Do you live in a world with strangers? Is life filled with strangers or charged with the loving presence of Christ?

I work at a high school campus, serving over a thousand students. My office is often a revolving door of students with many different needs. It can easily be a place of many interruptions. But if I live this vocation with a heart of faith, these students become an encounter with Christ every single day. This faith reality is more apparent whenever I accompany them to serve the poor in Sacramento.

Today’s readings once again point us to the poor. When we see the poor through the eyes of faith, we do not meet strangers, we meet Christ. A champion for the poor was Vincent de Paul.

Vincent de Paul, † 1660 was born in Paris. He renewed the clergy and defended the poor and the abandoned. In 1625, he founded the Congregation of the Missions also known as the Vincentians. Today, the Vincentians number some 3,165 members consisting of mission preachers and seminary educators.

Saint Vincent de Paul said,

Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor. 

We find this charge to serve the poor in our Second Reading. There is a paradox in our marching orders on life. The passage reads:

… pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses (1 Timothy 6:11-16).

The paradox is to be gentle yet compete well for faith. When we choose and accept Christ, he will give us a life where we must say no to sin, so that we can say yes to him. To choose Christ is to daily pick up our cross. That means to imitate his love and be an example of his love for the person right in front of us. We do this primarily through our work with the poor for they are our masters and teachers.

Saint Vincent de Paul spoke of how we are to never ignore the poor over a life of prayer. Whether we are praying in the chapel or serving the poor, we are serving the same master. He eloquently states,

It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. 

The Lord hears the cry of the poor. He charges us today and everyday to be his hands that serve and attend to them. With such faith, we do not live in a world of strangers, but with a life overflowing with the loving presence of God.