My inner-city parish is blessed to host a soup kitchen, supported by generous volunteers and benefactors. They welcome people who are homeless or lack the means to set their own table. Our soup kitchen guests are often quick to acknowledge God as the source of the goodness they experience. They remind me how frequently I forget to be grateful. Perhaps a little more hunger in my life would help my awareness! Meals are a familiar metaphor for God’s goodness. Today we have two biblical references: a heavenly banquet thrown by God and Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the crowds.
Saints throughout history have been moved to help the work of God’s reign by feeding and caring for the poor. St. Vincent de Paul inspired men and women in the seventeenth century to devote their lives to the service of those on the margins of society. Almost two centuries later, Bl. Frederic Ozanam created a parish-based approach to helping the poor and named it after Vincent de Paul. The St. Vincent de Paul society flourishes to this day.
Christmastime is marked by extra efforts at generosity toward the poor, and rightly so, since Jesus was born in a poor setting, and his birth was heralded by both poor shepherds and wise men bringing gifts. May our Christmas giving include God’s poor—and move us all to greater gratitude!
—adapted from the book Advent with the Saints: Daily Reflections
by Greg Friedman, OFM
