Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time  

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Jerome,

Pax Christi semper vobiscum!

There was a good number of Venezuelans who came to our Matthew 25Ministry last Sunday afternoon. There were a couple of street sleepers who came over, too. It is very interesting how our ministry unfolds as to whom we ought to serve and render our works of charity. We planned on serving a hot meal to our homeless neighbors and yet we ended up serving asylum seekers instead. Interesting, the 25th chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel is right on target so we could have a physical encounter with Jesus in our midst. “For whatever you have done to the least of your brethren, you did it to me.” (Mt. 25:40)

The Lord has entrusted the poor to us. They are signs for us of God’s care and of His divine providence. The Psalm response this weekend reiterates how God hears the cry of the poor for help. Poverty has so many different forms and facets. We can personally define poverty according to our state of being, either physically or spiritually. The good news is that “God hears the cry of the poor.” We are assured that our reliance on God will bring us the ultimate fulfillment. God acts upon us when we acknowledge our needs humbly and whenever we make our heart disposed to His intervention. God has a special predilection for the poor because He knows that they have nothing in life but their trust in His deliverance.

The Lord has given our parish plenty of opportunities to encounter God amidst our daily interactions. We are blessed, indeed, to be always ushered to various situations that call us to attend to the needs of others. Our love for God is matured when we serve our brothers and sisters within the context of family and communal life. I would like to encourage you to consider finding the neglected and the most insignificant people in your everyday affairs. It is in your experience with them that you will also encounter the presence of Jesus whose Body and Blood we share at the Table of the Eucharist. The Sacramental Presence of Jesus in the Bread and Wine during the Eucharist is being physically tangible when we feed the homeless; when we interact with the asylum seekers; when we visit the sick; when we visit the prisoners; when we bury the dead and when we choose to be reconciled with those whom we have offended or who did us wrong.

Humility is the main key for us to enter this dimension of a divine encounter. Humility allows us to see the other on a level of understanding and compassion that makes us equal with the other. Know that to see the face of the poor on a level that they are is to see the face of God who is present in all of us. Recognizing our own poverty in various aspects of our lives may bring us a great possibility of experiencing the way God manifests Himself clandestinely. Would you like to have that kind of experience?

Sincerely in Christ and Mary,