Amazed by the Poor
July 2, 2009
The poor never cease to amaze me each and every day. They are without a doubt, some of the happiest, most generous and loving people I have ever met, and I think I am just beginning to understand why. Here are four concrete stories that have really touched me and shown me the depth of their joy and love.
It amazes me how…
1. A woman came to our door at the mission house in General Cepeda, and recounted to me with a large joyful smile how she and her husband struggle to pay their rent, gas and, electric when her husband only makes $50 dollars a week doing hard manual labor and the rent alone costs close to $100 a month. And yet she didn’t complain or ask for a handout, she just kindly asked for prayers and vitamins for her two beautiful children.
2. A husband and wife whose entire livelihood for their family of three girls and sick mother-in-law is selling the daily newspaper out of a three wheeled bicycle in the morning, serving as the parish sacristan, janitor, and security guard in the afternoon, and selling cokes and chips out of a stand across the street from the church. And yet they never stop inviting us to have dinner in their simple, poor home almost every time we see them.
3. A Mexican missionary family of 8 shares a four room, one bathroom house without ever complaining, or grumbling. And to top that off their house almost never lacks dozens of guests including ourselves, who are always asked to stay and share a simple meal around a table that never fits everyone.
4. How every time without fail, when we go to visit the desert rancho communities of our parish, the people, who are some of the poorest in our area relying totally on their small flocks of goats and sheep, and the little harvest that the barren desert will yield them, kill the fattened calf, or in this case, goat, and make a relative feast for the padre and his little missionaries. Those will probably be some of the most cherished and delicious meals I will have ever eaten in my life because of the love and sacrifice that went into each one that I was privileged, or better yet undeserving to have enjoyed.
I am not by any means saying that their lives are all easy; just that they worry less, and love more than anyone else I have ever met. Their secret though is so simple. Their joy and generosity comes from a deep, lasting trust that they have in God’s providence for their material needs, and a profound knowledge of His infinite love for their spiritual ones. Their families are beautiful, not because they are wearing the latest fashions, or all could be models for popular magazines, but because the joy that they have wells up and pours out from their hearts in their enormous smiles and unreserved laughter at even the smallest things. And that is why the poor have become some of my favorite teachers about the mystery of joy, and an absolute and total trust in our heavenly Father.
