The Works of Mercy are actions we can perform that extend God’s
compassion and mercy to those in need. The
Works of Mercy are divided into Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. They are simply love put into action. Right now, we will be talking only about the
Corporal Works of Mercy. The Corporal
Works of Mercy are acts by which we help our neighbors with their material and
physical needs.
These are:
These are:
1. feed the hungry
2. give drink to the thirsty
3. clothe the naked
4. shelter the homeless
5. visit the sick
6. visit the imprisoned
7. bury the dead
Who
was the first One who told us about the Corporal Works of Mercy?
Jesus Himself. He tells us to care
for others in the parable of sheep and goats, in the Beatitudes, and in the
entire New Testament. The parable about
the sheep and the goats we find in the Bible, the New Testament, in Matthew
25:34-46. In this parable, Jesus tells
us to take care of my neighbor, no matter who they are, and especially for the poorest who have nothing to eat, or drink, who
have no cloths or housing, and who are imprisoned or hospitalized. Here is the parable:
35 For
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a
stranger and you welcomed me,
37 Then the righteous* will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you
hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
40
And the king will say to them in reply,
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine,
you did for me.’
41
Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and
his angels.
43 stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked
and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
44
Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord,
when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in
prison, and not minister to your needs?’
45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do
for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’
46
And these will go off to eternal
punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
The core
of Christianity is not the focus on self but the forgetfulness of self and the
focus on others, and especially those around me who might need my help. Jesus says, “This is how all people will know
that you are My disciples, that you love one another” Jn, 13, 35. This is the
way to Heaven.
And now,
we will go over each of the Corporal Works of Mercy individually. What do they mean and how we live them in
our lives.
1. Feed the hungry – By looking on
the gospel we just read, we realize that to feed the hungry is not an option
for Christians, and especially for church people. When we say the hungry, we usually think
about people far away in the Third World countries. We can say that if I had chance I would go
there to help. However, how many hungry people,
children, youth we have here, in close proximities. I do not have to go far away, but only to
look around and open my eyes to see these hungry people around me. Maybe my neighbor did not have the breakfast
yet, because they do not have the money to buy food. If we want to help to feed the hungry, we
can donate food or the money to our parishes, local food pantries who
distribute the food to the poorest, such as poor families, the travelers, the
immigrants, and the homeless. We, as the
Catholic Sisters, we do the same too. We
never sand empty handed anyone, whoever they are, who comes to our house and
asks for food. We always feed them.
2. Give drink to the thirsty – the two works of mercy feed the hungry and give drink to the thirty go
hand in hand. We are created the way
that we need food and water to survive.
If someone, a traveler, a worker, or a homeless person comes to your
house asking you for a glass of cold water, will you sand them away? No. It
is natural to give them something to drink.
And we do that without even realizing that we just did what Jesus asked
us to do, we helped someone to quench their physical thirst. That we were merciful toward that person, and
God will reward our merciful deed. And
we should not ask anybody to pay us for that glass of water, otherwise, we
already received our reward.
3. Clothe the naked – Jesus calls us
to care for others and not to be selfish; He calls us to really and truly
clothe the naked. Why? Because Jesus
says that when we clothe the naked we clothe Jesus Himself, for Jesus lives in
every and each one of us. And moreover,
Jesus wants us to become like Him, merciful.
We heard it in the Parable: “I was naked and you clothed Me”. By doing so,
we are helping others to find not only warmth but also dignity in
clothing. And we ourselves will be
transformed by the grace of God in the process.
To clothe others, we can donate our clothes that we
no longer use and that are still usable to many different organizations that
collect cloths for the needy. We can
also donate the money to these organization, as long as we know that they are
reliable organizations. We as Nuns, we
cannot really donate our habits to others, but we can donate money to the
reliable organizations or just buy clothes to those who we know that cannot
afford them.
4. Shelter the homeless – Jesus also
calls each and every one of us to provide home to the homeless. Of course, it is not always possible to
welcome homeless into our own houses.
That is mostly, because of the safety reasons. We do not know who these people are and we
have to be careful not to get hurt or robbed in the process of helping. So, how can we help? There are many shelters for the homeless run
by the Catholic Charities or by local parishes.
We can volunteer an hour or two, or how much time anybody can afford, at
the shelter cooking food, helping with the laundry, cleaning up the place; we
can donate money, as much as anybody can afford, to buy food, clothing,
bedding, cleaning supplies for the homeless, or we can pray for the homeless
for safety and God’s mercy, if there is absolutely nothing we can do. I do not know how many of you saw the movie
“Do we believe”. In the movie, there is
this homeless family, mom and a little girl, who do not have their own
house. They sleep at the shelter, and
then in the car when there is not enough sleeping spots at the shelter. They are wondering in the streets in the
cold, until they get spotted by a good Samaritan, a man who is sick and is
dying. He opened his house to this
family. And guess what, at the end, God
reworded this men for his good deed.
The men got cured from his terminal disease. For it is true that God will plentifully
reward those who give to others selflessly and from deep down of their hearts.
5. Visit the sick –
how many of you were admitted to the hospital for a longer period of time? Did you like it? How many of you felt alone and sad? How many
of you wished that family and friends visited you more often? So, you can imagine how the sick people
feel. Lonely and abandoned. We are nurses and we work in the
hospital. On daily basis, we see people
who are totally alone in the room, and nobody visits them. They are sad.
And many times, these people who have no family members or friends
visiting them, recover from their illness slower. And also, many times, they do not even have
the will to live. For this very reason,
it is our responsibility to visit our sick family members, friends, and
neighbors who are in the hospitals or nursing homes. By doing so, we give them joy, happiness,
smile, and most importantly, the will to go on – because they will feel
important and needed.
6. Visit the imprisoned – and if people
who are sick and in the hospitals are lonely, can you imagine how those who are
imprisoned can feel like? Many can say
that if the prisoners are in the prisons, they deserve it. Maybe, but we are not here to judge
anybody. God will judge every one of us
at the end of our own lives. What God
asks us to do, is to visit the imprisoned, because in their humbling
life-experiences they need us the
most. They are scared, hurting, lonely,
and they are abounded by everybody, the entire society. These people need us to keep their spirits
up, to keep their faith alive. And the
truth is that many of these prisoners are imprisoned unjustly and falsely. Just look at Jesus Himself. He was imprisoned unjustly and because of
false testimony.
7.
Bury the dead – Our core responsibility is bury our dead. We need to bury our dead with respect. Why, because human body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit. Humans are the only
creatures who have soul. And our soul is
immortal, given to us by God Himself.
For that very reason, human body cannot be thrown in the streets, like
animals that do not have a soul, but buried with dignity and respect. And we need to do that not only to our family
members, but to every human who has no family to give them a proper
burial. We hear and see many examples
of human remains being thrown to the garbage, for example, the aborted babies,
who have a soul, are being disposed of like a piece of a garbage. This is an example of failure to bury the
dead, and that is a sin; and those who do that will one day answer before
God. Also, there are many people all
over the world, and especially in the countries where there is war, whose
bodies are left in the streets without proper burial. We can pray to God so that He will send good
people who will bury the human bodies.
Just like Jesus, when He was taken down from the Cross, was buried by
good people who gave Him their own grave.
So, as we can see, bury our dead is not an option
but a responsibility before God. And let’s not forget Jesus’ words, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least
brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Psalm 34, 17 tells us: “The LORD hears his people when they
call out to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.” Remember, God always hears the cry of the
poor.
Któż jak Bóg! There is One God and no other!!!
