For Love of the Poor

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. -Mother Teresa 


I spent last week in New York, chaperoning 15 high school students on a mission trip. It was an amazing trip that I know will continue to impact, and to transform my life, and the way I choose to live, to love, to serve, and to work. 

The past few days I have been asking myself - how did this trip impact my life? How and what do I want to change? Where did I experience God?

I can tell you that I experienced God all over the place the week I spent in New York - in the students, in the poor we were serving, in the brothers hosting us, and more. But I started to think more so - how was I struggling prior to the trip, and after some reflection I was struggling to see God in my day to day tasks - in my work, in my house and sisters, in my day to day norm I was failing to see God. 

While in New York, the last night a postulate at the friary, Augusto, shared a part of his testimony that struck me - and I later had a more in depth conversation with him about it as well - and this is where I encountered God, and where my faith needed renewed. 

In Augusto's testimony, he shared about how he used to work in construction, so it was really comfortable for him to go into people's houses and he was on a mission trip in Kentucky, and was struggling to see God on this trip. The man they were working with was named Jerry. Jerry was bed ridden, and not fully with it mentally - but he remembered this man's name. Later that night, during reflection - Jerry became Jesus. So what he did was while reflecting on the day Jerry's name was replaced with Jesus. Jesus called me by name. Jesus thanked me today. Jesus hugged me today. Jesus held my hand. And so it came to be that Jerry was Jesus on this trip - after he shared this part of his story I was greatly impacted - I am often impacted by other people's experiences. 

One of our projects on the trip was to help a lunch program they run. When Brother Michael introduced us to the program and explained it to us he told us they set it up restaurant style rather than buffet style because they want the people to feel like people - to show them their worth, their dignity. One day, one of the students was serving a table, as how it normally works, and as the people we were serving were leaving, one of the women at her table came up and thanked each of us, but she hugged the student who was at her table. This student shared how this encounter touched her heart - and in the moment I realized how Jesus' love was being exchanged in this relationship. The woman we were providing with food felt Christ's love through the student, in her service. But the student experienced Christ's love through the woman who hugged her. That woman was Christ hugging her.  

I started reflecting on these experiences and my own life - and thinking about where I was too comfortable. I came to the conclusion that I was too comfortable in my work - in serving people. At my job in the hospital I'm what you call a safety care associate, or a patient sitter. My job is to keep patient's calm, a lot of times I sit with fall risk patients, or suicide patients, and there are other patients as well. However, I sometimes do jobs outside of my requirements, like wiping them after going to the bathroom, or feeding someone lunch, or helping them take a shower, get dressed, get into bed, etc. I was getting too comfortable serving people. It was the norm for me to take care of people. And in the weeks leading up to the mission trip I found myself getting frustrated with patients at work when they were hard, or annoying for whatever reason - because they were hard, and asked more of me than I wished to do that day. 

Today I went back to work, and I looked for God in my day. One patient told me I had beautiful hair, and another told me I had beautiful eyes, and a third asked me if she could do my hair for me. And at the end of the day I realized that these patients were Jesus loving me, but I was also being Jesus to them by loving them and caring for them. It was actually an absolutely beautiful day and experience - so renewing and refreshing to see Christ in the day to day, mundane tasks of life. 

I chose the title for love of the poor - because I worked with the poor - but financial physical poverty isn't the only form of poverty - lack of love and patience and gentleness is a greater poverty, and my work is to care for patients - to care for people at their low. Praise the Lord for his goodness, for his call for us to love the poor!