"You, in the West, have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unloved and unwanted. These people are not hungry in the physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don't know what it is. What they are missing, really, is a living relationship with God." - St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
 
Every time I drive by someone along the side of the street asking for money, my heart is filled with dread. Not love, not mercy, dread. Like many people, these encounters make me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Rather than looking to the person and seeing Christ, I try to look away. Instead of offering a prayer, I offer judgement of whether they would use my money rightly anyway or if they would only use it for drugs. As if it is really my right to decide what another can do with their gift.
 
These encounters fill me with dread, because deep inside, I know I should be doing more. As a woman, it is true that I feel afraid to go and talk with these people the way that I wish I could, but that doesn’t stop me from offering a smile or a prayer, but instead, I tend to make excuses.
 
While I am often filled with guilt over all that I do not do, I often forget to put this guilt into action. What can I do? What moves my heart to compassion? Because while the poor everywhere need our help, the poor we most often forget are actually in our own communities, Churches, and workplaces. Our poor may look different, but they need us, and Jesus is present in them just as much as He is in the dying in the slums of Calcutta. In fact, sometimes it is actually easier to care for those we cannot see. It is easier to just send a check or donation and while these are good, unless they are really sacrificial they usually do not lead us to compassion. Compassion is found only when we truly see a person, as they are, and are moved to love.
 
So who are the poor among us and how can you help? The truth is, the list is endless, and in Fort Wayne itself there are many poor people we encounter in everyday life. The elderly and those in nursing home are often left and abandoned, forgotten and without love. It doesn’t take much to visit a nursing home and ask the front desk who is someone that doesn’t get many visitors, and to sit down with them for an hour just to listen and let them know they are loved. We can also make cards or letters of encouragement to drop off at nursing homes, mail to soldiers overseas, bring to oncology wards or to those dying in hospitals or hospice. Words can build or destroy, so why not use our words for feeding the spiritually poor and hungry?
 
Those suffering with mental illness in our country also continues to grow each year and are certainly people poor in spirit and hope. We can be that hope. If we know someone suffering, we can offer to bring a meal, no questions asked. We can write and mail a weekly card to those we know who are hurting, or those we don’t know of, but haven’t spoken to in awhile. We can smile, smile, smile, at every person we meet and look up into their eyes, not down, because you never know who around you is poor and suffering.
 
We can offer encouragement and hope to those in the workplace, especially for those who work in a more secular environment. As St. Mother Teresa said, “The spiritual poverty of the Western World is much greater than the physical poverty of our people,” reminding us that we don’t have to look far to care for the poor among us. The people in our world are desperate for something, and we can introduce them to that Someone by simple acts of mercy and kindness and not being afraid to talk about our Faith and relationship with God in everyday life.
 
This list does not even begin to name all the poor and suffering around us. Our St. Mary’s soup kitchen in town feeds the hungry; the St. Vincent de Paul Society helps those in financial need; we have shelters for the homeless, and places to turn to for those who are pregnant and alone. We can also use our own gifts and talents such as crocheting hats, scarves, and socks for homeless shelters, or teddy bears for nursing homes and pediatric wards in hospitals. Basically, you and I are called to help. No excuses. For the guilt we feel is meant to call us to action, but the ways we are moved to action is endless. I encourage you to prayerfully ponder one idea you can add to your life to care for the poor in our own community. Not five, not even two, just one that you can truly follow through with. This one action may be the ripple effect to save many people from the sorrow of the poverty they face. They are waiting for someone to show them the face of Christ. Will you be that someone not to bring money, or anything you can’t offer, but just the love of Jesus? For it is not only the poor who need our love, but we need theirs just as much. ~ Trisha Trout