CHARITY EMBRACES EVERYTHING; AND WHEN THERE ARE NEW NEEDS, IT INVENTS NEW RESPONSES WHEN NECESSARY

In his pastoral letter, Bishop Eugene de Mazenod continues to show how the faith of the people of Marseilles is strongly expressed in the works of charity reaching out to all categories of the poor and most abandoned – illustrating the words of Jesus: ” By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7,15)

Admire how these charities are multiplying. How many new institutions have an objective that was previously unknown!

Childhood, old age, the sick, the poor, the worker bent from morning to night under the weight of the workday and the heat, the innocent in peril, the disgusting and remorse-ridden vice, the young prisoner already initiated into the habits that make criminals, the serious offender hardened in crime, the rich man himself often so helpless before God on his deathbed:

charity embraces everything; and when there are new needs, it invents new responses when necessary:

spiritual help, bodily help, bread for the soul, bread for the body; instructions for ignorance; advice, guidance, support for weakness; a sanctuary for virtue or for penance; pious sentiments, sweet consolations, supernatural strength for the dying;

all types of good are lavished in the name of Jesus Christ.

Pastoral letter of Bishop de Mazenod to the Diocese of Marseilles for Lent 1847

REFLECTION

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (Letter of James 2, 14-17)