In the Society of St. Vincent De Paul we make person to person home visits to persons in need. By needy we mean persons who are in need of basics, like food, clothing, stove, beds or refrigerator. Physical needs are important especially in this ‘land of plenty’ we call the USA where the divide between rich and poor continues to grow.

Some of the persons in need we meet on home visits are blessed, for despite in need of physical things, they have a sense of hope and joy in life. This is especially true for young children who have not been educated by society to know they are needy. The simplest thing like a book, a toy or a smile can bring them happiness.

Some of us are needy, not in physical ways, but for emotional, spiritual reasons or for want of meaning in our life. Some of us are so attached to things or people that the lack of them can make us needy and sad.

Jesus in the Gospel says: “Blessed are the poor”. The poor in Jesus’ time were not the peasants or people without things. They were people, like the blind beggar, who had no family or friends to rely on and was completely dependent of begging for survival. Or they were people with diseases with no cure in sight and without family or friends to care for them. Jesus makes a point of curing the blind beggars, the sick and handicapped.

The poor are blessed when they are dependent. If we are in financial need or not we can share in the blessings of the poor when we are detached and dependent on God and doing God’s will.

So when I am lonely, feeling down or the weight of the ‘dark shadow’ I try to remember the more dependent I am the more blessed I am.

An priest friend from India once told me that when he was working with the lowest cast of people, the poorest of the poor in India, he felt they had some special graces and blessings from God. He asked God for such graces and blessings like the poor possessed. He said that one day God gave him his answer: “I have given all my blessings and grace to the poor, go there to find them.

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