As Christians, as Church, we don't have a
great reputation at this time in history for serving people's human
needs in a powerful way. Throughout history, we have done it very
powerfully with churches, hospitals, schools, feeding the hungry,
offering shelter to the homeless.
People's human suffering
in our modern age tends to be different. In some ways, we still have the
sick, the hungry, the homeless, great poverty in our world. But, there
are also modern human needs that cause great distress to people. Things
like credit card debt. Things like joblessness, unemployment. Some
people would say, “Well, these are high-class problems compared to
poverty and homelessness and hunger.” And that's true, but they're very,
very real and very, very significant for the people who are actually
dealing with them. And one of the ways for us to be the hands of Christ,
to be the heart of Christ in people's lives, is to help them deal with
their very human needs, and to get beyond our church boundaries, to get
beyond our local Christian community.
If we're to place
ourselves back at the center of the culture in modern times, it will
more likely be because we develop a reputation of really helping people
in a loving way with their human needs rather than because of some great
preaching or some profound message that we bring to the world. It's the
action of serving people powerfully in their deeply personal needs
that's most likely to give us, as Christians, the great reputation that
has been our reputation for two thousand years, which is a reputation of
love and kindness and generosity towards not only people who believe
but towards people who don't believe. And very often, it’s reaching out
to people in their humanity, and loving them powerfully and serving them
powerfully, that shows them that they do belong, and leads them to
become believers.
Matthew Kelly
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