“The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God’s mercy to sinners.” [Catechism of the Catholic Church 1846] In the Corporal Works of Mercy, the Church lives out Christ’s Great Commission to love one another as he has loved us. These loving acts of mercy must be understood as reflecting God’s attitude to sin and evil that afflict humanity. Mercy is by definition a gift given to one who according to all standards doesn’t deserve it and cannot repay the debt.

The Works of Mercy are our response to the condition of misery that afflicts so many who are unjustly deprived of the goods of the earth because of sin. When Christians engage in acts of mercy, they are setting the light of God’s mercy on a lampstand for all to see. The Works of Mercy open our eyes to the presence of Christ in the poor as we follow the example of countless saints like Gregory the Great, Francis of Assisi, Rose of Lima, and Theresa of Calcutta who all treated the poor as the greatest treasure of the Church.

Clothe the Naked:  One of the most startling results of the Fall in the Book of Genesis is the realization by Adam and Eve that they were naked. As they are expelled from the Garden, their nakedness exposes them to the violence of the elements. They experience shame in knowing that their bodily needs, marred by sin to become inordinate desires, now are visible for all to see. Immediately they clothe the imperfections to witness that they are now beings-toward-death. Perhaps you have never seen this work of mercy as a remedy to the Fall, but that is the opportunity mercy affords us. The modern fashion and apparel industry does its best to deny the effects of sin on the human body. The seductive myth of eternal youth has become a mainstay of the idolatry of marketing and media. Imagine the money wasted on seasonal wardrobe changes, worn once and cast off! We do have easy opportunities to share our excess with the needy. There are so many ways to ensure that the clothing we no longer use goes to those who do not have the resources to waste on fashion, but instead are simply needing something to keep them warm, or allow them to engage in social relationships without feeling ashamed. Make it a yearly practice to box up all the clothing you haven’t used in the past year and bring it to a facility that can process and distribute it to those in need. There are many places in the community where we can bring our excess clothing for continued use.

In addition to the practical effect of clothing, in this day and age, one must consider the more perilous social effects of nakedness when it becomes perverted by industries of lust and greed that prey upon the vulnerable. Nakedness represents humanity in its most un-protected state, weakly exposed to those who would use power and control to manipulate the vulnerable for their own pleasure or gain or rage. The initiatives that our community engages in against pornography, human trafficking, and domestic violence are some of the many efforts to fulfill this precept of mercy.

Shelter the Homeless: The United States has been blessed with an amazing amount of space. Wood is so plentiful, we can afford to chip it up and leave it on the roadside. We have great mineral resources. We have power and water enough to make these resources relatively cheap in comparison with what the rest of the world pays. Yet there are homeless in every community. There are many reasons why people become homeless. Some lie with individuals. People flee domestic violence. Others sacrifice housing security in pursuit of labor. Mental illness contributes a great deal to homelessness now that we no longer have an institutional model for treatment. Parents abandon their children. Crime and addiction break down the family structure. There are also systemic problems that create housing insecurity. Housing in the United States is largely seen as a way to increase wealth rather than providing for a basic human need. Thus money is placed only where it turns the most profit rather than achieving the greatest common good. Our faith is in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. God made His dwelling among us. It is no coincidence that Christ was born into a family on the move:  shortly after he was born, the Holy Family had to flee to a foreign land to escape death. The Scripture invites us to reflect on how we welcome Christ into the world today. Do we turn him away because there is no room or do we find a safe and healthy home for the Savior?

One of the primary uses for the Quarter Sunday Collection is to assist people with temporary housing or assist in emergency utility or rent payments. This effective form of direct charity has helped hundreds of people in times of transitioning to secure housing. As stewardship reshapes our parish in regard to tithing time, talent and treasure, the direct charity portion of the parish budget will require great intentionality and planning. We want to continue to provide the level of direct charity that is our custom and even increase our ability to assist the poor in finding safe, secure, and adequate housing. While there are many public social services available locally, there always arise acute situations that require a more immediate, creative response. Partnership with our Diocesan Catholic Charities could allow us to also engage in refugee and asylum resettlement, something that our community is well-placed to offer, given our experience in welcoming immigrants to northeast Missouri.

 Visit the Sick: Mercy is the greatest tool that God gives us to counter evil. One evil that afflicts all people at some time in their lives is illness. In visiting the sick, we follow Christ’s example in the Gospels who spent a large part of his ministry attending to the sick. Compassionate care to someone who is sick is one of the easiest and most frequent opportunities we have for showing mercy. So often we feel helpless in the face of illness. There is only so much that medicine can do. This corporal work of mercy reminds us that ministry isn’t always about fixing something. At its heart, a work of mercy is an act of solidarity. Simply being with someone who suffers is a tremendous grace. As our parish forms a new Social Concerns Commission, visiting the sick will be a critical ministry we engage in. Already we bring Communion to those in care facilities or who are homebound. So many in our parish already assist family, friends and neighbors in attending to their health care needs. Parishioners are volunteers at the hospital, and the cancer and heart centers. We are even blessed to have many who are health care professionals in our parish. The Commission will help all of us make this work of mercy a priority in our community, identifying and facilitating opportunities simply to be with those who suffer. Illness has its own physical stresses and pains. This work of mercy attends to the social stresses and discomfort that attends an illness. We may not have the knowledge to treat the illness, but all of us can attend to the basic human needs that are compromised due to an illness or aging.