Proximity

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Matthew 25:35-36

 

How many times have I heard people say "I want to help, but I don’t know how?"

I’ve come to realize how is not the problem, who is.  I don’t know who, is the problem.  Proximity is the crucial issue.  People generally muster good responsiveness to needs directly before them.  But the need not before them becomes too elusive to be practical.  Proximity.

* Am I incarnate in people’s lives?

* Do I know the "who’s" who should be in my life?

* Am I known by them?

When I walk with the hungry I naturally feed them.  Those in the spheres I choose to be among who are thirsty don’t stay thirsty for long if they don’t want to be. Strangers lose their strangeness when I invite them in.  Who wouldn’t clothe the naked, give water to the thirsty or feed the hungry?  Anyone would.  The question is, where are those with such extreme needs?  When’s the last time I had dealings with a naked person?  Mentally ill people might be naked, infants or young children, severe illness that cripples one's independence, extreme and sudden impoverishment, trauma or disaster might leave someone without the ability to clothe themselves either functionally or financially.  Some released from prison have no clothes to change into.

Am I in close enough proximity to the sick, to the imprisoned, to any of those with such needs as our Lord discusses here?

Because if I am not, it stands to reason...

          I will not know how to help because I will not know who to help.

"whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40