His message, then act. This is how we all start, and every problem requires a beginning for the solution. The very beginning happened at the Cross; Our beginnings happen when we truly love.
Podcast Link
The Deacons Bench 