Dear Friends,
This weekend, we are inviting parishioners to pause for a bit and examine your level of service to others and to the parish community. I have been impressed by the generosity of our Cabrini parishioners in offering their time and talents to further the Kingdom of God. I think the majority of you are doing a great job and, hopefully, as you pause to reflect on your service, you can simply recommit yourself to what you are already doing. If you find yourself not doing much for others, then it is a good time to see what could be changed.
Living out Jesus’ command to love one another has always stood out as that which identifies a person or a community as disciples. This is what brought about many conversions in the early church and finally conquered the empire itself. The Roman world did not recognize emotion or pity as a desirable response to suffering or as a motive for personal charity. When donors did make gifts or perform services, they had to be provided for all members of the city-state, rich and poor alike; this was true from the time of the Greek city-states up to large thriving cities of the Roman Empire.
From the beginning, Christian charity stood in stark contrast to that of the Greeks and Romans. Christians regarded charity as motivated by a self-giving love of one’s fellow human beings that reflects the redemptive love of God in Jesus Christ. Ordinary Christians were encouraged to care for the sick and aid the poor as an individual duty. But the early church also established organized assistance. Hospitals, orphanages, homes for the dying and so much more grew out of Christian love. Deacons, whose main concern was the relief of physical want and suffering, had a special responsibility to visit the ill. Early house churches received collections of alms every Sunday for those who were sick or in need, which were distributed by the deacons. Widows who did not need assistance formed a separate class that later developed into the office of deaconess. They were expected to help the poor, especially women, who were sick.
While we now have government programs to help some of the poorest persons in our society, we are still called to be people of love and to give of our time to the service of the Gospel and to those in need. Some of us do that by offering our time to those institutions that serve others, and others of us do it by making sure those we meet each day receive our deepest concern and care.
Take a little time this week to examine the past few weeks of your life. Did you reach out in love to another? Was that gesture an encounter with the Lord? Where is the Holy Spirit encouraging you to offer God’s love to another?
Peace,
Fr. Damian