Compassion should be practical as well as loving : (May 2005)

The great Lent-Easter season of the church comes to a close with the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost is not an ending but the celebration of the beginning of the church.

With the coming of the Holy Spirit the church, the mystical body of Jesus Christ is born. It is this body under the pastoral guidance of the apostles, which continues the ministry of Christ in our world.

St Paul, who understood so well the reality of the living body of Christ, the church, reminds us that like the human body, the body of the church has many parts and ministries.

One of the key ministries of the body of Christ is to continue his compassionate effective loves to the needy of this world. St Mark, in his second account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes describes Jesus saying, "I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me for three days and now have nothing to eat".

Fr Perry Gildea - Vincentian Fathers

Cliftonville Road, Belfast 15

An essential part and sign of the saving work of Christ was to heal and care for the needs of the hungry and poor.

One of the first Acts of the Apostles after Pentecost was to commission seven worthy men to be responsible for the ministry to the hungry and the poor.

Pentecost

They are called deacons in the Acts of the Apostles. Deacon comes from a Greek word meaning service to others. Compassionate, practical love is at the heart of the church's activity as the living body of Christ.

Christ charged his church with feeding the lambs and the sheep. This was not simply with spiritual food but also material help when serving the poor.

It is said so well in the prayer of St Theresa of Avila:-

"Christ has no body now but yours;

No hands, no feet on earth but yours;

Yours are the eyes through which he looks;

Compassion on the world;

Yours are the feet with which he walks;

You are the hands with which he blesses all the world"

Vincentians in their work for the poor are the living eyes, ears and hands of Christ's living body. The work of Vincentians will be furthered and enhanced through their personal growth in the mystery of Christ's love.

They do this recognising him in the poor and, through their encounters with him in prayer and the sacraments.

Fr Perry (August 2005)

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