AMDG
Published in the Gallipolis Daily Tribune April 2013
Published in the Gallipolis Daily Tribune April 2013
 |
| A typical scene at the ecumenical soup kitchen of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Gallipolis |
Every Easter is different,
especially this one. My wife works the
last Sunday of every month at a local soup kitchen, which happened to fall this
year on Easter Sunday. For some 20 years
now a group of volunteers from several churches cook and host a monthly Sunday
dinner for the community at the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Hall in
Gallipolis……a beautiful ecumenical effort among Lutherans, Methodists,
Catholics, the Church of the Nazarene, etc.
The local Episcopal diocese gives a grant for equipment, food, etc. that
keeps it going.
Our own St.
Louis Catholic Church is well represented.
Gary & Sherrie Fenderbosch were involved in its founding and are
currently the prime movers of Outreach, a community effort to help the poor,
which got its start with St. Louis Church years ago. Jennie Kaiser was very active in its early
years. Currently Allie Clark, Jaga
Sebastian, Bruce & Jan Davison are regular volunteers. A number of our parishioners donate food as
directed by the sign-up sheet in the back of the church. For example, Amilda Thompson donates the bread
every month. Then don’t forget our
Catholic Women’s Club, which has been generous with donations as it quietly
continues to make an impact upon our parish and surrounding community. This shows that our parish not only worships
and professes the faith; it puts the faith in practice……love thy neighbor.
Different church
youth groups help occasionally as well, including our YACHT Club with their
advisers, Barbara & Alan White.……packing carryouts, setting, waiting on,
and bussing tables, washing dishes, etc.
It gives them all a taste of reality and social awareness. Sooner or later a looming question must enter
their young minds: “What are YOU going
to do about this? What can WE as a
community do?
The Easter meal was substantial with the
traditional Easter ham, potatoes, and string beans with a choice of tea,
lemonade, and punch. Each person
received an Easter bag with imitation green straw, an Easter egg, and a plastic
egg with candy inside. For dessert they
served very artistically decorated cupcakes, all with an Easter theme. At the table there was a bowl of jelly
beans. What would Easter be without
jelly beans?
Since
Jaga would have to cook again, it dawned upon us: Why not help out and have dinner with God’s
poor? It was a great experience and an
opportunity to communicate just a little bit of God’s love as His instruments! The people were of different races and
backgrounds. One was sitting alone and
so I asked if I could join him. I
started with small talk and others joined us.
Getting to Know the Diners. “A happy Easter to you!
Kind of cold for Easter”. “Do you
come here every month?”, I asked. “O
yea. The food’s good. By the end of the month my money runs
out.” Thus I finally realized why they
chose the last Sunday of the month for the soup kitchen, which they call
“Loaves and Fishes”……a very fitting name.
Some people begin to go hungry and skimp on food as the cupboards begin
to go bare at the end of the month. With
the volunteers shopping (often using their own resources), cooking, and
serving, the food does seem to multiply.
The patrons count on “Loaves and Fishes” and food pantries as well as
meals given by other churches around town.
The volunteers prepared and distributed a total of 276 meals, even
delivering a number of meals to shut-ins.
Well over 80 people came……76 dined in the church hall and they along
with others brought the remaining meals home to their families, perhaps saving
some for the next day. No questions
asked.
“Are
you working or are you looking for something?”
“No, I have schizophrenia, but I’m under medication” came the
reply. Then he talked a little about
himself. Later another said he is
bipolar. Later a woman joined in and the
other left. “I had a nervous breakdown
after my abusive husband left me”. When
I finished eating, I bussed a few tables.
One very articulate and talkative person started a conversation. “I had a debilitating stroke and get
dizzy. So I can’t work near machinery
and I’m on disability”.
Insights Gained. These are beautiful but hurting people with
such great dignity and value, created according to the image and likeness of
God. They don’t fit the common
stereotype of “lazy people who are happy to collect welfare checks”. They would love to work if they could, but
are not capable of holding a steady 40 hour a week job due to mental or
physical disabilities. In fact some of
the patrons are also volunteers. Nothing
raises the dignity of a person more than being able to hold a job. Of course, the ideal is to help people to
help themselves through job training and education or to provide at least
routine part time menial work to help them supplement their incomes. For example, people with developmental
disabilities once trained usually do better and are happier than the so called “normal”
people in doing simple tasks such as janitorial work or washing dishes. Every one of us is handicapped in one way or
another and are dependent upon God.
Communities
and churches mobilizing their resources and volunteers to work with the poor as
in soup kitchens is a much better and a more efficient way to help than
dehumanizing handouts by Big Government because it is a labor of love and the
motivation is to follow Christ’s teaching.
Furthermore, according to the Principle of Subsidiarity in Church social
teaching as defined in paragraph 1883 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "a
community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a
community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather
should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the
activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good." In other words, governments should not do
what lower levels of Society are capable of doing.
The volunteers
usually receive more than they give……personal satisfaction, spiritual
enrichment, and the opportunity to grow in virtue as they follow the commands: “love
thy neighbor”; “do unto others”; “you do it unto me”. Here they can discover the Risen Lord in
their brothers, who in turn sanctify them.
Liberal Catholics and conservative Catholics can find some common ground
by working together in serving the poor in a soup kitchen. We can never repay God for all that He has
done for us, but we can serve Him by serving His people.
On the other
hand, so often government bureaucracies are secular and impersonal where it
becomes giving without love and care without concern. But until individuals, communities,
businesses giving something back, and churches are willing to do much more, we
will have to be dependent upon Big Government to help local communities with aid
such as matching funds. Then we must bear
the burden of continuing government deficits and an unsustainable national debt
that continues to increase.
We cannot ignore the social ills of our society; we
must do something. Since God gave the riches of the earth to
all, not to a chosen few, we are stewards of our wealth, be it large or
small. Andrew Carnegie, the great but
sometimes ruthless industrialist and later philanthropist realized this
truth. Thus we have a choice to make: 1) Shove our individual responsibilities upon
Big Government? Then pay more taxes and
stop complaining. 2) Do we want less
taxes? OK…..then accept our social responsibilities
to do our part as individuals, as businesses, as volunteers in faith based
organizations, and as communities.
Retirees who are able: volunteer
your time, talent, and treasure. Don’t
become couch potatoes only to wither away and die. You’ll be happier, more fulfilled with a
sharper mind, and live longer.
The Eucharistic Meal. On April 21 ten children of our parish will
receive their Holy Communion. That
brings in more insights. At the Loaves
and Fishes community dinner volunteers serve and dine with the poor, who have
different handicaps and backgrounds, breaking bread with them. That creates empathy, greater understanding,
and a bond of love. At Mass we have the
same on a grander scale…….the Eucharistic Banquet. People from all walks of life, rich and poor,
healthy and disabled, different racial and ethnic backgrounds all share in the
body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ Himself in a mysterious way under
the appearances of bread and wine.......really the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit which are inseparable. The
Eucharist binds or connects us together more closely in the Mystical Body of
Christ, which we are all a part of. This
facilitates unity, reconciliation, and cooperation among people in furthering
Christ’s kingdom on Earth.
According
to Fr. Robert Barron in his book, “Eucharist”, “God hosts a banquet at
which His human creatures share life with Him and each other”. Later, he notes: “Only when we sit together
at the meal hosted and made possible by God will we truly sit together in
peace.”
It’s fascinating
to google “Miracles of the Eucharist” on the internet to strengthen your faith. This will give you many videos and articles. The most extensive is the Vatican
Photographic Exhibition of the Church Approved Eucharistic Miracles of the World
in several languages. Click on http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/a3.html.
That same home page also has links to
three Children’s books on the Eucharist with activities. It also has another link to a short but
fascinating descriptions of the major Marian shrines around the world and their
histories, showing that Mary has been active interceding for her children and
nurturing the faith through the centuries.
There is ample biblical evidence of the real presence in the gospels,
especially in John 6…….”Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54). "This is my body, which will be given for
you; do this in memory of me" (Luke 22:19). Is the transubstantiation of the bread and
wine into the body and blood of Christ beyond God?
At
the Eucharistic table we receive the bread of life, heavenly food, and the
graces that come with it. Christ loves
us so much that He not only suffered and died for us, but also gives us Himself
in the Eucharist as often as we attend Mass.
The Creator of the universe, the King of the Universe, the Almighty, the
all-knowing ingeniously creative God comes into our hearts in a real way but
mysterious way, physically and spiritually for a short period of time…….a
communion with the infinite! Never, NEVER,
take the Eucharist lightly! The
Eucharist brings us closer to God and gives us the strength to continue on in
our quest for holiness as we journey to eternity. In gratitude we are motivated to return some
of God’s great love for us by loving others and by expressing our love to Him
through praise, sacrifice, and worship.
Christian love is simply a sincere preoccupation for the good of
others. That entails putting our love
into action by serving others as the volunteers do at the soup kitchen…...to
love all, not necessarily to like everyone.
The
Jews celebrate the Passover Meal in memory of the flight from Egypt to
freedom. They offered an unblemished
lamb to the Father. Then they would
consume it. At Mass we offer the Lamb of
God to the Father, as the bloody sacrifice of Calvary for our redemption is
brought to us and made present in an unbloody way that transcends time. Similarly, the Last Supper is brought to us
at the Consecration and we consume the sacrificed Lamb of God, the living
resurrected Christ in the Eucharistic Banquet.
Some learned theologians know all about God, but don’t know God. The best way to know Christ personally is by
receiving the Eucharist often and through Eucharistic Adoration. Sometimes one can feel or sense the divine
presence when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed.
May
our innocent first communicants stimulate their parents and us to appreciate
the awesome gift of the Eucharist and to receive it EVERY Sunday and sometimes
during the week. May they and all of us
grow to love Christ in the Eucharist more and more as the center, the source,
and the summit of our Faith. May we
consider Eucharistic Adoration an awesome privilege to be taken advantage of at
every opportunity. May the Eucharist
keep these children and every one of us always faithful to Christ and His
Church……especially in fulfilling the very grave Sunday obligation. When one becomes lax in regard to Sunday Mass
and the Eucharist, one will suffer from spiritual malnutrition and sooner or
later will lose the faith. Don’t let
that happen to you! Thanks to Fr. Thomas Hamm, our very learned pastor, for checking my Theology for accuracy and giving his imprimatur.
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