Today's memorial on the Roman Calendar invites us to consider the example of St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), patron of the poor, charitable organizations, prisoners, hospitals, and volunteers. Catholics are probably most familiar with him and his name through the lay charitable and spiritual confraternities set up throughout the world, known as the St. Vincent de Paul Societies. There was also a pretty good French movie on his life filmed in 1947 with the title Monseiur Vincent. This movie is a Catholic classic--if you weren't impressed with Fr. Vincent's his priestly zeal and if you didn't feel sorry for the relative wealth of our day and age, and the need to do more to reach out to the poor, then you either have a heart of stone or weren't paying attention. St. Vincent de Paul founded the religious orders of the Congregation of the Missions (CM), better known as the "Vincentians", and (along with St. Louise de Marillac) also founded the Daughters of Charity, both of which still function to this day
But as I said, he is most remembered as the namesake of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which was not founded until much later-the 19th century-by a group of university students in Paris. Blessed Frederic Ozanam (1813-1853) was a law student in the 1830's, which was a time and age and place which was still reeling from the anti-Catholicism of the French Revolution (1790-1799). At the time of the Revolution, the Catholic Church was taken to be 'part of the problem' instead of 'part of the solution' for the injustices found throughout French society. Bishops as well as many priests and even religious lived as aristocracy, while people starved in the streets. When the time of Revolution came, revolutionaries rose up to vent their frustrations on the institutional Church, sacking and desecrating churches and cathedrals, causing bishops to lose their heads to la guillotine, and disbanding and vandalizing convents and monestaries. Even more distressingly, the faith was maligned and lost in so many places. (We all know the stories of what weak faith St. Jean Marie Vianney found when he arrived in Ars in 1818!) I would posit that it is this attitude of skepticism about the Church flowing from the French Revolution that is still the operant attitude poisoning contemporary European Church to this day... indeed, the ongoing battle between ultramontane Traditionalism (for example, the SSPX) and secular (both civil and ecclesial) Progressivism find their modern roots here also, but that's a discussion for another day...
Back to Paris and Frederick... one evening, as the story goes, young Frederic was in a public debate with a critic of the Church when he was challenged to answer for the Church's flagging apostolic zeal on behalf of the poor and needy. Unable to make a suitable rhetorical response, he was moved to personally respond, collecting a group of like-minded fellow students to take it upon themselves to go out into the tenements of Paris and provide heating fuel for those who were without... to personally be the face of the Church which was maligned and persecuted, unappreciated and perhaps even institutionally lethargic, but still called to do ministry on behalf of the poor. They took patronage under the name of St. Vincent de Paul, who himself walked those same streets taking care of the poor. By the time of Oznam's death in 1853, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul had some 2000 members and was spreading as an international movement. Today, the society boasts some 700,000 members in 148 countries. In the United States alone, some 150,000 members contribute $675M of goods and services to those who are in need, impacting nearly 14M people per year.
The Society is not simply a mechanism to dole out cash to those in need. It is a spiritual confraternity which allows the faithful to be formed in the apostolic mission of the Church, which is fundamentally a spritiual project! One of the most satisfying projects of my priesthood has been to be part of the spiritual flowering that took place when we established a SVdP 'conference' at St. Mary & Joseph Church in Carlinville. A conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is, strictly speaking, a lay organization of the faithful... the constitutions of the Society insist that the conferences are not, corporately, a subsidiary of the parish community. Parishioners are involved but it, of course, but it is not a 'parish-owned' project. The local conference has its own money and tax ID, its own organizational charter and elected leaders. The pastor is encouraged to be involved as a spiritual advisor, but is not dragged into another instance of having to 'govern' the group (which is a welcomed treat). Meetings happen on a bi-weekly basis, inviting members to report in on the apostolic activities (visits, programs, etc) they have been doing. If there is a decision to be made to distribute resources, the group does it in a spirit of prayer and discernment of the greatest good for all involved. The group solicits the community and provides from their own pockets the resources to assist those in need. Sometimes--perhaps often--the need is not so much financial as it is spiritual! At SSMJ, we had fifth-Sunday collections (collections in months when there were five Sundays in the month... which happens usually around 3 times a year) which received amazingly good support from our parishioners. Finally, the members study and discuss the Church's call to give a preferential option to the needs of the poor.
Members are constantly encouraged to bridge the gap with the poor... to make sure that members do not see themselves as 'over and above' the clients they serve, but as partners with them in defeating material, spiritual and material poverty. Client dignity is of utmost concern... there is an ethic coming from the writings of St. Vincent de Paul himself, that understands that members are to be 'servants of the poor', for "they are your masters, and the more difficult they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them. It is your love alone that the poor will forgive you for the bread you will give them." We who have been blessed with plenty must humbly recognize that it is the rich who are in need of forgiveness for withholding the necessities of life from the poor. It is we who are rich who must preserve the dignity of our less fortunate brothers and sisters who must swallow their pride to ask for what they need from us as charity. Only by acting in charity (and not through some other motive of egoism or the desire for attention or as a response to our own feelings of guilt) do we find that most complete forgiveness.
In today's Gospel we see Jesus asking, "who do the crowds say that I am... who do you say that I am". We respond with Peter, "you are the Christ of God!" (cf Luke 9: 18-22) When we make this response, we cannot do so with empty rhetoric. Our proclamation of faith grafts us to the Body of Christ, whose hands we share, whose sufferings we are called to endure as we take up the cross to follow him. To proclaim Jesus the Christ demands a personal response borne out in sacrifice. In James, do we not hear, "for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead?" (cf James 2: 26) St. Vincent de Paul gives us an example that has inspired generations to consider the needs of the Body of Christ suffering from material and spiritual poverty. His example inspired Blessed Frederic and his companions to take personal responsibility for the missionary works of the Church in their own age and to leave a path for many faithful to follow, even unto our own day. How might the Church fulfill her mission more fully if her sons and daughters heard that call upon their heart today and responded with zeal, courage, and grace!
Today's memorial on the Roman Calendar invites us to consider the example of St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), patron of the poor, charitable organizations, prisoners, hospitals, and volunteers. Catholics are probably most familiar with him and his name through the lay charitable and spiritual confraternities set up throughout the world, known as the St. Vincent de Paul Societies. There was also a pretty good French movie on his life filmed in 1947 with the title Monseiur Vincent. This movie is a Catholic classic--if you weren't impressed with Fr. Vincent's his priestly zeal and if you didn't feel sorry for the relative wealth of our day and age, and the need to do more to reach out to the poor, then you either have a heart of stone or weren't paying attention. St. Vincent de Paul founded the religious orders of the Congregation of the Missions (CM), better known as the "Vincentians", and (along with St. Louise de Marillac) also founded the Daughters of Charity, both of which still function to this day
But as I said, he is most remembered as the namesake of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which was not founded until much later-the 19th century-by a group of university students in Paris. Blessed Frederic Ozanam (1813-1853) was a law student in the 1830's, which was a time and age and place which was still reeling from the anti-Catholicism of the French Revolution (1790-1799). At the time of the Revolution, the Catholic Church was taken to be 'part of the problem' instead of 'part of the solution' for the injustices found throughout French society. Bishops as well as many priests and even religious lived as aristocracy, while people starved in the streets. When the time of Revolution came, revolutionaries rose up to vent their frustrations on the institutional Church, sacking and desecrating churches and cathedrals, causing bishops to lose their heads to la guillotine, and disbanding and vandalizing convents and monestaries. Even more distressingly, the faith was maligned and lost in so many places. (We all know the stories of what weak faith St. Jean Marie Vianney found when he arrived in Ars in 1818!) I would posit that it is this attitude of skepticism about the Church flowing from the French Revolution that is still the operant attitude poisoning contemporary European Church to this day... indeed, the ongoing battle between ultramontane Traditionalism (for example, the SSPX) and secular (both civil and ecclesial) Progressivism find their modern roots here also, but that's a discussion for another day...
Back to Paris and Frederick... one evening, as the story goes, young Frederic was in a public debate with a critic of the Church when he was challenged to answer for the Church's flagging apostolic zeal on behalf of the poor and needy. Unable to make a suitable rhetorical response, he was moved to personally respond, collecting a group of like-minded fellow students to take it upon themselves to go out into the tenements of Paris and provide heating fuel for those who were without... to personally be the face of the Church which was maligned and persecuted, unappreciated and perhaps even institutionally lethargic, but still called to do ministry on behalf of the poor. They took patronage under the name of St. Vincent de Paul, who himself walked those same streets taking care of the poor. By the time of Oznam's death in 1853, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul had some 2000 members and was spreading as an international movement. Today, the society boasts some 700,000 members in 148 countries. In the United States alone, some 150,000 members contribute $675M of goods and services to those who are in need, impacting nearly 14M people per year.
The Society is not simply a mechanism to dole out cash to those in need. It is a spiritual confraternity which allows the faithful to be formed in the apostolic mission of the Church, which is fundamentally a spritiual project! One of the most satisfying projects of my priesthood has been to be part of the spiritual flowering that took place when we established a SVdP 'conference' at St. Mary & Joseph Church in Carlinville. A conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is, strictly speaking, a lay organization of the faithful... the constitutions of the Society insist that the conferences are not, corporately, a subsidiary of the parish community. Parishioners are involved but it, of course, but it is not a 'parish-owned' project. The local conference has its own money and tax ID, its own organizational charter and elected leaders. The pastor is encouraged to be involved as a spiritual advisor, but is not dragged into another instance of having to 'govern' the group (which is a welcomed treat). Meetings happen on a bi-weekly basis, inviting members to report in on the apostolic activities (visits, programs, etc) they have been doing. If there is a decision to be made to distribute resources, the group does it in a spirit of prayer and discernment of the greatest good for all involved. The group solicits the community and provides from their own pockets the resources to assist those in need. Sometimes--perhaps often--the need is not so much financial as it is spiritual! At SSMJ, we had fifth-Sunday collections (collections in months when there were five Sundays in the month... which happens usually around 3 times a year) which received amazingly good support from our parishioners. Finally, the members study and discuss the Church's call to give a preferential option to the needs of the poor. 
Members are constantly encouraged to bridge the gap with the poor... to make sure that members do not see themselves as 'over and above' the clients they serve, but as partners with them in defeating material, spiritual and material poverty. Client dignity is of utmost concern... there is an ethic coming from the writings of St. Vincent de Paul himself, that understands that members are to be 'servants of the poor', for "they are your masters, and the more difficult they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them. It is your love alone that the poor will forgive you for the bread you will give them." We who have been blessed with plenty must humbly recognize that it is the rich who are in need of forgiveness for withholding the necessities of life from the poor. It is we who are rich who must preserve the dignity of our less fortunate brothers and sisters who must swallow their pride to ask for what they need from us as charity. Only by acting in charity (and not through some other motive of egoism or the desire for attention or as a response to our own feelings of guilt) do we find that most complete forgiveness.
In today's Gospel we see Jesus asking, "who do the crowds say that I am... who do you say that I am". We respond with Peter, "you are the Christ of God!" (cf Luke 9: 18-22) When we make this response, we cannot do so with empty rhetoric. Our proclamation of faith grafts us to the Body of Christ, whose hands we share, whose sufferings we are called to endure as we take up the cross to follow him. To proclaim Jesus the Christ demands a personal response borne out in sacrifice. In James, do we not hear, "for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead?" (cf James 2: 26) St. Vincent de Paul gives us an example that has inspired generations to consider the needs of the Body of Christ suffering from material and spiritual poverty. His example inspired Blessed Frederic and his companions to take personal responsibility for the missionary works of the Church in their own age and to leave a path for many faithful to follow, even unto our own day. How might the Church fulfill her mission more fully if her sons and daughters heard that call upon their heart today and responded with zeal, courage, and grace!