Listening For God

Listening For God
A Reflection for the St. Vincent de Paul meeting on Monday, July 6, 2015
By Dcn Bob Bonomi

Sometimes when God speaks to us, He does so through a series of events that intersect in a manner that leave little doubt that He is talking to us.

Last week I finished reading Pope Francis’ encyclical “ Laudato Si’ ”, a moving piece which spoke of the need for care of our common home, and how our neglect – our abuse – of the gifts that God has given to us through our environment affect all of us, especially the poor.  It challenges all of mankind to change our attitude to the world around us and accept our responsibility for God’s creation, present in every plant and animal – in the water, on the Earth and in the sky – and to look upon these elements of our environment like St. Francis of Assisi did – as “brothers” and “sisters” through our relationship with God.  Much of the encyclical was devoted to how our selfish, self-centered attitudes harms the poorest among us who are left in want, when God created our world with enough resources to provide for everyone.

Later, on Saturday night, I began watching “The Grapes of Wrath” starring Henry Fonda – the story of hardship, poverty and perseverance during the Great Depression.  The story, about people so poor that they had nothing to eat and who were so proud that they wouldn’t take a hand-out, reminded me of the pope’s encyclical and of the events occurring in the Middle East and Africa, where millions of people are now refugees from their home countries.

But yesterday, the pope’s encyclical especially hit home as I visited with a lady in her nineties in a nursing home and listened to her talk about how, although she had been a devout Catholic all her life, she really didn’t think her faith mattered anymore.  She would normally come to the communion service that was held there each Sunday but that day she didn’t want to come.  She had lost her husband a couple of weeks earlier and the grief which she felt must have been overwhelming; yet she wasn’t crying or angry or yelling or anything like that.  She merely sat in her wheelchair and told me that she didn’t think God was important like she once did and she wasn’t interested in coming to church.

She repeatedly apologized to me about her feelings.  She said she grew up very poor; when she was young she had had to beg for bread for her siblings because they all were hungry and no one would help them, and no one could really help her now.  She was sure that the “rich” Catholic Church did its best but that the Church never helped them when they were poor and hungry. The nursing home where she currently lives was OK, she guessed, but she didn’t like it because she didn’t know where she was. She patted my hand and apologized again, but kept repeating about how poor she had been and how God and the rich Catholic Church really didn’t matter anymore, now that her husband was dead.

It was heart-breaking.  I tried to ask her to tell me more about her life, but she was almost completely deaf and so, while she could see my lips move and so knew I was talking to her, she really couldn’t hear or understand me.  She’d just smile at me and pat my hand and say something like, “It’s OK for you” and “I’m sorry”.  I couldn’t respond to her; all I could do was listen to her.  It was like reading a book or watching a movie: I could see and hear but I was helpless to change the story; all I could do was witness the story.  I could touch her hand but little more.

Listening to the cases that are brought before St. Vincent de Paul here makes me think about the magnitude of the obstacles the clients face and how easily it can be to feel helpless in front of such insurmountable odds.  The aid offered by Vincentians seems so small against such great needs, and you might become discouraged because it may not look like you are making a difference.  But don’t be discouraged!  Sometimes, the message we receive from God in our encounters isn’t a call to fix something; rather, it is a call to be a witness so that something greater can be done later by God.  In bringing God’s love and charity to others, however small, Vincentians let them know that God does care, that faith is relevant, and that they really do matter. And, like we hear in the prayers that we recite at each meeting, Vincentians in turn are graced by God in their encounters with those in need. It is God who provides for them; He speaks to us through them.

Let us listen for God.