Seeing Jesus in the disguise of the poor, the sick and the dying

Echo commentary published in The Catholic News  Herald:

This essay reminds me about how the life of the Catholic social activist Dorothy Day (1897-1980) seemed to emulate the meaning of this Scripture.  Day was a champion of the poor and the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.

The one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” (Lk 9:48)

God’s ways are not our ways. Whether we see this in the prophets like Isaiah or in Jesus’ words and actions, it comes to us as both helpful and a challenge. It is helpful because it calls on us to discern the trends and movements of our society and of our world.

The challenge is one of conversion – to discern properly what is good and just, and then to act, putting Jesus’ values and actions first in the way that we live our lives.

So often in the Gospels, we see the disciples arguing about who is the greatest. This happens in our culture and in most cultures and historical periods. Like young children, we like to play “king of the mountain.” Like barnyard chickens, even as adult men and women, we vie for our place in the “pecking order.” Someone has to be on the bottom, we think. How can those people think that they are like us? And so, the disciples tried to prevent a person, who was not one of their company, from casting out demons in Jesus’ name (see Lk 9:49). But God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus tells us, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.” (Lk 9:50).

God’s ways are often surprising in a wonderful way. God choose a diminutive Albanian woman to join an Irish congregation of sisters and be sent to teach girls in India, and then, called her to form the Missionaries of Charity and pick up the dying off the streets of Calcutta. She and her sisters and brothers helped them either to recover or to die in dignity surrounded by love. We now call her St. Teresa of Calcutta. For St. Teresa of Calcutta, the Christ she received in the Eucharist was the Christ that she met in the poorest of the poor. This is true, for Jesus said, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” (Mt 25:31-46) Do I see Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor, the sick and the dying?

God’s ways are not our ways. Too often we want power and riches and glory. Too often we want to be with those whom we feel comfortable with and who agree with us. When we see someone or some group foster what is right and good, even when we disagree about other things, can we join them in fostering that good? Thus, Pope Francis has worked with the Imam of Al-Azhar, the leading Islamic theology school in Egypt, to foster peace, work against war, and call for reconciliation among nations and peoples. They have also joined together, along with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, to work to limit climate change and its terrible consequences, especially for the poor nations and peoples.

Let us pray for the grace of conversion, that God’s ways may become our ways.

Jesuit Father John Michalowski is the parochial vicar at St. Peter Church in Charlotte.