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There are limits to what we can do in serving our neighbors’ needs. Sometimes it is a simple matter of math – we literally have no money to pay the rent or the electric bill. Other times, the need calls for levels of expertise that perhaps no member of our Conference possesses. It’s easy to see what we can do. What we should do can be harder to discern.
We feel helpless when, through illness or other personal tragedy, neighbors have fallen into destitution, and are simply unable to dig out by themselves, but their financial needs are just too great for us to meet, or perhaps it’s just too late; the eviction has been adjudicated, or the car has been repossessed. We can’t pay the bills, and we can’t fix the problem. What are we to do? St. Louise said “you will see a great amount of misery that you cannot relieve. God sees it as well…Share their trials with them; do all you can to provide them with a little assistance and remain at peace.” [SWLM, L.353]
On the other hand, we are sometimes frustrated when a neighbor, who seemingly has caused all of his own problems, continues to call month after month, year after year, and it always seems the same. He never follows our advice, never seems to make any real changes. We can pay the bills, but that won’t fix the problem. What are we to do? “God does not consider the outcome of the good work undertaken,” St Vincent taught, “but the charity (love) that accompanied it.” [CCD I:205]
These two situations are not really very different at all, because as it turns out, we are not the Society of Bill Paying, nor the Society of Fixing Problems, and if we measure our success only by those limited standards, we will always be disappointed. Vincentians serve in hope, and it is hope that protects us from becoming angry at a system which seems to crush some people, or angry at a neighbor who seems to be the cause of his own problems. How would it be if our Lord withheld hope when we come before Him with our needs? He does not become impatient with us, no matter how often we fall short. Indeed, He insists that we continue to ask.
When a neighbor calls us, it is a sign of friendship, always to be welcomed in friendship. When we don’t have the material means to help, we always have empathy, prayer, and hope to offer. When our friend seems to always face the same struggles, we first ask not how he has, but how we have fallen short in the past, and how would a friend help him now?
As Vincent and Louise remind us, neither the help we can offer nor the help we should offer are best measured in material terms. We serve for love alone, and love never fails.
Contemplate
Do I sometimes let financial concerns stand in the way of love?
Recommended Reading
‘Tis a Gift to be Simple
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