Respecting their dignity

A few years ago, I was serving in an inner-city parish where we were fortunate enough to count many people among our parishioners who were relatively well off, but there were also those who were silently suffering.  They always appeared with a smile, but we knew that they needed help.  In the modern parlance, these were the working poor: the ones who had to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet.  We searched for a while to find a way to respond to their needs, all the while remembering that we needed to respect each person’s dignity.

Respecting each person’s dignity is something that Jesus did with grace.  In the gospel account that we have heard today, he was at a wedding party and a situation arose that could have ended up being very embarrassing for the young couple.  Mary saw the first signs of trouble and brought the matter to Jesus’ attention (cf Jn 2:3).  With reluctance, he responded to their needs out of respect for his mother and also for the personal dignity of the couple, not wanting them to face the prospect of being judged by their guests.

Jesus is concerned for the dignity of every person, and so should we.  It would have been easy for us to provide hand-outs for the people who came knocking at the door of our inner-city parish, but that would only have responded to an immediate need.  Instead, we wanted to find a different way.  After much thought and prayer, we decided to open a Community Kitchen: a place where we would teach parents and adults who were income-insecure how to cook.  We opened the parish kitchen and invited clients to cook with us.  Each week clients learned how to cook one dish each and at the end of a two-hour period, each client went home with enough portions of each dish to feed his or her family.  It was so rewarding for us to see the pride on their faces as they left, knowing that their families would be able to eat, but also knowing that they had learned something about cooking, about budgeting, about portion control ... and most importantly that they were not alone in their struggle.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us today that for the sake of the dignity of our brothers and sisters, we must not remain silent when we encounter situations where their dignity is being overlooked (cf Is 62:1), and Saint Paul reminds us that each of us has been given gifts of the Spirit which we must use for the good of others (cf 1 Cor 12:8-10).  We often speak of the Spirit’s gifts when we are addressing children or adults who are being Confirmed but all of us need to remember that these gifts are given.  They are not intended to be hidden away, because if we hide them, we risk the possibility of forgetting that we possess them.  Instead, we should be on the lookout for the Spirit’s gifts.  When we recognize them in others, we should call them forth and invite others to use them for the good of the community.

Today, the Church celebrates the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, and in the coming week, we are being invited to pray for the unity of all Christians.  As we remember and pray for these brothers and sisters of ours, let us also remember that we should always be willing to use our talents, which are gifts of the Spirit, in order to respect and enhance the dignity of others.