Evangelization Series: Working in Mercy

“If we let Christ reign in our soul, we will not become authoritarian. Rather we will serve everyone. How I like that word: service! To serve my king and, through him, all those who have been redeemed by his blood. I really wish we Christians knew how to serve, for only by serving can we know and love Christ and make him known and loved.” - St. Josemaria Escriva

There's a community kitchen in my hometown where everyday people in the city serve food and drink to the poor people coming in every day. Volunteering there is always amazing, and seeing the happy faces (and also the downtrodden ones) of the folks getting food is an amazing thing, and the volunteers working there, including myself are always overjoyed at being able to serve these people who may not be able to get food any other way. In fact, I always used to see that as my "reward". This, however, is a certain strike against God that everyone must always be cautious of.

The Lord Jesus, in His life, always helped the sick, the sorrowful, the afflicted, and the needy, and told His disciples to always do the same. Because He is love, He always did this for the good of the other, whoever it was, and like the Apostles, we are always called to do so as well; to be beacons of His love by our work in serving others. However, when we do so in the mindset of, "I'm helping these people, Lord! I'm being such a good person because I'm loving them!", with their joy as our "reward", we distance ourselves from the purpose of our serving the needy and the afflicted: To do God's will for His glory, and to come closer to Him by doing so. The problem with the "rewards" of service to the poor is that we may start to glorify ourselves for our work, when really all we are doing is allowing God to love the people we serve through our work. 

Serving the poor and the needy is necessary to enter the Kingdom of God, and there will always be poor people (Matthew 26:11) and the needy. To serve them is to do God's will for humanity as a whole, and by glorifying God for the ability to do so is a sure way to bring them and ourselves closer to God, once again all for His glory. Along with glorifying Him though, we must remember that in working for His will, the most necessary thing to receive from God and show is mercy. Not mercy in the forgiving sense necessarily, but mercy in giving ourselves completely for the beloved of Christ, as in, everyone, especially the poor and the needy. We are required to show His mercy to everyone, to give His mercy to everyone, to love everyone as He loves them by our service. St. Augustine's famous quote, “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like" describes perfectly what our work must be like.

One snag that many good servants of God fall into though is the notion that "the poor and the needy" are only those you'll find in a soup kitchen, a hospital, or an old folks' home. Blessed Mother Teresa puts the truth perfectly; "We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty." Those around us who may be depressed, feeling left out, outcast from social groups, and all those who are afflicted, not necessarily in material or bodily terms, but rather in emotional, spiritual, and social terms are crying out for and need as much, sometimes even greater, love and mercy as the monetarily and temporally poor and needy do. Our work and service to them is always required of us, and it is always an amazing opportunity to glorify the God Who loves them and died for them.

In conclusion, our service, done so in a spirit of mercy by the power of God, Whose love flows through us to the people we serve, is always necessary to bring others to Him, and it must be done so in joy and in sacrifice of ourselves to them and the will of our Lord God. St. Augustine once said, "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." We have been commanded to work and toil to bring everyone to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and by doing so we glorify Him and come closer to Him.

St. Joseph, please pray for us, that in our everyday work, as well as our service specifically to the poor and the needy, we may glorify God and bring others closer to Him by willing their good!