By Jean Welch Hill–
As Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself obsessing over my To Do list. The need to make several pounds of gnocchi, get goodies for the family advent calendar, and stock up on wine before the liquor store is overrun occupy far more of my thought processes than they warrant.
Which is one reason I am very grateful to work for my church. Each day I walk into work, I am reminded of the bigger picture. Yes, I need to find about 8 hours of free time to make gnocchi dough, roll it, and form it into those delightful little pillows of gut-busting goodness, but I don’t have to find hours every day to walk to and from a water source (often with water of questionable quality) like an estimated 13.5 million women in the world. Nor do I struggle to find the ingredients for my Thanksgiving meal or to pay for those items.
I do not believe God spared me from these struggles because He likes me best, as some would proclaim. I do believe that being spared means I have a greater responsibility to help those who, through nothing more than the vagaries of geography or demography, struggle to satisfy basic needs. As the amazing Fr. David Garcia of Catholic Relief Services once said, “First ask, why was I born here, to my parents, and not there, in a poor country. The odds are against being born in a wealthy country, and yet, here I am. And since I was born here, it is my moral obligation to do something for those born there.”
Though I am fortunate enough to be reminded of this obligation daily in my work, it is not mine alone. Each person who proclaims the Catholic faith has accepted this call to serve the poor at our Baptism. We can do so in many ways, and should choose several. As Catholic Social Teaching (i.e., the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church) teaches, we must engage in acts of both charity AND justice. We know what an act of charity looks like –making sandwiches for the poor, collecting warm clothing for the homeless. But we are not always as adept or comfortable with acts of justice. What is an act of Justice? An action geared toward changing an unjust system. In other words, it is advocacy. As just one example, we can send donations for water projects in poor African nations, and we can advocate for federal humanitarian assistance that funds long term projects that ensure access to clean water within a reasonable distance from villages within that same nation. We can also advocate for policies that reduce water consumption in our own country to ensure this precious resource is available to all.
So I will find the time to make pasta for my family. I will find the time to pick up God’s great gift of wine. I will even find a moment to ensure the Advent calendar is prepared before Advent begins. More importantly, however, I will also drop off warm clothes at Catholic Community Services and make calls to our congressional delegation about tax reform, international assistance, energy policies, and much, much more to help ensure that those in a position to make a difference prioritize the needs of those “born there.”
