Giving Our Best

MENU:
Sardinian gnocchi with tomatoes, olives, Colina Veneta cheese
Veal stew with vegetables
Polenta
Broccoli from Northern Italy
Coffee flavoured candy
Oranges
Coffee

Do you recognize this menu?  It is what Pope Francis provided for the 1500 people he shared a meal with after Sunday mass on November 19, 2017, the first World Day of the Poor.   2500 more were served at the colleges and seminaries around Rome and I am sure they ate well also.  All of the guests were people suffering in some way; some were refugees, the sick, impoverished, homeless.   I’ll bet that most of them would have been happy with a simple meal, perhaps a bowl of pasta with a good sauce.  Pope Francis’ meal was better than that.  He treated them as his guests; he ate with them and talked with them.  Our Holy Father treated them with dignity and fed them well.

Treating people who need help with dignity and feeding them well is nothing new to Vincentians.  It’s what we try to do every day of the year.  We provide the best we can, the way we believe Jesus asks us to.

Jesus glanced up and saw the rich putting their offerings into the treasury
and also a poor widow putting in two copper coins. 
At that he said, “I assure you, this poor widow has put in more than all the rest. 
They make contributions out of their surplus,
but she from her want has given what she could not afford…”
Luke 21: 1-3

Providing our best means more than not giving people substandard food with expired dates.   It also means that we give the best of ourselves.  Perhaps part of my own Advent meditation and prayer can be to examine how I do this.  Can I make each of the following statements?

• As I make personal contact with the poor, I greet each person with a smile, a handshake, a kind word. 
• I know we are serving Christ in His poor so I put myself out to go to those who need me as soon as possible when they call, not just when it is convenient for me.  
• When I am purchasing a Christmas gift for a child I try to choose something equal to what I would give my own child or grandchild, not something because it is cheap. 
• When I visit a family or an individual I am keenly aware that I am a guest in that home and I try to behave as I would in the home of any new friend, whether or not that friend needs my help.  
• I listen.  I don’t judge.  I pray for my friends and ask them to pray for me.

As the candles are lit and the prayers are spoken, we come before our God as humble servants.  May this Advent season be an opportunity to grow in our Vincentian promise to serve Christ in His poor.