The love is helpful (continued)

Love has a message, and that's why when we serve, we talk. Our actions may speak loudly, but these actions must be accompanied by the Word of God. Many churches give to the poor and do good works, and this is good before the Lord, but if we do good without presenting the one who saved us and who has the capacity to feed the spirit, to save the sinner, then we practice a human work. We need to do more than give bread. We need to present "the living bread that came down from heaven" (John 6:51).

When Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish, and fed the crowd, he preached the good news of the Kingdom, prayed publicly, thanking the Father, and doing good. His work was not natural, but supernatural. Today we can serve in an association of "The Red Cross" without ever talking about what this cross and the reason for its color, without even knowing the faith of the one who created it.

Jesus washed his feet to his disciples, and we will sometimes have to wash the feet of the world. We may have to clean the wound of an alcoholic who has just fallen to the ground, we may have to take in our arms a man in the street who smells very bad, we may have to announce the Gospel in an apartment immersed in tobacco.

I experienced this kind of thing, and I remember that when I went to a certain apartment, even 20 minutes, I felt cigarette all day, and it was really unpleasant. I remember one day taking a man's hands to pray for him, but he came in, talking to me, to blow his nose in his fingers several times, a smell of strong alcohol emanating from him. I remember finding the physical side unpleasant, but having experienced a great spiritual joy to have gone well beyond this simple inconvenience.

Jeremy Sourdril