The Poorest among Us

Recently I watched a video of Mother Teresa, projected during mass due to her canonization. It was a speech in which the now holy Mother Teresa asked us to pay special attention and care for the poorest of the poor around us. In addition she said these poor are not always people living in extreme poverty, such as the destitute and leprous of Calcutta. She mentioned that she had been struck by the fact that in the house of the sisters of charity in London people did not smile. Even in Calcutta people living in absolute poverty were able to smile. The elderly in London had a roof, food and health care, but they did not smile because they felt abandoned. They wait every day for someone to visit them, without ever seeing anyone arrive. She held that today the great poverty in rich countries is loneliness: Being rejected, unloved and not cared for, without any importance to others.

My heart filled with sadness and I thought of who those poor people around me could be … I suddenly remembered the incidence of suicidal children in Katy (yes, Katy). I do not know any official statistics, but through my children I have known of three different classmates with suicidal tendencies. One of these kids is still in elementary school and it is unthinkable for me, because I never heard of suicide while I grew up and far less a schoolmate. I wonder what is happening with those children who instead of loving life and enjoying their childhood are sad or hopeless as to think of dying. Where are their parents? How are they living?

We can realize that the poorest among the poor may be living just a few steps away from us perhaps in larger and more luxurious homes than ours. Both Mother Teresa and the Gospel invite us to go out and look for them and offer them a smile.  Have a conversation with them. Share a word of encouragement, faith, or hope. And even more profound, they challenge us to think and wonder ourselves how our own family is living at home. Do my husband and my children feel and know they are loved?

The invitation to love is more practical than I used to think. Giving life and hope to others begins with small acts, but with the greatest love that I can give to my loved ones. Respect, acceptance and forgiveness are gifts that I must give beginning at home. As Pope Francis says: “to carry on a family it is necessary to use three words: permission, thanks, forgiveness.”
Let us ask Lord to help us build a home full of peace and love where all the members of the family live in freedom and joy, looking to the future with faith and hope. So be it.