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Revolutionary Way of Jesus

It is the night before St. Nicholas day and I almost forgot to hand our stockings on the mantle on the fireplace. I would have forgotten about it except for sign in the drugstore window letting everyone know its Dec. 5th, the eve of St. Nicholas, the predecessor to Santa Clause.

In one of the folklore stores about him he throws three bags of money in a home for a poor father to have a dowry for his three daughters’ so they get married rather than be prostitutes. Some say he dropped the three purses down the chimney. In this story and his life his works of mercy has significant changes in the lives of the people around him.

Many critics of works of mercy, spiritual and corporal, like feeding the poor, visiting those in prison, say such works on only band aids and we really need to work for systematic change in society. Looking at the Gospel I can only find Jesus telling his followers that the poor, dependent, are blessed and doing works of mercy is the Way. He clearly states that nations and groups will be judged on how they perform works of mercy, like giving shelter to homeless. “Truly, I say to you what you did for the least you did for me.”

Now one can ask how works of mercy, like the spiritual works of mercy, ‘to bear wrongs patiently’, really made structural changes. Take a look at the civil rights movement and what Dr. King says in the letter from Birmingham Jail about this spiritual work of mercy can lead to structural change. The spiritual works of mercy are at the heart of nonviolence.

When I was trying to get the money from sale of our closed Catholic Church for the works of mercy in Milwaukee I had a hard time explaining how doing works of mercy, like providing beds and appliances to people in need, could lead to revolutionary change. So I wrote a parable, Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven, showing how having a bed, refrigerator and stove can radically affect a young boy’s life and make a significant change in his environment.

But people, for the most part, did not get it, as they do not get the Parable of the “Judgment of Nations” in the Gospel, Matthew 25. They interrupt the parable about the works of mercy as saying what individuals should do not what nations, societies or groups should do. (In the Mediterranean culture of Jesus’ time there was not such thing as ‘individualism’, everyone was part of a group.) I agree that you can always judge a society by how it treats its poor and marginalized.

This is at the heart of my complaint about the Milwaukee Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Building a million dollar thrift store in the suburbs might someday bring some revenue to help the poor in North Center Milwaukee. However, building a successful and sustainable thrift store, for much less money, in the heart of the North Central Milwaukee would results in structural change and speaks louder than a few alms of the love of the Society and Catholic Church for poor and marginalized. Blessings and donations would follow.

Good old St. Nick, like many saints and heroes, from Gandhi to Dorothy Day, tells us how to make revolutionary and systematic change simple by doing the works of mercy.

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