The Priest at Prayer for July 14: Almsgiving

The Third Part - Vices and Virtues

Almsgiving

Second Meditation - The Priest's Love for the Poor

I. Jesus Christ was poor in this world's goods, so how can we love Him if we do not also love the poor, His own image and likeness?

"You do not need to be reminded how gracious our Lord Jesus Christ was; how he impoverished himself for your sakes. . . when he was so rich. . . ." (2 Cor. viii, 9)

He showed His preference for poverty in the choice He made of a Mother and a home. He wished to be known as a carpenter's son and, as St. Jerome says, as the child of a poor seamstress. He was born not in a home, which, however lowly, could at least be called His own; but in a hillside cave, the property of another, borrowing from animals of the field their manger, and straw for His cradle and mattress. He was ever the Poor Man, even when, on account of His teaching and miracles, He was in the public eye.

The foxes have lairs, and the birds of the air, nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Matt. viii, 20)

His poverty became utter destitution at the hour of death, with a gallows for a bed, His nakedness clothed in streams of His own blood for bed-clothes, the rough executioners' hands the only hands that nursed Him; and from His torments He is constrained, like Dives in hell, to beg for a sip of water: I thirst! only to be refreshed with bitter gall and vinegar.

O Jesus, so impoverished for our sake; a Beggar in the midst of Thy creatures whom Thou didst fill with the abundant store of Thy Providence! 0 Jesus, poor Thyself and Father of the poor, how can I possibly love and serve Thee if I do not love and serve the poor, or if I even despise and hate the poor, Thy little brothers and sisters?

II. So tenderly did Christ love the poor that we might call them His life's great love, His predominant passion.

In His preaching and teaching, destined to be per­petuated on the lips of His Church, how He exalts the poor!

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. v, 3)

In His earthly wanderings He seems incapable of choosing any company other than that of the poor: disciples, listeners, places. When performing miracles, His omnipotence, usually concealed beneath the thick veil of His mortality and obscured by all the physical weaknesses of human nature, surges up triumphant and unfettered in order to be at the service of the poor, healing their diseases, satisfying their hunger, consoling them, soothing their afflictions, and sympathising with them with words that never before had issued from a human heart.

It is to the poor that we are indebted for a large portion of the Gospel, for most of the loveliest words and actions of the Divine Redeemer, which gushed like fountain sprays from the loving Heart of Christ in touch with human wretchedness.

Such was the tender­ness aroused in Him by the poor, that He was contented with nothing less than identifying Himself with them personally until the end of the world. Sitting in judg­ment over the world, He will say:

I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in. . . .

Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. (Matt. xxv, 35, 40)

III. His love for the poor was the first sign given to the people to convince them that He was the Messiah and the Son of God:

He sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor. (Is. lxi,1)

The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed. . . the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matt. xi, 5)

It seems a strange sort of "title" for Christ's Priest­hood, but it was well understood by the people, who knew that the poor were one day to have a Preacher of the " Good News" sent to them by God, a Master and Physician, the Messiah, the Divine "Envoy".

All the documents signed and sealed by the ordaining Bishop, all our faculties and faculty examinations, will be of little avail to persuade the people, Catholic and non-Catholic, to welcome us as God's envoys and the heralds of Christ as compared with our profound affection and practical love for the poor and the dis­inherited of this world.

If so many of my labours and endeavours, to all appearances quite brilliant and much publicised, have not been made good use of and have not produced the results desired of them, is it not because of my harsh and disdainful attitude towards the poor and humble? Is it not, O Jesus, because in my words, in my actions, and in my life there is wanting that outward mark or seal of my supernatural mission in the world, love for the poor for the sake of Thee?

IV. It is sometimes stated - let us hope to God it is sheer calumny; it would be an intolerable shame to us if it were the truth! - that any work on behalf of the poor, such as public subscriptions for the relief of some misfortune, charitable associations, etc., break down or lead a languid, anemic kind of life, or even die of wretched suffocation, in the parish due to the indiffer­ence, opposition, or deficient administration on the part of the priest. The priest is said to regard the poor as dangerous rivals, as though the alms given to them were so much money snatched from the hands of the minister of the altar, who seems to think that whatever is used on food and clothing for the benefit of the poor might be put to other purposes, such as Masses and solemn, well-remunerated acts of worship.

This is, perhaps, sheer calumny; but there is a fact that should make us bow our priestly heads in shame, the fact that there exist so many works of charity completely "secularised," works in whose functioning the clergy had no say at all, and were regarded as more of a hindrance than a help. It is no small ignominy for us priests that we were not initially responsible for those works of charity whose roots are to be found in the teachings and spirit of the Gospel.

This, more than all the depredations suffered by the Church at different times in nearly every European country, should be our shame and confusion; because the Church is thereby deprived of Her rightful patrimony, the poor, whom She was sent to minister to and administer for. The poor are the pride of the Church, and if iniquitous political Powers have despoiled Her of them, it has not been for love of the poor; it has been because these Powers coveted the goods belonging to the poor administered by the hands of the Church­ - like Judas or the Roman Prefect who tortured St. Laurence.

It is sad to think that there are charitable souls who, victims of calumniating prejudice, want to have nothing to do with us, thinking that we priests are without love for the poor.

V. But am I so desperately poor that I can never spare an alms? Experience teaches that the most habitual and generous almsgivers are not always to be sought among the very well-to-do, they are too remote from the poor to know them and understand their needs; and hence the great accomplishment of the Divine Word in descending to our lowly human habitation from the Mansions of His heavenly Father. The people who sym­pathise with and serve the poor the best are the average middle-class people or the poor themselves.

In conclusion, let us heed the kindly and time­-honoured counsel:

"According to thy ability be merciful. If thou have much, give abundantly; if thou have little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little." (Tobias iv, 8-9)

"It is the cheerful giver God loves." (2 Cor. ix, 7)

Resolutions
1. I shall often exhort the faithful to practise works of mercy, indicating to them some concrete example where help is required; such and such a family or needy person. To aid me in this, I shall read what the Roman Ritual ordains in Titulus V, chapter four, paragraph five.

2. I shall be the first to undertake works of mercy, and shall not allow any lay person to outdo me in the knowledge of the temporal distress afflicting the people confided to my care, and in devising solid Christian ways and means of ministering to their relief. In this manner I shall become like many other good priests, past and present, who immediately and in every case were looked upon, and reckoned with, as the rightful repre­sentatives of Christ's compassion whenever there was a question of aiding the poor. And that explains how so many priests have been instrumental in distributing abundant alms; not that they were rich themselves, far from it, but they were detached from wealth, and great lovers of the poor.

3. Instead of looking askance at modern welfare institutions, I shall do all I can to help them, because they bestow the best kind of relief by placing the poor in a position to earn their own living by their own work without being a burden to others; such modern insti­tutions as syndicates, social welfare programs, savings banks, etc. The most lasting and dignified alms are forthcoming through these social security agencies.
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!