A Radical Love-Homeless Part One

The love you have for Christ is measured by the love you have for those who are considered least amongst us (And many that are first, shall be last: and the last shall be first. Matthew 19:30). God does not count how many times we go to Mass but rather He looks at the intent. Do we go to Mass to fulfill a duty or for Love alone?

Is going to Mass all we do? Is that all God requires from each of us?

Or are we being called to be revolutionaries of love? Designed to set the world on fire by the love we show towards those who are considered beneath us, the anawim and in many cases, the unwanted.

If the world is not on fire with our love, then who put out the Light?

The world teaches us to work hard in order to get ahead. We learn to be self sufficient, to put our own needs and wants above others. To plan for our future and the future of our children, this is all well and good but it falls apart if that is all we do.

What is the Gospel message?

The message of the Gospels is the opposite to what the world teaches us. Christ's message is that we make ourselves vulnerable, that we go the extra mile not for ourselves or even our families but for complete strangers.

Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same...Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful. Luke 6:30-36

We spend hours in prayer in a longing to love Jesus with all our hearts which is commendable, but do we leave it there? How do we show Jesus love? By loving the unlovable's in our midst.

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. Luke 6:46-47

Can you imagine growing up never knowing a mother or a father's love, never to be hugged? Can you imagine standing alone while people choose what child they wish to adopt? What was wrong with me? Was it my hair? Am I not pretty enough, not the right colour, too tall, too short? Can you imagine being rejected because you are you?

Do you see the youth standing on the corner selling herself or himself because we sold out?

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27

Do you hear the unheard cry of the rejected? Do you see the pain of the one whose love was not wanted and not needed and they know this. Their eyes are a mirror, for in them we see they do not care, for we did not care.

If we do not hear their unheard cries or see the tears shed, God has heard their cries and seen their tears. God also see's us when we avert our eyes from the unwanted one's.

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Luke 6:20-21.

Can we imagine a pain so great that we wish to obliterate ourselves? The homeless and unloved know this pain and it is killing them. To these broken souls Heaven is too far away and hell to near.

When did hope die? Hope dies when we stop caring.

Perhaps when we are faced with the unwashed, the unloved, the faceless spectre of the homeless is God saying to each of us, how much do YOU love ME?

Will we fail to see Him in them?

But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed." Luke 6:49.

I was inspired to write this article by a post done by Stu at Tears of a Clown and Half the Kingdom. Thank you both.

Written by Marie