“The spirit of charity never fails”. This declaration which appeared on a religious organization’s website that recently crossed our screen raises a question. Will the spirit of charity ever fail? Can it? Proclaimed at least as early and the Pentateuchal and prophetic passages in the Hebrew bible and reinforced by the teachings of Christ in the New Testament, it enjoins us to care for the socially marginalized, the widows, orphans, aliens and the poor. Even so, as welfare becomes increasingly institutionalized, will it supplant this ancient force? Will succor be delivered without the human touch? Will it be adequate?
The referenced website is that of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in New York (SCNY.org). Most of us know that the first congregation of women religious in the United Staes was founded by Eilzabeth Ann Seton in 1809 in Maryland. (This year is the 50th anniversary of her canonization by Pope Paul VI). In 1817 three of the congregation’s sisters went to New York City to help orphaned children there. Thirty years later their community was established as an independent one.
Now in their third century the New York sisters in collaboration with associates provide the homeless and unsheltered population of New York with a wide array of services including health care, education, temporary and permanent housing for the homeless, mentally disabled and low-income elderly, food banks, and street ministry. As its website states: “The Congregation opened and/or staffed 185 schools, 28 hospitals, 23 childcare institutions, and other ministries to care for people on the margins of society. Today, the mission of the Sisters of Charity is carried on through our sponsored ministries”.
One of these ministries is the ‘Life Experience and Faith Sharing Associates’ (LEFSA program) program. Founded in 1986 this endeavor creates faith communities with homeless persons. “It fills a critical void for those in the city’s shelter system who are offered a cot and perhaps a meal, without the spiritual support necessary for climbing our of severe poverty”.
As everyone knows, homelessness is a critically urgent problem in New York. It is a situation experienced even by individuals who are employed but for whom no housing is available. LEFSA is one of the many ministries sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of New York by which the sisters and the men and women who partner with them touch the lives and restore the hope of thousands of New Yorkers. Their spirit of charity does not fail.
The apostolate of these sisters is a source of hope for us as well. Consider the phenomenon of robotics, much in the news today. We read about mechanical ‘helpers’ that (who?) can attend to our personal needs. Given the leapfrogging ‘advances’ in technology, is it too far-fetched to imagine the needs of the socially alienated in the future being addressed similarly, i.e. efficiently albeit impersonally?
The spirit of charity will not fail. In the words of another saint, one even more recently canonized, when an encounter is person-to-person, ‘cor ad cor loquitor’ – heart speaks to heart, and the shared identity of the imago dei isrevealed.
Like the pillars of cloud and fire in Exodus leading the Israelites through the wilderness to the Promised Land, the spirit of charity guides us in the advance of the Kingdom.
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