We began the day by talking about our canned food drive and the importance of helping the New Hampshire Food Bank out. Ms. Byron spoke briefly of her experience driving by a food distribution by the New Hampshire Food Bank and being so startled by the number of people waiting to get food. She and her husband immediately went to the store to buy food for our drive. Following the students making some orange wallets out of duct tape (orange being the color of hunger action, the wallet to symbolize giving), Ms. Zolkos of our Theology department gave a nice presentation on the life of Dorothy Day. As is now our custom, the students then composed prayers to be used for our morning prayer.
Attached to Saint Raphael's is Saint Benedict's Academy and they had a fire drill at 10:45am so we all had to file out! After the excitement, we got down to the main event - watching the film "The Human Experience." This is a film about a group of guys who set out on three experiences to discover the beauty of humanity. They live on the streets of New York City for a week, they travel to a home for abandoned children in Peru, and they visit a leper colony in Ghana. It's a powerful film and I think the kids, as always, were very moved by it.
We concluded our day with a prayer service in the Church where I offered the following reflection:
If you went to Mass yesterday, you may have recognized the reading Mr. Sheehan just proclaimed as it was yesterday’s second reading. I must confess that I have been going to Mass my whole life and yesterday was the first time I “noticed” this reading and it really struck me – even as I was trying to control my two crazy children!
And Saint James asks a very good question - what do we think when we see a poor person? How would we react if we saw Tom Brady and an obvious homeless person walking towards us at the same time? Of course we’d all like to think that we would focus our attention on the poor person but the reality is we would not be able to take our eyes off of Tom Brady and the homeless person would not even exist. I would be just as guilty as you would be.
This summer when I visited Saint Francis Inn in Philadelphia, I fell in love with poverty. Now I wish I could say I went and sold everything I had and live more simply but I didn’t. But, I did gain a deeper appreciation of what it means to have nothing and to appreciate the poor more than the rich. Now I just get sad over people’s obsession with stuff and the latest celebrity gossip. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got divorced? Tom Brady’s wife is pregnant again? The Voice starts again tonight? How about the 1,000 plus homeless children in the city of Manchester? What about the dozens and dozens and dozens of people Ms. Byron saw lined up for food from the Food Bank on Saturday? What about the people who are about to line up for dinner at New Horizons? Do we obsess over them? Do we notice them or some random Hollywood actor?
I now know what Dorothy Day meant when she said “Our salvation depends on the poor.” If it were not for the poor we would never remember how quickly we can get wrapped up in the mundane and the unimportant things of life. The poor remind us that we must focus on being Christ to others – not like Christ but being Christ – for that is how we will get to heaven and thus gain our salvation.
When you go back to school tomorrow I encourage you to check out the service opportunities listed on the bulletin board outside the café and consider doing some service to the poor. Please consider being beyond generous to our canned food drive that is going on all month. Please be a part of Cardboard City next month, our Thanksgiving basket drive in November, the March for Life in January, etc, etc, etc. Instead of having a lavish Sweet 16 party, donate what you would have spent on the party to a charity. Or, instead of presents, ask your guests to bring canned goods or clothes to give to the poor. Maybe you don’t buy that video game you want, instead donate that money to a soup kitchen or shelter. Always keep the faces of the people from “The Human Experience” in your minds – the homeless, the poor children, and the lepers. Remember how joyful they were despite their pain and suffering. Did riches bring them happiness? They are happy despite having nothing. Why? Because of their immense faith in God and the knowledge of what love and happiness truly is.
Don’t forget why your parents send you to Trinity High School. You have entered Trinity High School to learn but you will leave to serve. Your salvation depends on it. Amen.
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