Those pesky street beggars

They're everywhere this time of year, aren't they? Why do they have to stand at the doorway of every store and ring those bells beside the kettles? Are they trying to make us feel guilty that we have so much and the poor have so little? Why can't they just let us enjoy our Christmas time in peace?

Maybe we won't enoy our Christmas time in peace until we contribute to the needs of the poor. And when we go into those stores, maybe we will find something we can buy to put in the Toys for Tots bin, or nonperishable foods to contribute to the Food Bank. Those pesky street beggars are always poking and prodding our conscience. They are reminding us that it is a privilege to be allowed to give to the needs of those less fortunate, and that this year, the gap between the haves and the have nots has become a chasm.

Here's a word about that from John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, who died in 407:

When we despise the poor, we despise Christ; thus our blame is very great. Paul himself persecuted Christ in persecuting those who are his; that is why Christ is heard to say: "Why do you persecute me?" Hence, whenever we give, let us have the same dispositions as if we were giving to Christ, for his words are more sure than our vision. Therefore, when you see a poor person, remember these words in which Christ reveals to you that it is he himself whom you can nourish. For even if that which appears be not Christ, yet in this person's form it is Christ himself who receives and begs.

But if you do not believe now that in passing one who is poor you are really passing by Christ, you will believe it when he will bring you into the midst of his followers and says: "As often as you neglected to do it to one of these least ones, you neglected to do it to me."

Oh, I get it.


In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, MT
406-208-7314
www.holycrosschurchbillings.org