What a beautiful thing it is to serve God’s poor. How beautiful their faces are. How happy I am to see the Heart of God.
I am a convert and grew up in the world. I did not have any experience serving the poor throughout my childhood. When I was 18 years old I was not yet a Christian but I was interested in joining different volunteer opportunities. Something about it made me feel fulfilled. I had a good enough life on paper: educated, on my way to getting a good job but it was when I started to volunteer that I started to be proud of who I was becoming. I felt fulfilled. I felt like a valuable member of society. I felt kind-hearted. I felt moral. I liked to join many different volunteer opportunities and I was in the stage of trying to figure out which one I liked best. I liked to help improve the nutrition of struggling children, I liked to pack food boxes for the poor, I liked to deliver packed meals to the poor, I liked to serve in soup kitchens, I liked to hand out bagged groceries, I liked to serve inner city children with educational and art activities, I liked to play sports with children.
Once I became a Christian, I joined a few different serving opportunities. I wanted to try different options to see where I fit best. I joined their prayer group, where we met weekly to pray and we would also pray for people after the services. I really loved this. Something about it called to me and I threw myself into the prayer team. In addition, the church also had a big heart for the poor and would regularly partake in volunteer ministries.
I felt a yearning to serve the poor, so I started to volunteer. I volunteered in many different types of opportunities, including giving food to the poor in soup kitchens, delivering packaged food to their doors, and serving poor children in the inner city. I had decided that my favorite was serving in the soup kitchens, both preparing the meals and also giving the food by hand to the poor. I did not just want to stay in the kitchen, I wanted to do both. I wanted to be hands-on and give the plates to the poor myself; I wanted to see their faces. I wanted to talk to them and serve them. I wanted to hear their needs and help them. It was such a joy to me.
Serving the poor really changed me. Something about it was so heartbreaking. It broke my heart in the best way possible. It gave me a happiness I did not know beforehand. I was able to see these people in need and help serve them. I helped fulfill their needs. People were always so thankful and the atmosphere was a very happy one, with worship music on in the background and very happy and smiling faces serving and giving them food. I cannot explain what happened to my heart, but I simply know that I was then lost to the world. Since I did not have many or any encounters with God yet at this point, it was the closest thing I could get: serving His poor. I loved seeing the faces of the poor and I loved how it made me feel. I finally felt accomplished in my life. Like I had finally made it in life. Yes, my education was an accomplishment and I had the perfect job for me. I had everything I wanted but when I served the poor, I knew I had finally found what I was looking for.
When I started attending a Catholic Church and preparing to enter the Church, I continued to serve the poor as part of my lifestyle. I had given away all my remaining belongings. I had given away those last two suitcases. I simply kept one or two outfits for me, to alternate between the two when one is washing. I had one pair of inexpensive sneakers and a hiking backpack. Whatever other few belongings I kept in there. And that was it. I had happily and proudly narrowed everything down to a backpack. I was living my dream. As part of my life, I continued to serve the poor in my daily life. I had already given away my things, so I had nothing else to offer them. I had made myself poor. If I got anything that was worth anything, I would get really excited and give it to the Church for them to give to the poor. If I found a poor person in that small town I was in, I tried to serve them in whatever little ways I could.
Today, I do not have much physical interaction with the poor anymore. I do not live in an area where it is very easy to serve the poor in my daily life. I continue to live poorly for God and continue to give away small items to the Church to give away to the poor. What used to be more hands on has now turned more into a life of prayer. I serve the poor still through prayer. I pray for the salvation of all the poor. I do not know what direction my life will take yet or what I will be “doing for a living”. But for now, while I still can, I pray for the poor. Only God knows where my life will go and what I will be doing.
Serving the poor is not just for the select few to do. It is not just for priests or religious or church staff. It is for everyone to do. Every single person, every single layperson, can serve the poor. Everyone can stop for that homeless person in the street and give them food or clothing or prayers or encouragement. Everyone can offer someone who is underserved a drink of water, a book, a Bible. Anyone can draw or paint or make something creative to give away to someone poor they know. It does not have to be that poor person in Africa, though it can be. It can be the homeless person on the city streets. It can be the homeless in the small town you live in. It can be the poor man or woman in your parish. It could be someone struggling with something in your family. Some friend you know that needs help. The poor are around us. We are the poor. We can look to one another and serve one another. We can give ourselves to God and to one another in any way we can. We can do small acts of serving or we can give our lives to serving the poor. What is important is that we simply serve the poor. That we give ourselves fully to God, regardless of what we are doing for a living.
I pray all of us love God with all we are. I pray we lay our entire lives down for God, each in our own unique ways. And I pray we all serve the poor in whatever ways we can. Perhaps, each one of us can take a few minutes to pray now and ask God how we can serve the poor more and what we can do. Maybe God is calling you to be a missionary. Maybe you are supposed to go to a country in Africa and serve the poor children there. Or maybe you are to go somewhere in the Middle East or Asia. Or maybe you are to serve the poor in your local city or town. Or maybe you are to serve your friends and family who are in need. Let us pray to God and ask Him who the poor ones in our lives currently are and what we can do for them.
And he answering, said to them: He that hath two coats, let him give to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do in like manner (Luke 3:11, RHE).
God, we praise You. We love You. We give You everything. Please help us all stay Catholic all our lives and to go straight to Heaven. Let us all live our lives fully for You. We love You. We give You everything. Take it all.
