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The evangelical model of the Home Visit may be likened to the Last Supper, with Christ as the visitor, and the disciples – and ourselves – as the neighbors. Hungry, the disciples greeted Christ, who first demonstrated His love by humbly serving them, washing their feet, then by breaking their bread, and pouring their wine.

And then He prayed for them, that the Father might welcome them as He welcomes His own Son. In a way, we might say that He saw Himself in us, just as we are called to see Him in the neighbor.

On the Home Visit, the first act of evangelization occurs when the neighbors open their door, “because, in them, Vincentians see the face of Christ.” [Manual, 48] The poor are our evangelists, not by their own intent, but by God’s design. They call us, they invite us in.

We, in turn, evangelize first by serving humbly, in the model of our Savior. As St. Vincent instructed the missioners going to serve even the most anti-Catholic people, we seek to be “more reserved in their presence, more humble and devout toward God, and more charitable toward your neighbor so that they may see the beauty and holiness of our religion and be moved to return to it.” [CCD VIII:209]

“The visited, as well as the visitors, edify one another,” as Bl. Frédéric explained, “living in the unity and under the shelter of the mantle of St. Vincent de Paul.” [Baunard, 123]

We evangelize first and always through our “wordless witness.” Each visit, each act of service, is a washing of the feet, which asks the neighbor to receive Christ as servant. When we move to words, they are the words of prayer, offering the needs of the neighbor to God, and asking for His blessings upon them, just as Christ prayed for us to be welcomed into the kingdom.

Jesus calls each of us to take up our cross and follow Him. In the Eucharist he gives us a model to follow. As Mahatma Gandhi once said “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”

Because His love was “inventive to infinity” [CCD XI:131] Jesus becomes the bread that feeds us in the Eucharist. On our Home Visits, we are blessed in turn to share Him with the neighbor in the form of our bread, our time, our service, and ourselves.

Contemplate

In sharing the “bread” of assistance, do I seek always to truly share myself?

Recommended Reading

Mystic of Charity

One of the four permanent principles of our Catholic Social Doctrine is solidarity. [CSDC, 160] This word is often used in secular contexts to signify shared interests or goals within a group, for example among workers as in a labor union. It is also used to signify common interests between different groups, united on a particular interest or goal. For us as Catholics, this captures one sense of the term, but in a much narrower way than we are called to understand and live the principle of solidarity.

Our church’s social teaching begins with our foundational belief in the dignity of the human person, each us of made in God’s image, unique and unrepeatable. We are called by Jesus to pray to “Our Father” just as He does, uniting us as a human family; not symbolically, but truly as sisters and brothers, children of the one God.

And while our principle of solidarity, like the more commonly used phrase, does indeed refer to shared interests and goals, it is our interests and goals that distinguish solidarity in the Catholic view. Our common interest is our common origin as God’s precious creations, and our shared goal is our shared calling towards union with God in eternal life, and we share these interests with all people.

Our solidarity then, as Pope St. John Paul II explains, must be more than “a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far”, and instead calls us to complete commitment to the good of all, and of each individual, “because we are all really responsible for all.” [Solicitudo Rei Socialis, 38] When any member of our family suffers, we suffer.

Solidarity calls us to truly love the neighbor, “even if an enemy, with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her.”[Ibid, 40] In this, as in all things, we have Christ’s example, as St. Vincent once explained: “‘Friend,’ He said to Judas, who handed Him over to His enemies. Oh, what a friend! He saw him coming a hundred paces away, then twenty paces; but even more, He had seen this traitor every day since his conception, and He goes to meet him with this gentle word, ‘Friend.’” [CCD XII:159]

Solidarity calls us to follow Christ’s example fully, to “be ready for sacrifice, even the ultimate one: to lay down one’s life for the brethren,” even if an enemy. [Solicitudo Rei Socialis, 38]

This is a call we are not likely to face with the neighbors we serve, but we are called, as Bl Frédéric once said, not to give our lives all at once, but in all of our actions, a little bit each day, to “smoke night and day like perfume on the altar.” [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1835] May our sacrifice be known by “this gentle word, Friend.”

Contemplate

Do I see my service in the Society as a willing sacrifice?

Recommended Reading

Faces of Holiness

The first of the four permanent principles of our Catholic social doctrine is the dignity of the human person. [CSDC, 160] What does that mean for us as Christians and as Vincentians? The word dignity comes from the Latin dignus, meaning “worthy.” In the normal interactions of life, we may not naturally apply this idea to everybody we know. We tend to apply terms like “dignitaries” or “worthies” mainly to a special few who have proved themselves in some way.

Yet our belief in the dignity of the human person – of every human person – derives from our belief that we are made in God’s image, each of us and all of us: “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” He didn’t create only one of us, or only some of us, in His image. We all are worthy.

We can remember this more easily when we think of our family members and close friends. They needn’t prove their merit in any way for us to know, deep in our hearts, that they are worthy. We believe this not because of anything they have done to earn our esteem, but simply because we love them.

Vincentians are called to see the face of Christ in our neighbors; we are called to serve them for love alone. Our love is the reason we never adopt the attitude that the assistance we offer is our possession, or that the neighbor has “to prove that they deserve it.” [Manual, 23] We are serving the God whom we love, and just like our family and friends – even more so – we already know that He is worthy.

This is why Christ offered the Greatest Commandment to us in two parts. They are alike, He said, and the “whole law” depends on them: to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and to love the neighbor as ourselves. Our love for the neighbor cannot be separated from our love for God because the neighbor – each neighbor, every neighbor – is the very image of the God who created us.

In poverty and in wealth we have a tendency to measure our worth by the things we possess, or by the things we lack. We can begin to believe we are more worthy because we have a nice job, home, or car, or we can begin to believe we are less worthy because we are unemployed, addicted, or homeless. Neither is true, but both can separate us from God. The bread we bring to the hungry belongs to them already, because God did not create anybody so that they should starve, but it is in the bringing, not the bread, that we reassure the ones we love that they are indeed loved, and that they are worthy. It is how we “[help] them to feel and recover their own dignity”. [Rule, Part I, 1.8]

In a similar way, God’s gratuitous presence and love assures us that we are worthy, too. At the heart of our vocation is love. At the heart of our love is God.

Contemplate

Do I approach every home visit as if it is worth my time and effort?

Recommended Reading

Mystic of Charity (especially “Home Visits in the Vincentian Tradition”)