“There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.” – John Connolly.
A prominent theologian wrote that Christ did not say “Blessed are those who care for the poor,” he said, “Blessed are the poor.”
It’s an important distinction. It reminds me that helping the needy and the vulnerable is not about me, it’s about them. But it helps me just as much as it helps them.
For all the grinding and sad news swarming all around me, I had the most joyous afternoon on Wednesday.
I gave food gift cards to a good woman who couldn’t feed her children; a refugee child, a wonderfully sweet and creative person wrote to thank me “a million times” for sending her a package of pencils that had a red and a black pencil. “I’ve been wanting those colors for years,” she explained.
A Mansion resident sent me a handwritten note, painfully scratched out and almost ineligible. “God Bless You for the winter blanket, Jon Katz, she wrote. I don’t know who you are or why you do what you do. But I am so glad to be warm tonight.”
I felt as if it was raining thanks and blessings and good, and I felt grateful to be alive and be a human, and sad that more people don’t get to feel that kind of joy.
I want to help. I have no desire to be a saint, but I am eager to do good. As I get older, I get simpler.
I recognize this as among the most selfish of choices. It lifts me up. It makes me feel good about myself and my fellow human beings. It keeps me from anger and depression.
When I’m supposed to be sized down, I’m filling up. I’m not thinking of retiring, I’m thinking of living.
Helping vulnerable people gives my life meaning.
I want to offer comfort and consolation. When I feed someone who is hungry, I am feeding myself in every sense of the word. Every time I help the poor, I am blessed.
Ginger e-mailed me a few days ago and asked me an important question.
“I’d like to help people in need. But how do you keep caring for the poor and the needy when the poor only get poorer and the needy needier? How do you work to help the elderly when one after another, they fall ill and die? How do you survive hospice work when the deaths of people you know will certainly bring you more loss and grief?”
I thought about this for a while – I wanted to be honest to Ginger, and to myself. Every act of kindness, of helping, of comforting, is a gift to me, pure and simple.
If you want to be happy, says the Dalai Lama, practice compassion. I was not happy for much of my life. More and more, I practice compassion, and I am happier than I have ever been.
Being happy costs nothing.
I feel sometimes that our country has turned cold and selfish, we have been taught to judge the quality of our lives by the amount of money we have in the bank, poor credit is worse than a cold heart. We increasingly blame the poor for being poor and look for ways to turn away from them.
There have always been poor people and there have always been rich people, in the richest of societies and the poorest. It’s clear to me that everyone is not suited either for wealth or poverty, for one or the other.
Enlightened cultures take some responsibility for the poor and try to help them. Greedy societies like ours embrace a Darwinian approach: we are a free country, we can all choose either to be rich or poor. If they want to be rich, work harder.
It’s not that simple of course. We know now that people born into poverty are likely to stay in poverty. People born into wealth are likely to have money – they know how to do it. There are plenty of exceptions to both probabilities, but it isn’t easy to escape the culture we are born into.
I don’t get paid to do it, and it isn’t a job I have to go to every day, year after year, fighting my way through a bureaucracy, filling out soul-killing forms.
The blessings to me come from the people I help, if I didn’t see it that way, I’d burn out quickly.
I see this work – helping the poor and the needy – as a ministry now. Compassion, wrote Thomas Merton, is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.
In 2016, I saw almost everyone around me suffering, mostly over politics. Some people believe in the power and value of suffering. That seems an illusion to me. Suffering has no power, no value of its own.
Compassion has great value.
In my own secular way, I’ve been born again and into this work. Day by day, I leave the sniping, ambition, envying, striving, worrying, politicking, arguing, and grasping of the other life behind me.
Helping the needy and the vulnerable is not a job, it’s a calling. That is what makes it different.
The great mystery of Christian service, writes Richard Rohr, is that the poor show Christians Jesus and thus give them life. Christian theology says that “those who serve Jesus in the poor will be fed by him whom they serve. He will put on an apron, sit them down at the table and wait on them.”
I am not a Christian, I approach this work in a different way. But I still get that glow, that feeling of holiness and grace when I give warm shoes to a Mansion resident or food cards to a refugee family.
When I volunteered in a soup kitchen in New Jersey, I never felt holier than when I was filling up the plate of a hungry person and handing it to him or her or their family.
I felt a better person than I was.
Definitely, there was something sacred about it. For me, it is a glimpse into the face of God.
It seems callous to say, but sometimes I believe that the poor are here on the earth to challenge and remind us to be human, to be humble, and to practice empathy as faith, not a greeting card.
They call us to step out of our distracted and harried selves and speak for what is important, not what we are taught to believe is important.
People who do this work all know this holy feeling, no matter their religion or faith. It keeps me from growing cold in the soul and uncaring. The poor are not symbols or labels to me, they are people, just like me.
The poor offer great blessings. It is selfish, I know it, I do it for me. It is inspiring, uplifting. It gives me something good to focus on rather than the poison and rage of the news. It gives me no choice but to be better.
Those who follow Jesus’ call to care for the poor will be fed by him, whom they serve, say the prophets. Luke 12:37 says “He will put on an apron, sit them down at a table and wait on them.” I think of that image all of the time when I get tired, or cynical, or sick of myself.
I will put on an apron, sit them down at a table, and wait on them. It feels wonderful beyond words.
When I help someone, I step out of my imperfect self. I think we all need blessings. The poor, the need, and the vulnerable are out there, waiting to bless us, anytime we wish.
The purpose of life is to live by love.
We are blessed insofar as we are a blessing to others. You are a blessing to others. Reading your posts about serving others inspires me to be of service. This is what love is all about. Thank you for you posts about service, using our imperfect selves.
I have 2 50″ x 60″ fleece blankets in a blue plaid that I’d like to donate to whomever needs them. Where should I send them?
They wouldn’t be permitted in the places I work with now, Holly, health department rules. I don’t have a place for them, but thanks..
Holly, You might call an animal shelter to see if there is a use for your blankets and if the are allowed to take them. Before coviid they did. Or call the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society in Menands/North Albany to see if they have a need.
Beautiful. Loved all of the quotes and your thoughts and feelings of being in service. Beautiful.
I love this, Jon. More people should read this, especially those who complain about the poor taking their jobs, their resources, not earning enough for themselves. These complainers are the people who are poor in their hearts. Thanks so much for this beautiful writing.
Your essay reminded me of a poster I saw the other day. It said: To make a difference in someone’s life, you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect … you just have to care. Like you said, it costs nothing and the joy you feel from helping another human being is it’s own reward.
What I like about this is the raw, concrete feeling from face-to-face contact, feeling heart-to-heart joy of responding to another’s need. So much of talk about religion is abstract , too vague. If you are not Christian you certainly do a good job of following Jesus’ prodding. Helping the poor isn’t just words but implementing loving-god[that warm feeling you mention]-by-loving-your neighbor. Your piece was a joy to read.
“A major message of the New Testament and Jesus Christ is that humanity should do all that it can to help the poor. These lessons ring true especially for Americans, where many of those who advocate cuts to social spending and foreign aid also have a deep, intense connection with Jesus and Christianity. [Or think they do]
The following nine quotes, all attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, demonstrate just how important helping the poor is to basic Christian faith.
Luke 6:20-21
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.’
Luke 4:16-19
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Matthew 25:34-36
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
Mark 10:21-22
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Mark 12:41-44
He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’
Luke 14:12-14
He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
Luke 16:19-25
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
Luke 11:39-42
Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God.’
Luke 12:16-21
Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.’ ”
Sorry so long, but I got carried away with these great gospel quotes.
Suffering is a very unpleasant place to be, and we don’t wish it on others, but it does have some value . . . think about the hard, important lessons you have learned and many, if not most, of them will have been learned while you were suffering in uncomfortable disheartening situations. Hopefully we can pay attention, think with clarity and figure things out and accept or change as need be . . . and sometimes only realized when looking back.