By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Today�s gospel for the feast of St. Vincent de Paul and yesterday�s gospel in which we heard the parable of Lazarus and the nameless rich man are perfect bookends for our consideration of this great apostle to the poor and formator of clergy. In fact, St. Vincent de Paul�s Congregation of the Missions were first known as the Lazarist Fathers � and while he would employ them very successfully in the formation of clergy, their original mission was to the rural poor whom Vincent found �troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd�.
Like that of his Master, his heart was also moved with pity for all the �troubled and abandoned� of his time which included not only the rural poor, but the poor in the cities as well as convicts and slaves.
He was the forerunner of what today we might call �Catholic social ministry� � and he provide not only direct services to the poor but also was their advocate - what we might call today a �lobbyist� - before people of influence and affluence in both the larger society and well as within government.
Following the example of St. Vincent de Paul, as Catholics and as pastors of souls, we must continue to be involved in the issues of world hunger, human rights, peace building and justice promotion. This social ministry is not opposed to the ultimate spiritual and transcendent destiny of the human person. It presupposes this destiny and is ultimately orientated to this end. If this earth is our only highway to heaven, then we must seek to maintain it � and to make sure to the best of our abilities that this highway is cleared of the obstacles which sin -both personal and structural- has placed in the path of those traveling on it. For Catholics, spirituality must be more than an exercise of navel gazing. Too often, the adjective �parochial� � even when used in reference to a parish - means narrow-minded: concerned only with narrow local concerns without any regard for more general or wider issues
In a message for a World Peace Day some years ago, the late great Pope John Paul wrote:
��How can we exclude anyone from our care? Rather we must recognize Christ in the poorest and the most marginalized, those whom the Eucharist � which is communion is the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us � commits us to serve. As the parable of the rich man, who will remain forever without a name, and the poor man called Lazarus clearly shows, �in the stark contrast between the insensitive rich man and the poor in need of everything, God is on the latter�s side�. We too must be on this same side.�
The Pope wanted to remind Catholics that involvement in what are sometimes called �peace and justice� issues is not optional � nor it is the purview of those who would label themselves either �liberal� or �conservative�. Rather such involvement is a constitutive part of the living out of our faith. Solidarity as the late Pope once said is another word for justice in our day. It is �a firm and preserving determination to commit oneself to the common good.� Sollicitudo Rei Socialis #38
To go back again to yesterday�s parable of Lazarus: the rich man was condemned not for anything he did (though certainly one can go to hell for doing bad things) but for what he did not do. A faith without works � without concrete engagement with the least of our brethren is a dead faith. Yet, works of charity as Pope Benedict XVI warns in Caritas in Veritate must be rooted in the truth about the human person lest they are distorted on one extreme into mere sentimentality or on the other into �a false compassion�. �Doing Charity in truth� and conscious of the universal destiny of the goods of creation, Vincent reminded his followers that they �should ask forgiveness of the poor for the bread that they give them.�
The Eucharist reminds us that our commitment as Catholics to work for peace and justice in the world is not born of some ideology or political platform; rather, it is born of a person, Jesus Christ. And therefore, our �solidarity� with the world of pain is a call to a commitment expressed in allegiance not to lofty propositions but to concrete persons in whom we are to see the face of Christ � this solidarity is lived out through the practice of what the Catechism calls the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
God takes the side of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized � through the works of mercy, the saints �like Vincent de Paul � show us that we too can and must take their side as well.
