Dear Faithful (and not always faithful) people of God,
 
Do you have a generous heart? Do you have Christ in the center of your heart?
  
The Catholic Church is at its truest and best self in charity. Our saints not only lived as poor people, like Francis of Assisi, but they helped poor people, as did Vincent de Paul.

Jesus said very little about sexual morality. But he said a great deal about concern for the poor. 

He told us that if we want to be perfect, we should sell all we have and give to the poor.

He told us that the final examination, our last judgment, will be based on how we treated the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty and the stranger.

Responding to the poor in any parish is not some extra function or adjunct work. It is just as essential to the work of the Church as the sacraments.

Between Sundays it is the thing that takes up most of my time. That is as it should be. If we don’t forget the poor, God will not forget us.

But the question is always, how to help? How do we properly remember the poor?

And how do we know whether we are being charitable or being played as chumps?

It is hard to know.  I am sure that we are frequently cheated. Often the needs of the moment are the long term fruit of addictions. Sometimes they are brought on by mental illness that defies a solution.

But abuse of our charity comes with the territory.

I would rather that people occasionally play us as suckers than brand us as hard of heart. As the monks say, “He who knocks is Christ.”

Our parish is relatively prosperous. The New York City area has relatively low unemployment, thanks be to God. Even so, in this last couple of years we have seen a parade of people needing help.

We have a fund to help those who need some help, be it for rent, mortgage, and utility payments. Several times the funds has kept a local family from losing their home. It often keeps the lights on or the gas line from being cut off.

In addition to the fund, the Diocese of Brooklyn has a great outreach through the work of Catholic Charities. All this charity uses an army of volunteers. They bring Christ to others just as surely as our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.
No matter how prosperous a society or generous the government, there will always be a need for direct personal charity in the name of Christ.

At the close of the age, when Jesus comes back to judge us, I don’t think He will care too much about the style of our liturgies or the rigor of our theology.  But He will care about our deeds of love and service to the poor.

In the seminary no one ever talked to us about how pastors would be expected to care for the poor. No one ever told us that priests should be the companions to needy and ministers of the poor.  There were a few faculty members who modeled this service to us, however.

“A Church that does not have charity for the poor at its center does not have Christ in its heart!”

Over the next few weeks we will have a opportunity to help various communities in need of financial assistance. The weekend of August 7th and 8th the Summer Mission Appeal to aid the work of The Dominican Friars of the U.S. A.  will make their appeal.  

Also squeezed in will be members from the Knights of Columbus asking for help in their yearly raffle to help off set the charitable works of the Knights of Columbus. We went over our parish goal in the Annual Catholic Appeal and I again ask those whom have not yet made a pledge to please consider doing so, especially since every penny over goal comes back to our parish.  American 
Martyrs will be the winner in the long run. Please be patience and generous the next few weeks, and remember: “A Church that does not have charity for the poor at its center does not have Christ in its heart!”
 

God Bless… …and enjoy the summer.

Fr. Peter