"The poor man's wisdom lifts his head high and sets him among princes. Praise not a man for his looks; despise not a man for his appearance. Least is the bee among winged things, but she reaps the choices of all harvests. Mock not the worn cloak and jibe at no man's bitter day: for strange are the works of the Lord, and hidden from men his deeds." - Sirach 11:1-4
"For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" - Mt 16:25
"Do you think that I could practice charity if I did not ask Jesus every day to fill my heart with his love? Do you think that I could go through the street looking for the poor if Jesus did not communicate the fire of charity to my heart...Read the Gospel attentively, and you will see that Jesus sacrificed even charity for prayer. And do you know why? To teach us that, without God, we are too poor to help the poor?" - Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Just a few lines that have stuck out to me recently. As I get more involved with the poor here I see a glimpse of their heavenly reward as they hold fast to the promises of Christ and stay dedicated in prayer.
Something that we as a community have been focusing more on as of late is getting more involved in the barrio (neighborhood). Everybody in the house and the Hinckley Family do house visits once a week where we visit the homes of those in the neighborhood, talk to the people and pray with them. We could be at one house as long as a couple hours. This is the old fashioned "calling on someone" which is nearly lost in the US especially fast-paced Jersey where I hail from. Being able to stop what you are doing and take the time to serve the person in front of you is something that I really struggle with, because I always get engrossed in the next thing that I need to do. One blessing of the culture here is that I might finally learn how to do that. It is about time too for these are the moments from Matthew 25 where I need to recognize that it is Christ who is interrupting me and is giving me an opportunity to serve him.
We visited one house this last week. The family had a daughter in our Becas program so we stopped by and they welcomed us in. The house we were at was not very nice. I tried not to stare and start thinking about how I could better organize the place since for I have no idea what it takes just to keep it this way. The people were fairly poor but they worked hard to put food on the table, have clean clothes and provide a future for their children. We walked in and two girls were taking notes as they listened to their Zoom class on their cellphones. Thanks goodness they have that opportunity because many children do not even have a cellphone to watch their classes so they simply fall behind. The mother of the children greeted us and my friend then asked where the father was and she said he was working and that he usually all day everyday. (He is fortunate to even be able to work.)
Thanks be to God my Spanish is much better so I can understand most things and hold a decent conversation with the people. We were talking to the Aunt of the 2 girls that day as well. Keep in mind it is very common for multiple family generations to live in the same house. This Aunt had just lost her mother (the girls' grandmother) and she was talking about how her mother had stopped practicing her Catholic faith but on her deathbed she started praying the rosary again. The Aunt was overjoyed and had faith in the promises of the Virgin Mary obtained from her son Jesus. Most significant of which may be "Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise" That latter part I think is what gives this woman confidence in the soul of her mother. And her simple dedication to and steadfastness in her faith scare the enemy. It is like a secret that he can't afford to get out. The poor are faithful and they understand that this life is not all there is.
That Mother Teresa quote from the beginning of this post strikes me during my time here because of primacy she puts on prayer over charity. Particularly when she says ""without God, we are too poor to help the poor" Charity is a result of a life of prayer, a converted heart and the grace of God. If I were to sum my reasons for serving and doing mission work it would be "To give what I have received". If I get so overwhelmed in the amount of needs of the people here whether it is physical, human, mental, psychological or spiritual, and I forget about God and my relationship with him. If I forget that He is the one that "brings glad tidings to the poor", "proclaims liberty to the captives", recovers "the sight of the blind", and lets "the oppressed go free", I will be too poor to help the poor. (Luke 4:18). If I don't make time for prayer and contemplation before God then I will forget what that which I have received. I will forget that God has brought glad tidings to me in my spiritual poverty, that He has liberated me from the prison cell that is sin, revealed to my blinded eyes the truth of His Word and allowed me to walk free and to freely choose and serve Him. If I forget that how could I possibly give or share it with others?
Saint John Paul II puts it this way "Unless the missionary is a contemplative he cannot proclaim Christ in a credible way. He is a witness to the experience of God, and must be able to say with the apostles: 'that which we have looked upon...concerning the word of life,...we proclaim also to you' (1 Jn 1:1-3)." (RM 92)
In a way the poor teach me how to better serve them by reminding me what it means to actually have prayer as priority. When Jesus says "the poor you will always have with you" (Mt 26:11a) maybe that's because we need them to to give us perspective when we are continually attempting to gain the whole world but we end losing our soul.
Photo from one of our prayer "desert days" where we spend much of the day in a private chapel in adoration attempting to live out the contemplative side of mission.