The Catholic Corner - THE LEAST OF MY PEOPLE

We have all seen them. Here and there, in the cities and small towns; the cardboard sign people, the homeless. The people left with nothing but hope.  They are there in rain or shine, heat or cold, doing the only thing they can think of to make it through another day.  What keeps them going is hope that society will accept them.  Hope that they will have a meal at the end of the day or a dry place to sleep, not to mention the possibility of a hot shower.  They have names and probably families.  They have dreams and feelings and they can be hurt when being jeered at or mistreated. 

How do we handle the situation when we encounter a person in need?  Do we ignore them or avoid eye contact and wish that the traffic light changes fast so we can put them out of our mind? Even worse is to see people verbally abusing them, accusing them of pretending to be homeless so they can solicit easy money, yelling at them to get a job! Yes, that does happen. There may be some out there who are not necessarily in need, but God did not put us here to be judge over our fellow man. Through the grace of God, most of us have never been in such dire straits and never will be.

In St. Mathew 25:31 we are called by God to take care of the least of His people.  We can do this passively by writing checks to funds and collections or we can do it with a more personal outreach by actively facing the recipients and possibly exchanging a kind word or two, or even spending a little time, making them feel like a human being and that they do matter, not only to God but to all mankind, and to pray with them for a resolution to their problems. A smile can go a long way to making a person stand a little taller, feel a little brighter and feel loved.

Corinthians 13:13 “So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” “And they will know we are Christians by our love.”

Sponsored by Sacred Heart Church, Stamford.