Who is Greatest?

“For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” Luke 9:48

St. Vincent de Paul, whose Feast Day we celebrate today, said, “You will find that charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the bowl of soup and the full basket ... It is not enough to give us soup and bread ... You are the servant of the poor ... They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting you will see. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them.”

St. Vincent dedicated his life to serving the forgotten ones, the “lost, the least and the last”. When Taal Volcano was acting up last year, many people gave clothes, shoes, and other things. It was so sad because some of the things donated were very old, and could not be used anymore. And winter clothes and snow boots were useless to the refugees. 

Mother Teresa always said do not give our left overs to the poor, that we should not treat the poor like a garbage bag and give what we have no use for. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we gave Jesus, the King of Kings, an old rag to clothe Himself! After all, Jesus said that what we do for the least of our brothers, we do for him. (Matthew 25:40)

How wonderful that there is a record of Jesus’ instructions and stories that we can read and read again. If we want to obey God, to learn about Him and His ways, we can do nothing better than to ponder His words and follow them. I know some brothers and sisters who have been reading the Bible and obeying. They are regularly feeding the homeless along Macapagal Avenue since December 2020. It is no easy task during this pandemic as they have to observe all the health protocols. Most of these street dwellers used to have regular jobs and places to stay. Because so many businesses have closed down, they are now just sleeping on the pavements or outside buildings. For just P1,200.00 we can feed someone one hot meal a day for a month. Will we give the King of Kings a meal at least?