Where IS Jesus? Jesus IS found in the Eucharist. Jesus IS found in the Holy Bible. He IS found in our hearts – and some believe that crucifixes and even painted Icons carry a sacred image of Jesus. But none of these places is Jesus’ “primary residence.” Where is Jesus? Look at the reading from Matthew’s Gospel. “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Jesus is living on the streets. Jesus is in soup kitchen lines. Jesus is waiting at the Salvation Army to get a coat. Jesus is in the hospital, or more likely, suffering and sitting, because He cannot afford to go to the hospital. Jesus is in prison.
Don’t blame me. I didn’t say it. Jesus said it. There’s no way we can misread what this Gospel account says. “Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” In other words, wherever people are in need, wherever people suffer, wherever people do without their basic needs, Jesus is there. And He’s not just there to comfort those who suffer. He is suffering right along with them. That’s where Jesus is.
I live in a small farming community whose wells have gone dry. My next-door neighbor Maggie and fifty-five neighbor homes have gone without water during this summer because their wells have run dry.
Maggie’s neighbors in Bethany have trucked 1500 gallons of water in pouches for the past six months and they will need to do this throughout the winter months. Maggie is a frail senior living on social security and SSI with no truck, no able-bodied relatives, no Genesee County grant assistance, and no water.
Susan brings twelve gallons of water in milk jugs every third day so she can boil water to wash dishes, cook food, bathe and drink.
Tragically, Maggie has three choices. Move out of her home, get her neighbors to bring her water or dig a new well. In reality, due to the drought conditions in her county, there is no guarantee that her land has any more water. But she told Fr. Matt, “I want to die at home.”
Maggie made her decision to stay in her home and signed the well digger contract last week with an estimate over $10,000 depending how deep they have to go to find water again. Prayers are needed that they find clean and drinkable water.
The final words of Jesus to the people of Divine Mercy in Vegas, the farmers of Holy Family in North Java, the people at Holy Mother of the Rosary in Lancaster and to my neighbors in Bethany is how we are to live our faith on this earth: “clean water, warm clothes, plenty of food will come to everyone on the planet when those of us who have surplus of any kind live fully moral lives, namely when we accept that is it not right to have surplus while other lack necessities:
Giving drink to the thirsty, clothes to the homeless and food to the hungry involves looking at these principles with more moral courage than we have up to now.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and give thanks for you all. I give thanks that Jesus rose from the dead and lives today. And I give thanks that He still needs and wants us to meet Him in everything we do and every place we go.
