麻豆约拍

Good morning. It鈥檚 perhaps a basic human need to feel the touch of another person, whether that鈥檚 an embrace, or just a consoling arm around the shoulder.聽 Today in 1986, Pope John Paul II visited the refuge in Calcutta, run by Mother Teresa and her nuns, caring for some of the poorest of that city who were sick and dying.聽 John Paul fed the hungry, consoled the sick and prayed over the dying, leading Mother Teresa to describe his actions as 鈥渢he touch of Christ.鈥�

The care we extend to those in greatest need is both the most basic response and the highest calling of humanity, because it reflects the values we model as individuals and as a society.聽 Caring for others can be a career choice for some, or it can be the necessary task when a loved one is left vulnerable by disability, age or infirmity.聽 It seems to me that caring for the poor, hungry and dispossessed is different, not because it requires any more or less generosity of body, mind or spirit, but because it can reflect the shortcomings of the world, with its cause so often rooted in inequality, injustice or inhumanity.聽

Mother Teresa made the service of the poor in Calcutta her life's work, while raising the profile of that work on the world's stage, along with an expectation that the causes of poverty should be addressed by a global audience of wealthy nations.聽 For those who were starving or near to death in her refuge, 30 years ago, I doubt it mattered too much that they had a high profile visitor on that day.聽 It was the simple act of someone reaching out to hold, feed or comfort them that made a difference.

So in our lives today, may we know the power of an act of generous kindness, in the embrace of a loved one, a hand extended to a stranger or in the ongoing work to lift those most in need out of their poverty.聽 Amen.