I have been working on a post about my frustration with churches that do not want to fund what we do because we are not ‘evangelizing’ enough. It is awful hard to do so and still be loving and encouraging, so this post has not yet been written. However, Larry James in Dallas has similar problems and wrote an excellent response.
“Cutting to the chase let me say this to church folks who are struggling with this very artificial distinction:
. . .stop talking about being redemptive, bring redemption;
. . .stop talking about salvation and insert a saving moment into the life of just one struggling person;
. . .stop preaching a message of reconciliation and become reconcilers;
. . .stop worrying about your message and live a message that produces hope.
I could go on, but I’ll stop here.
I am convinced that things of the spirit that turn out to be eternal will always begin rooted in the here and now of the pain of people whom God hears, acknowledges and cares about. The church needs to save its breath and act redemptive.”
Go read his whole post, and subscribe to his blog. Lots of good stuff there.
I grew up in the Protestant tradition, but I have a great deal of respect for Catholicism.
In fact, the two largest influences on my thinking, at least so far as the work of loving the poor goes, are Catholics, namely Mother Theresa of Calcutta
and Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. It was in reading Day’s Autobiography The Long Loneliness that I was first introduced to the concept of Works of Mercy.
The Catholic church has two lists of merciful works; Corporal works and Spiritual works, seven of each (I often think that had Moses been Catholic, we would have had seven commandments).
The corporal (or physical) works of mercy are:
* To feed the hungry;
* To give drink to the thirsty;
* To clothe the naked;
* To harbour the harbourless;
* To visit the sick;
* To ransom the captive;
* To bury the dead.
The spiritual works of mercy are:
* To instruct the ignorant;
* To counsel the doubtful;
* To admonish sinners;
* To bear wrongs patiently;
* To forgive offences willingly;
* To comfort the afflicted;
* To pray for the living and the dead.
It is sad, but after 20 years in protestant churches, the only one I was encouraged to do or saw anyone else do regularly was admonishing sinners.
Source: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
