It seems that the poor evangelize us by giving us various types of good example. They instruct us in patience by their patience under adversity. They edify us by their uncomplaining struggles without becoming bitter. They encourage us to face our own problems more bravely by grappling with the pain in their lives. They teach us about the simplicity with which one can live a human life. They can offer us a good model for a prayer life by their dependence on God: that is in times of great need they look to God before all else. They do not appeal to God secondly or lastly after other possibilities have failed them. When we witness their efforts to survive with dignity amidst the hardships they constantly encounter, they help us to put into perspective our own overblown problems. Through the struggling poor we begin to understand how good God is to us and how stingy we are with our thanksgiving to God. If we think about the poor deeply enough, they put us to shame, for, though they are oppressed, they can still laugh and sing.

-From A Dialogue of Life: A Christian Among Allah’s Poor by Bob McCahill.

Happy Sunday!

Father Bill +