Matthew 25:35-36 “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Today's episode talks about two examples of people who lived this verse in their lives every day. They gave even when they didn't have much to give. They are a true inspiration of how we can be a reflection of Christ to others. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Are You The Hands & Feet of Jesus?
Matthew 25:35-36 “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
I spoke at a retreat this weekend and the theme was Christ In Me. While writing my talk I realized that my parents are the best example I have seen of “Christ living within me.” They not only taught us about God and our faith, they lived it in a way in which you could see Christ just by looking at them. There are 11 children in my family and we all vary in our degrees of faith in God. Some believe, some don’t. Yet, all of us would give the shirt off of our back to someone in need. We don’t think twice about offering to help and we truly mean it. We do not feel it is an inconvenience, we don’t resent it afterwards, we just know it is the right thing to do. If we have met you more than once, you are now officially part of our family. We have so many friends of the family that we just consider part of our family.
All of this is because my parents led by example. They didn’t lecture us on being kind and giving to others, well, I am sure we did get lectures, however, they followed those up with actions. Often times we can tell our children to do something, we can lecture and we can nag and yet if we aren’t showing them with our actions then it doesn’t matter what we are saying. You can tell your child that giving to those in need is important and they may or may not understand why. However, when you give to someone in need while they are with you and they see that person’s face, that person’s gratitude then they are more likely to be impacted. They are more likely to do the same.
Our parents would give to anyone that needed something, even if they really couldn’t afford it. My parents had 11 children so my mom stayed home with the kids and my dad worked. My dad had a great job and yet they still didn’t have a lot of money because we had a big house and a lot of kids. My parents did not let that stop them from giving to the church, helping those in need and helping anyone that asked. I didn’t understand when I was a child what a sacrifice that was for them. I saw how much my mom was writing the checks for in mass and I thought to myself, when I get older I am going to give a lot more than that. Now that I am older I see how hard it can be to give. We don’t have 11 kids and we make more money than my dad did at the time, and yet we struggle to give at church at times.
What just came to mind is Mark 12:41-44 “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” This is what my parents were doing. They were giving all they had to give and some weeks that would be $5 or $10 dollars and some weeks it would be $20. We on the other hand are wanting to give out of our surplus.
I remember a time when I was explaining to a friend how my parents gave money to the church even when they didn’t really have money for their bills. My friend said this was just bad financial decisions. This is a worldly way to think of it and yet this is how many of us think of it. We feel we need to pay all or our bills first, pay for all the things we need, then all the things we want and then if there is any left over money, we can give that to God. When we think like this we are relying on ourselves to take care of our needs. God knows what you need and He will make sure you have it. We should be giving to God first and then everything else can come after that. This is not the worldly view though. It does not make sense to many people. Remember God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. It doesn’t have to make sense to us according to our worldly view, and my parents knew this.
It felt as though they weren’t afraid to go against the crowd if they were doing it for God. My dad wore a big crucifix around his neck for the longest time at work. He knew not everyone liked it but it wasn’t for them, it was for him. My mom stayed home and didn’t work even though not everyone agreed with this. She was very smart and could have done anything for a job and yet she sacrificed and stayed home with us because that is what she felt was best.
Over the years we had many people living in our home because they had no where else to go. We once had a family with 10 kids living in our home with 11 kids. Another time we had someone who moved in with her husband and grand children. We have had numerous friends stay with us. If you didn’t have a place to stay you were always welcome at the Desilets house. It wasn’t always super convenient for us kids and yet it taught us so much without saying anything. We could see how grateful the people staying with us were. We could see how important it was to help people, even when it wasn’t a perfect situation, even when it didn’t fit into what you thought it would look like.
Christ is calling us to be reflections of Him. He is calling us to help His people, His beloved brothers and sisters. God is asking us to see the face of Christ in all those we meet. If Jesus was asking for food, would you tell Him no? If Jesus asked if he could crash at your place for a bit while He got back on his feet, would you tell him no? This is exactly what we are doing when we are saying no to others. Jesus is in each one of us and if we want to help Jesus then we need to help those around us as well.
When my parents go to heaven the will be able to confidently say when you were hungry I gave you food, when you were thirsty, I gave you a drink, when you were a stranger I welcomed you and when you were naked I clothed you, when you were ill I cared for you and when you were in prison I visited you, just as it talks about in the verse above. The awesome news is that they taught us kids to do the same, and not just their kids, but all who meet them. If you have the pleasure of knowing my parents I am sure you have experienced their kindness and their willingness to help out has rubbed off on you too. We all have the Spirit of Christ inside of us, let’s share that with others.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this podcast right now. Lord, we thank you for filling us with your Spirit and we ask that you help us to use this strength to do all the things you talk about above. Help us be your face to those who don’t know you. Help us to help all those in need. Help us to not turn away. Help us to give more expecting nothing in return. We love you Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Thank you also for your prayers for this past weekend. The talk went really well and we all had a great time on the retreat. It was just what we all needed, time away with Jesus and with fellow ladies who are so faith filled. It was the perfect mix of liturgical celebrations, like daily mass, stations of the cross, illuminated rosary, and adoration w/confession and then we also had speakers and lots of time for fellowship. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!