As you might imagine, as a Catholic priest, I do not get too many Valentine cards; so, when I do, I remember them. As memorable as all the cards that I receive are, the Valentine card that I will always remember is the card that I received this past Valentine’s Day.

Our parish offers a meal on Monday evenings from November to March. This Winter Welcome Table meal is for those who might not otherwise be able to afford a warm meal. Normally, it is served indoors as a sit-down meal, but recently we have had to serve it as a take-out meal as a result of COVID 19. Over the years those of us who volunteer with this program have gotten to know the “regulars.” Those who come are always grateful for what they receive. They are almost always kind and considerate. On many occasions they will want to take something to someone else who is in need and unable to come. They wish to share as they receive. Last year, one of the men who attended would often bring extra food that he had come across or found on sale so that it could be shared with others.

Two of our regular guests are a pair of elderly women who come together. They are always grateful and will often ask to take some food to others. This past Valentine’s Day, they did like they often do and brought a card to thank the volunteers for serving the meals. However, this year, inside the card there was a fifty-dollar bill that they asked to donate to the Winter Welcome Table so that others might receive from the program as they had received. To me this was an outstanding gesture of generosity and as I thanked them for it, they explained to me that even though they had very little, because they had been looked after by God, they knew it was important to make sure that others are looked after as well. From the little they had, they wished to share with others.

So often, we can think that we are responsible for what we have and what we have accomplished. Yet, if God had not created us and given us the gift of this world to live in, it is hard to imagine what we would have. For Christians, the gift of creation is enriched and transformed by the gift of Christ’s resurrection and the eternal life that He has offered us. Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world to save us and give us eternal life. He too, like the widow in today’s Gospel gave all that he had. We are reminded that as Christians, whatever we give is from God and that we will receive far more in the gift of eternal life. This Sunday’s Gospel calls us to a recognition that because God has given us so much, we too are called to give generously from what we have received.

The Judeo- Christian scriptures make it very clear that care for the poor is a fundamental part of God’s message to His people. In fact, I have always held as a completely unproven political theory that one of the things that has distinguished Canada from our neighbours in the South has been the prominent place that the Catholic Church played in the development of French-Canada. I believe a part of our Social network developed from the fact that the Church provided education and health care for those in need in Quebec and as a result of this Canadian society, combined with the influence of other denominations in other parts of Canada, developed a social conscience that held these social values as necessary and just.

In our own Catholic Tradition, the social teaching of the Church has a very rich history. In the Acts of the Apostles, we see how the deacons were first called to help serve the poor, and quite radically how in some communities all things were shared in common. St. Paul in his letters speaks of the collection which was to be taken up and sent to care for the poor. Some of our ancient liturgical texts give witness to a collection which was taken and distributed among those in need within the community. Often the monasteries in each community would provide food for those in need in the local community. The Church’s efforts to teach systematically on social issues became more organized at the beginning of the 1900’s when Pope Leo XIII promulgated his encyclical Rerum novarum, which means “new things.” It is often because there are new things, which did not exist at the time the Bible was written, that the Church does issue new social teachings. For millennium, most people lived in an agricultural society. With the Industrial Revolution, the Church attempted to apply the principals revealed in the Bible to new situations and circumstances. The same can be said of almost all new situations and circumstances of our times. Christ, and those who reveal God’s plan of salvation in the Bible, did not speak of nuclear weapons, all of the challenges introduced by technology or the issues of world population and scarcity of resources. They did however, reveal the reality of who we are as God’s people and give us the moral truths from which we might develop just and ethical responses to these situations and challenges. From these same principles will be found the answers for problems that future generations will also have to deal with as new and different challenges arise for them. For the problems of today, most of what the Church has to teach about the way we respond to the many different social and political questions of today can be found in a book that Saint Pope John Paul II asked to be published called: The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church begins by stating the reasons and the principals that determine how Christians are to act in society and amongst one another. The guiding principal is that which we heard proclaimed in last week’s Sunday Gospel: You must love the Lord your God above all things and your neighbour as yourself. The reasons why we are to do so are also given in these principals. Perhaps the most important reason for Christians acting justly and in charity is that which we hear proclaimed in our second reading today from the Letter to the Hebrews. As Christians, we are called to act charitably, first and foremost because of what Christ has done for us. As we hear proclaimed, Christ gave himself up as that sacrifice that would save us and free us from our sins. He did this once and for all so that we might all be free. It is in gratitude for this that we are called like the widow in today’s Gospel to give generously as Christ did. As Christ gave His all for our salvation, we are not invited to simply make token efforts of gratitude, but to offer all we can in thanksgiving for His salvation. In fact, each time we come to the Eucharist, Christ gives His entire self to us again and asks that as He dwells within us we might be sent out to continue to allow Him to be made present in the world today. The principals on which the Church’s social teaching are founded are derived from the belief that: God is the creator of the entire world; that everything that we have and are is from Him; that we are all brothers and sisters created in His likeness; and that all that we have has simply been entrusted to us to support us during this lifetime and is to be passed on to future generations. The radical impact that this kind of teaching might have, if taken seriously, could be to challenge those of us who live in Western society and throw out billions of tons a year in food to think that the solution to world poverty might be in better systems of distribution and less in telling people in other countries not to have children or to abort their unborn babies. That is just one example. The Church’s social teaching calls all of us, ultimately, like the widow of Zaraephath, to see in our brother or sister in need a messenger from God and to trust enough in God’s providence to dare to share with those in need.

When we hear about many of the injustices that have been committed in Canada against our indigenous brothers and sisters in the residential school system, we might be tempted to believe that because of this, the Church has no right to speak about justice. However, I would argue that it is the Church’s teaching that has helped us to know that this kind of behaviour is wrong and has formed our Western conscience and sense of right and wrong. Many of the values that we have in Western society have been formed by Christian teaching and it is this that has led us to believe that this is wrong. The human condition will always lead to sin and corruption in human institutions like the Church and government. I believe the challenge is not to give up and walk away, but to work even harder to address the wrongs that have been done and work for healing, truth and reconciliation. Just as these stories lead people to say that this will cause them to make Canada a place that realizes more fully our Canadian values, so too these reports ought to challenge all of us work to make our Church more clearly correspond to Gospel values. Happily, in recent times we have heard news that both Church and government are acknowledging responsibility, apologizing and working for a national accounting of truth, reconciliation, and healing. The Bishops of Canada have apologized multiple times. It has been announced that the Pope will come to Canada to do so. There will be a national collection in the future to fund healing efforts in the communities damaged and many other efforts are being given serious attention. The challenge is not to believe that abandoning Canada or the Church are solutions that improve anything. If everyone just quits in the effort, nothing ever improves and things only get worse.

It is important to be very clear that when we speak of the Church’s Social Doctrine, we are not speaking about the Church telling us how to vote or to whom we must give our money and political allegiances. The purpose of the Church’s Social Doctrine is to remind us who we all are as sons and daughters of the God who made us in His image and likeness and because of this we are all brothers and sisters. The Church’s Social Doctrine is intended to remind us that as Christians we believe that not only did God make us all, but he also sent His only Son into the world to redeem us and share with us the gift of eternal life. This Social Doctrine calls us to respond to the gift of life in a spirit of gratitude, much like that which we are invited to each time we come to the Eucharist; which also means “thanksgiving.” The Eucharist reminds us that Christ has died that we might live and therefore we ought to give generously from what we have been given by Him and our Heavenly Father who created us. Ultimately, if we were truly to let the Church’s Social Doctrine take root deeply in our hearts, it would call us to give as the poor widow in today’s Gospel does, because it would lead us to understand that Christ has given everything for us.

Here in our parish, I am very grateful to all who support both our Winter Welcome Table and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. For those who live in our parish boundaries, the St. Vincent de Paul Society offers relief. Donations to both can be made through cheques payable to either “St. Peter’s Winter Welcome Table” or “St. Vincent de Paul Society—St. Peter’s.” We are also collecting clean winter jackets and winter clothing as well as toiletries at the doors of the church. We hope to collect Christmas presents for men and women at Christmas as well.

May we all recognize what we have received as a gift from God and dare to share it with our brothers and sisters.

Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor—St. Peter’s Parish—Toronto.

This reflection based on readings for Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time—Year B: 1Kings 17:10-16; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44.