Shortly after I first arrived here at Resurrection Parish, the president of our St. Vincent de Paul Society approached me. She told me that they were running a little low on funds, and wanted to know if they could make an appeal at the weekend Masses. Since the feast of St. Vincent de Paul (September 27) was close, I told them they could do it the weekend before. In fact, I told them that we would make it an annual appeal, the weekend closest to the feast of St. Vincent de Paul. This year it is going to be this weekend.
As I am sure that you know, the St. Vincent de Paul Society is dedicated to helping the poor; those that Pope Francis refers to as being on the margin. Whether it is with food, clothing, assistance in paying utilities or rent, the St. Vincent de Paul Society does an excellent job at not simply giving those in need a hand out, but more importantly a hand up.
Recently I learned a bit more about St. Vincent de Paul. On the recent Diocesan Priests Convocation, Fr. Marty McGeough, CM gave a series of talks on “What Does it Take to Work with the Poor.” Fr. Marty is a member of the Congregation of the Missions which was founded by St. Vincent; hence are better known as the Vincentians. While for most of his priesthood Fr. Marty has worked in parishes, for the past five-plus years he has been the Diocesan Director of Jail and Prison Ministry. So while his examples drew from his work in the prisons, the lessons apply to all of us, no matter what ministry and apostolate we are engaged in.
His first reflection focused on “Blessed are those who have the spirit of the poor.” That is not the typical way we translate that Beatitude in English, but it probably is closer to what Jesus said. What is the “spirit of the poor”? Basically it is recognizing that our life is entirely dependent on our relationship with God our Father. Think about it; this is how Jesus lived his life. Jesus frequently withdrew to a quiet place to spend long hours with his Father in prayer, and on many occasions Jesus would say that he only did the work that his Father gave him to do, and only said the words that his Father told him to speak.
The poor are often keenly aware of their dependence on others, especially God for their survival. Whether it is due to personal illness, personal circumstances, or conditions of society, there are always people living on the fringe of society, unable to take care of themselves. It would be easy to say that they are lazy or crazy, but that would not be fair to say, and certainly not Christian.
Fr. Marty surprised me when he mentioned that St. Vincent de Paul had to develop this “spirit of the poor” attitude. For the first 10 years of his priesthood, St. Vincent gave little thought to the poor. In fact, he was more concerned about getting assigned to a wealthy parish so that he could put enough money aside so that he could retire comfortably in the country. Two things started to cause him to change his perspective, allowing him to develop a “spirit of the poor.”
First, for seven years he was falsely accused of stealing from a judge. Apparently he was at a social event at the judge’s house when something valuable went missing. The judge was convinced that it was Fr. Vincent who took it, and while he could not prove it, for the next seven years the judge took every occasion to publicly accuse Fr. Vincent of the theft. Fr. Vincent could do nothing to stop the accusations besides denying it, but you can only do that for so long. Fr. Vincent realized that there was nothing he could do to defend himself, and that he would need to rely on the grace of God. After seven years, a man was caught stealing in another province of France, and while being interrogated by the police he not only confessed to the current robbery, but also of stealing from the judge seven years earlier. The judge was profoundly sorry for accusing Fr. Vincent for so long, but in many ways, the damage to his reputation was already done.
The second thing that helped St. Vincent develop a “spirit of the poor,” was a relationship with a doctor. This doctor was plagued with extreme doubts about the Faith. St. Vincent tried to help convince the doctor of the truths of the Faith, but nothing he said seemed to help. Then St. Vincent asked God to take the doctor’s doubts away, and give them to him. This is exactly what God did; the doctor’s doubts disappeared and he developed a very strong faith, meanwhile, St. Vincent suffered for years with severe doubts about the Faith. What answered St. Vincent’s doubts was when he decided to dedicate his life to helping the poor. St. Vincent did not see it simply as his helping those in need. Rather, he went to the poor, to the people on the fringe, to be EVANGELIZED by them. It was through and in the poor that St. Vincent encountered Christ, and was given the gift of Faith.
This weekend, as you listen to the members of our St. Vincent de Paul Society ask for money, certainly be as generous as you can, but do something more. Ask yourself if you have the “spirit of the poor”? Do you recognize your dependence on God, or do you think that you really can take care of yourself and your loved ones all on your on? Perhaps you could use to be evangelized by the poor. I know that our St. Vincent de Paul Society would warmly welcome any assistance of time and talent, as well as treasure, that you could provide them.