The Link Between Service and Holiness

Brothers and Sisters,

As I was talking with a co-worker earlier this week, the charism of service, was flashing  like a neon sign in my mind as we talked.  He and I had volunteered at a women’s shelter doing some general clean-up and landscaping work.  I had not talked to him in several months since that time.  I had done maybe one other volunteer service activity since then.  He on the other hand had been back to the shelter and gave me a run-down of the developments there, he also mentioned at least three other projects that he had done.  He was organizing other employees to staff service opportunities.  He is on the board of directors of at least two charities.  He was so enthusiastic as he talked about how much he enjoyed this work, it is quite evident to me that he has the charism. With this prompting I have a further reflection on the charism of service.

It is important to recognize the link between service and holiness.  Historian of Christian spirituality, Henri Bremond said of St. Vincent de Paul, “It was not love for men that led Vincent to sanctity; rather it was sanctity that made him truly and effectively charitable; it was not the poor that gave him to God, but on the contrary, God who gave him to the poor.” (Source: SVDP Manual – online at http://www.svdpmadison.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Manual-2007-final-draft-revisionb.doc)  This quote brings to mind the interplay between serving the poor and holiness.  Serving the poor advances our holiness and our holiness advances our service to the poor.  Growth in Christian maturity manifests itself in our prayer life, our Christian service, our growth in virtue, effective evangelization, and the fruit of our work for God.  We can’t do this without God and God won’t do this without us.

The Charity of St. Elizabeth of Hungary by Edmund Leighton (1852-1922)

St. Vincent de Paul tells us: “It is our vocation…to set people’s hearts ablaze, to do what the Son of God did, who came to light a fire on the earth in order to set it aflame with his love.  It is not enough for me to love God if my neighbor does not love him.  I must love my neighbor as the image of God and the object of his love…I must act in such a way that people love their Creator and each other in mutual charity for love of God who loved them so much that he delivered up his own son to death for them.” (Source: SVDP Manual)

I would like to suggest that, as with other charisms, even if service is not our primary charism, we can all grow in the gift.  We have to start where we are and challenge ourselves to move toward a greater level of service.  If we have our eyes open, we may find opportunities that present themselves to us without having to search to find them.

Some time back, I was presented with such an opportunity.  A relative that we visited had been struggling with a series of illnesses that had really worn her down almost to the point of despair.  When we arrived at the apartment it was in such a state that it was barely livable.  I immediately recognized the opportunity for service and pushed aside her protests that we should not worry about it.  We spend two or three hours cleaning up the place and talking with her about her situation and expressing our concern for her.  Before we left we prayed with her and encouraged her to allow God into her life.  We had not planned to stay very long and so we were late to some other activities that we had planned.  Our small sacrifice yielded some fruit, which was evident from follow-up communications with our relative.  In that case it seemed like the most important result of our service was that it was a concrete reminder to her that someone cared enough to give her some tangible help.

Painting of Good Samaritan, Colombiere Center, Clarkston, MI

In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus gives us an example of an opportunity for service.  The priest and the Levite pass up the opportunity for service because they have more “important” things to do.  In describing the actions of the Samaritan, Jesus lays out the expectation for those who would inherit eternal life.  The Samaritan went over and above what was expected, particularly since there was no duty whatsoever from a worldly perspective that would drive him to do that.  In my example, helping a relative could be expected, but helping those who we know don’t like us, as in the case of the Samaritan, is the standard that Jesus sets out for us.

The next level beyond just serving as things come up, involves a commitment to serve on a regular basis.  Just like meeting together with other Christians regularly helps us to grow in our faith, signing up to serve the poor and needy in a regular capacity will help us to grow more than random acts of service.

I will close with a quote from Pope Francis:

“But Jesus tells us that the path to encountering Him is to find His wounds. We find Jesus’ wounds in carrying out works of mercy, giving to our body – the body – the soul too, but – I stress – the body of your wounded brother, because he is hungry, because he is thirsty, because he is naked because it is humiliated, because he is a slave, because he’s in jail because he is in the hospital. Those are the wounds of Jesus today. And Jesus asks us to take a leap of faith, towards Him, but through these His wounds. ‘Oh, great! Let’s set up a foundation to help everyone and do so many good things to help ‘. That’s important, but if we remain on this level, we will only be philanthropic. We need to touch the wounds of Jesus, we must caress the wounds of Jesus, we need to bind the wounds of Jesus with tenderness, we have to kiss the wounds of Jesus, and this literally. Just think of what happened to St. Francis, when he embraced the leper? The same thing that happened to Thomas: his life changed.” (7/3/13)   (Source: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/upload/pope-francis-quotes1.pdf  page 129)

Peace of Jesus,

Dave

The Essentials of Christian Service

Brothers and Sisters,

In my previous messages on the charism of service, I have given some highlights of the lives of giants in the area of service to the poor.  These great saints have laid a foundation that is solid and reinvention of what they have done is not at all necessary if we will take advantage of the wisdom that they have laid down.  I hope that by looking at the great principles of their work, our view of the Charism of Service has exponentially expanded.

Quite frankly when I initially thought of service, it seemed like a pretty boring charism.  My thinking was that if I have the charism of service and I see that we are running out of tables at the pancake breakfast, I am going to spring into action and get a few more tables set up.  I will get a bunch of grateful feedback from the people who now have a place to sit and I will be able to see the fruit of my service through the fact that people are enjoying their breakfast, and I am going to feel fantastic that God is working through me.  That seems a little on the ordinary side to me.

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Pexels.com

I am not saying that setting up tables is not a valuable service to the community, or that it can’t be done with great love, but I just think it really sells short what we can expect from the charism of service.  We all need to help with the chores at home and likewise at the church.  When we all share the burden, no one is overloaded.  If we think to ourselves, well I don’t think I have a charism in that area, so I don’t need to help out, we will soon find ourselves, with a sink overflowing with dishes and activities at church being cancelled due to lack of volunteers.

Some of us have a little more Martha in us than others and will play the martyr and do the dishes just because no one else will.  But I don’t think that is the charism of service either.  If we feel like going to Jesus and complaining because Mary is not helping we are not experiencing the charism.  The charism of service can’t be about the work, about feeling the satisfaction of being able to check a box on a list.

I envision that in order for service to rise to the level of a charism it must spill over from the abundance of gratitude and love for what Christ has done for us.  There has to be a spiritual dimension woven through all that we do.  We have to see Christ as the person that we serve.  We pour ourselves out in gratitude for the gifts that He has given us.  Selfishness does not enter in, what we “deserve” is not part of the equation, we can’t dwell on what we are entitled to.

One example that back this up is the three essential elements of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. They are:

Spirituality – To bear witness to Christ and to his Church by showing that the faith of Christians inspires them to work for the good of humanity;

Friendship – To bring together people of good will and to assist them by mutual example and true friendship in drawing nearer to the Divine Model by fulfilling his essential precept, namely, the love of God in the person of others;

Service – To establish a personal contact between its members and those who suffer and to bring to the latter the most efficacious and charitable aid possible.

The thing that makes the society unique is the dual emphasis of being an avenue for the fostering holiness in its members and providing spiritual and temporal help to others in the name of Jesus Christ.  There are countless organizations whose focus is to provide temporary relief for the needs of the poor.  There are also lots of pious associations, third orders, and confraternities whose focus is to support holiness of life in their members. The combination of the two is, dare I say, essential to Christian Service.  I think the charism of service also embodies that dual emphasis.

Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican

The virtues are not innate in human beings.  They must be cultivated through prayer, study, and service.  The people who receive the favorable judgement in Matt. 25 at the last judgement were only recognized for their service to Christ in the poor, but they were not lacking the relationship with Christ, repentance for sin, and the virtuous life.  Maybe the reason that only the service is mentioned, is that it is the final product that shows the flowering of maturity in Christian life.  Service by itself won’t save us, but as the fulfillment of an intimate love of God, it is the work that stands in the following passage.

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must be careful how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire [itself] will test the quality of each one’s work.If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1 Cor. 3: 10-15)

Peace of Jesus,

Dave

Concretizing Faith in Action

Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing this week in understanding the Charism of Service, I would like to briefly examine the ideas and work of Blessed Fredric Ozanam the founder of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.  The society took Saint Vincent as their patron, hence the name.

Fredric was raised in the Catholic faith and his parents taught him a deep love for God and the poor.  His parents taught him to seek Christ in those who bore the burden of human suffering and social injustice.

Fredric came of age in the 1830’s in France, a nation still recovering from the turmoil of the French revolution.  He came to Paris with the intention of studying law and was soon disheartened by what he found.  He wrote on Dec. 18^th 1831 that there was no life, no faith, no love to be found in the city.  With the help of a couple of mentors he became convinced that Christianity was the only remedy to the evils of society at that time.

Catholic parish church Saint Hubert in Aubel, in the province of Liège (Belgium), leaded glass windows that shows Blessed Frédéric Ozanam (1813-1853)

He pursued his education with the aim of demonstrating the truth of the Catholic faith to a very skeptical culture.  He together with like-minded students challenged their professors at the Sorbonne who attacked their beliefs.  He also enlisted the help of Church authorities to help get the Catholic message out to fellow students who were not hearing it at the university.

The reason that Fredric stands out in the area of service was brought on by a challenge from a student that asked him and his friends, “What is your Church doing today to meet the needs of society?”  Fredric and his companions knew that they had to concretize their faith in action; that they must evangelize like the apostles: not by words, but by the constant practice of charity.  Fredric rallied them with this exhortation:  “The blessing of the poor is that of God…let us go to the poor.”

With the help of one of his mentors, Emmanuel Bailly, Fredric and five of his friends established the first conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  Under the guidance of a Daughter of Charity, Sr. Rosalie Rendu, the fledgling society learned how to minister to the poor with love and respect.  The first members were determined to bring not only bread but friendship to the poor.

Fredric went on to get doctorates in law and literature and eventually became a professor at the Sorbonne himself.  He now had a platform from which he could inspire students with the Catholic world-view.  His continued work with the Society brought him into contact with the world of workers and the real sufferings of the working classes.  Fredric studied the issues of social justice and was a contributor to the development of what we know today as Catholic Social Teaching.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul as we know it today (as of 2012) with 44,600 conferences in 149 countries on 5 continents has certainly gone a long way toward establishing Fredric’s vision “To establish a network of charity and social justice to encircle the world.”

St. Vincent de Paul, formerly Scranton Building, 613-617 Main Street, Middletown, Connecticut, USA. Built 1876. A contributing property of the Main Street Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The above information came largely from the “Manual of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the United States”.

Some memorable quotes from Fredric are:

“Knowledge of the poor and needy is not gained by pouring over books or in discussions with politicians, but by visiting the slums where they live, sitting by the bedside of the dying, feeling the cold they feel and learning from their lips the causes of their woes.”

“Charity is the Samaritan who pours oil on the wounds of the traveler who has been attacked.  But, it is justice’s role to prevent the attacks.”

“Help honors when to the bread that nourishes it adds the visit that consoles, the advice that enlightens, the friendly shake of the hand that lifts up the sinking courage; when it treats the poor man with respect, not only as an equal but as a superior, since he is suffering what perhaps we are incapable of suffering; since he is the messenger of God to us, sent to prove our justice and our charity, and to save us by our works.”

“The problem that divides men and women in our day is …whether society will be only a great exploitation to the profit of the strongest or a consecration of each individual for the good of all and especially for the protection of the weak.  There are a great many men and women who have too much and who wish to have more; there are a great many others who do not have enough, who have nothing, and who are willing to take if someone gives to them. Between these two classes of men, a confrontation is coming, and this menacing confrontation will be terrible: on the one side, the power of gold, on the other the power of despair. “

(source: gbdc-ssvdp.webs.com/Frederic’s Words to live by.doc)

Our society today is still desperately in need of the wisdom of Christ and his Church to help it deal with the effects of sin, selfishness, hopelessness and despair.  It is obvious that what is needed is more laborers for the harvest, and by putting our charisms to work, we can be part of the solution rather than the problem.

Peace of Jesus,

Dave

“We’re Unworthy of Rendering Them Our Little Services” – St. Vincent de Paul

Brothers and Sisters,

The week I would like to continue with some reflections on the charism of service as it relates to service provided to the poor.  The idea of serving the poorest of the poor did not originate with Blessed Theresa of Calcutta.  Other saints have pointed out the need to do this as well.  St. Vincent de Paul was a 17^th century French priest who was well known for advocating for the poor.  Here are a couple of his quotes. (Source: http://topaz.cstcis.cti.depaul.edu/quotes)

“We should groan under the burden of the poor and suffer with those who suffer, otherwise we’re not disciples of Jesus Christ”

“God loves the poor, consequently, He loves those who love the poor; for when we truly love someone, we have an affection for his friends and for his servants. Now, the Little Company of the Mission strives to devote itself ardently to serve persons who are poor, the well-beloved of God; in this way, we have good reason to hope that, for love of them, God will love us. Come then, my dear confreres, let’s devote ourselves with renewed love to serve persons who are poor, and even to seek out those who are the poorest and most abandoned; let’s acknowledge before God that they’re our lords and masters and that we’re unworthy of rendering them our little services.”

St. Vincent went through a gradual process of discovering God’s mission for his life and priesthood.  It started to take shape when a poor dying man, whose confession Fr. Vincent had heard, told the wife of Monsieur de Gondi (head of a wealthy family in France who had taken Fr. Vincent on as their family chaplain and tutor for their children) that he would have been damned were it not for Fr. Vincent’s ministry.  This awakened Madame Gondi to the spiritual poverty of the peasants on her family’s estate.  She encouraged Fr. Vincent to start preaching to the poor.  With this encouragement, his life’s work of serving the material and spiritual needs of the poor was underway.

Saint Vincent presents the first daughters of charity to Queen Anne of Austria. Painting of Brother André, Dominican religious, in the church of Saint Marguerite in Paris, eighteenth century.

He has many accomplishments to his credit.  He was instrumental in developing seminaries to train priests in France, hospitals to care for the destitute, an order of priests called the Congregation of the Mission to evangelize the poor, an organization called the Ladies of Charity who helped to raise money to fund charitable works. St. Vincent along with St. Louise de Merillac founded a new (for that time period) type of religious order called the Daughters of Charity to serve the poor in France.  He showed particular concern for the galley-slaves, who were convicted criminals who were forced to work on ships that where defending the French coastline against Barbary pirates.  The conditions in which the galley-slaves lived and worked were deplorable.  One of the tasks of the Daughters of Charity was to help them.

I think St. Vincent is a great example of where the charism of service can take us.  He started by hearing the confession of a poor dying man, and through cooperating with God and the messengers that God sent to him, he began to give missions to the poor and recommending that they repent of their sin and live for God.  As he continued in this ministry and gradually encouraged other priests to join him. He had to confront the disparity of the very comfortable life in that he led in the Gondi household, in contrast with the lives of the poor that he served.  So for a time he left the Gondi family to serve as pastor of a poor parish, and in doing so he learned valuable lessons about how best to help the poor.  He discovered that in order for service of the poor to be effective it had to be organized.  So he organized a confraternity of charity in his parish.  God showed him that just serving the poor well in his parish was not enough.

He said, “So, our vocation is to go, not just to one parish, not just to one diocese, but all over the world; and do what? To set people’s hearts on fire, to do what the Son of God did. He came to set the world on fire in order to inflame it with His love.”  He eventually was responsible for spreading the Confraternities of Charity to parishes throughout France and beyond.  The confraternities were responsible for meeting the material needs of the poor and thus complemented the preaching of repentance and conversion of their lives to Christ.

St. Vincent also saw the importance of the development of virtue in the lives of the missionaries as we can see from this quote.

“Let’s take renewed resolutions to acquire this spirit, which is our spirit; for the spirit of the Mission is a spirit of simplicity, humility, gentleness, mortification, and zeal. Do we have it or don’t we?”

A documentary on his life, which I recommend (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqSpwwojTcs), suggests a translation of these virtues to their modern equivalents as follows.

Simplicity = honest.

Humble = reasonable

Meek = approachable

Mortified= self-disciplined

Zeal = hard working

St. Vincent realized that these virtues were needed by those who lead the reform of the parishes, and in his day that was largely the priests.  This was what led to the formation of the Congregation of the Mission.

Incorrupt body of St. Vincent de Paul

In summary, St. Vincent can teach us much about the principles that apply to our service of the poor.

Our service should meet both spiritual and physical needs.

Our service should be performed as if it were done to Christ Himself.

Our service should be a way to cultivate and exercise virtue.

Our service should look beyond the individual to systemic problems that cause poverty.

Our service should be flexible enough to meet new needs as they are presented to us.

Our service is not something that we do by ourselves, it is a community effort.

Our service should change the lives of those we serve.

It is clear from this list that effective service of the poor requires many other charisms besides service, such as mercy, evangelism, leadership, administration, etc.   We all have a part and will be judged accordingly.

“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; 35 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, 36 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.’” (Matt. 25: 34-36)

Peace of Jesus,

Dave

To Help or To Serve that is the Question.

Brothers and Sisters,

The gift of helps is proving a little difficult to get my arms around, because it is kind of close to others such as service, mercy, encouragement and wisdom.  How do we make a distinction?  It may be really hard to extract it completely from related gifts.

I thought of an illustration that may shed some light on it.  I volunteered for a United Way project through work last week.  We were asked to help clean up a home, which had been used as a “rescue” shelter for unwanted pets, in preparation for eventual sale of the property.  The home was in bad shape inside and out.  Most of the items in the home had to be thrown in a rented dumpster and a great deal of cleaning was necessary inside.  Fortunately for me, I was able to work on taking down unwanted fences and clearing unwanted vegetation outdoors, so I did not have to deal with the overpowering smell inside.  I give the detail not to condemn the person who let the place get in this condition but to help you understand the situational context.

I had in mind to serve a person that was obviously overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done and being that she was in her later years she could not have done it herself.  The work that I was doing was a service to the owner, but it did not lend itself to a personal connection with the owner.  She was there during part of the day and I talked with her briefly, but it did not really cross my mind that I should help her beyond just the few tasks that I was asked to do.  I was focused on the tasked to be done.  That is my default behavior anyway, tasks first, relationships second.  Not that that is good, but I am just being honest.

As I was struggling with what to say about helps, the light bulb went on, maybe that is the difference between service and helps.  Service is focused on the work that needs to be done to allow the project to move forward.  Helps is focused on the real needs of the person, not the tasks that are preventing them from making progress.

I read a quote from Mother Theresa that further brought the point home to me.  She says, “Sometime back, a high government official said, ‘You are doing social work and we are doing the same.  But we are doing it for something and you are doing it for somebody.’  To do our work we have to be in love with God.” I must admit that my focus was on the task (the something) rather than the “somebody”.

So allow me to speculate, the gift of helps then entails the ability to see the gaps between where the person is and where God wants them to be.  It also involves the ability to sense what will be the best way to help them become what God desires.  Some of the descriptions that I have read about helps would seem to suggest that it is about freeing the important person, say the pastor of a church, from some of the mundane tasks that are keeping them from doing the things that they really need to focus on.  This brings to mind the situation in Acts 6, when the deacons were chosen to free the apostles up for “prayer and serving the word.”

“Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.’ 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.”  Acts 6: 1-6.

So certainly the appointment of deacons was a help to the apostles, but that seems more like service rather than what I am trying to define as helps.  I think what I said about service last month suggested that we should be seeing Christ in those that we serve, which allows us to serve with real love and draw those we serve closer to God.   Helps on the other hand, goes beyond just meeting the immediate needs of the person, but takes a particular interest in helping them to do what God is calling them to do.

I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

Peace of Jesus,

Dave

“Uughh!” or Render Service with Enthusiasm

Brothers and Sisters,

In this reflection I would like to start exploring the charism of service.  This charism can be defined as, “It empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s purposes by recognizing the gaps or unmet needs that prevent good things from happening and by personally doing whatever it takes to bridge the gap or meet the need.”¹   I would like take a look at the following scriptural source to begin the investigation.

“Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women,  knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.” (Eph. 6:7-8)

When most people think of service, I imagine the most common response is, “Uuughhh! Can’t someone else do that?”

The slaves that St. Paul addresses in the above passage are instructed otherwise.  When they get a job, their response should be, “Yes sir, I would be happy to sir, is there anything that I can do for you when that task is complete sir?”  I suggest that type of response to my children from time to time, but I can’t seem to convince them to respond that way.   I do hear a lot of the common response though.

So what motivations might a person have to render service with enthusiasm when asked to perform a task?

One could be forced to respond that way as young soldiers are when they go to basic training.  That I am quite sure is not the charism.  Enthusiasm can be faked, but a charism really can’t.

A person could try to do it out of love and or respect for the person asking.  This relies on will power.  If my wife asks me to do something that is different than my preferred way to spend my time, I might try to do it because I love her and want to please her.  But if my heart is not in it, my effort may not yield the type of service mentioned in the scripture passage.  In some attempts at service with enthusiasm, I have heard, “Oh, you were trying to do that, I hadn’t noticed.”  This is probably not the charism.

If we go back to the verse, it says do it “as to the Lord and not to men and women.”  That may be an even bigger help.  We are supposed to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that being a much greater level of love than we can achieve for another person.  People have things about them that are not lovable, which is not the case with God.  We should love God above all things.

Enter Saint Mother Teresa. She says, “There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”  And again, “the miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html)

The people Mother and her sisters serve have been referred to by Mother as “Jesus in his most distressing disguise.  But how could she do it, how could she recognize Jesus these disguises?  She gives us the secret.

Mother Teresa knew how crucial this was. Seeing Christ in the Eucharist enabled her to see him in the streets. “If we recognize [Jesus] under the appearance of bread,” she explained, “we will have no difficulty recognizing him in the disguise of the suffering poor.” This is why Mother Teresa could say, “I have an opportunity to be with Jesus 24 hours a day.” Whether in the chapel or the slums, the pew or the hospital, she recognized the Lord everywhere she went because she trained herself each morning at the altar. ²

Mother Theresa had many gifts, wisdom, not being the least of them.  I think we can learn a lot from her regarding the charism of service.  An opportunity to serve cannot be met with, “uuughhh!” if we imagine ourselves receiving Christ in the Eucharist as we serve others.  Faith is necessary for believing Jesus is present in the Eucharist and also in believing he is present in the poor and the overburdened.

An additional difficulty is that sometimes the people that ask for our service are not behaving like Christ would, perhaps they are taking advantage of us.  In that case though, Jesus is not taking advantage of us.  We can serve Christ in people regardless of what their motives are.  The work of the Missionaries of Charity (Mother’s order) is to be seen as an experience of contemplative prayer.  They are encountering Christ though their work.   This I think is the key to the difference of the natural good of serving others and the charism of Service.

If we can see Christ in those we serve, we will feel good about doing our work and do it enthusiastically; if we treat those we serve as we would treat Christ we should get good feedback; if we use the charism as we serve, others will encounter Christ as we serve them, then our work will bear fruit in their lives.

Peace of Jesus,

Dave

1. Fruitful Discipleship by Sherry A. Weddell. P 73.
2. Source: http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/jesus-in-his-most-distressing-disguise/4479/