Huge numbers of people are being driven from their homes in the Middle East. Pope Francis has suggested that every parish should be ready to host a displaced family and that makes sense to me. On Sunday Father Nicholas preached a stern sermon reminding us that inaction is not an option for Christians. We must reach out to people in distress being a people of action and not just good intention. Not least because Catholic belief insists on the defence of the dignity and sanctity of every human soul.
I was especially struck by Father Nicholas’s observation that the Victorians, so often maligned in modern culture, were a people of phenomenal evangelistic action. A people who, no matter what criticism may be made of them, took education, sanitation, medicine and the Christian faith around the world. They would not have stood for the barbarity being witnessed in our day but would have sent soldiers to put a boot on the neck of those tyrants. Sadly our less Christian age has not only lost its evangelistic vision and fervour but has also disbanded its army and is no longer capable of such humanitarian endeavour.
What can we do? How can we ensure our good intentions become firm action? There are lots of possibilities but here are a few ideas and links to help you do something to help those poor people whose lives have been devastated as they are turned into a large weapon of war and pushed out to unsettle other regions.
Donate some money. Both Aid to the Church in Need and the Catholic Relief Services are good places to start. But there are plenty of other agencies too.
Donate clothes and practical items. A collection is being taken in Tunbridge Wells for those currently living in squalid conditions in Calais. Otherwise you might contact childhood bags who are collecting items for children.
Donate some time. A few might have time to get involved directly with a charity. All have time to write to your MP and demand that we do more to help.
Adopt or foster a child. There are various ways to do this but the following website can help you begin the journey.
Pray and fast. When we witness the scandalous cruelty being inflicted by Isis then we see clear evidence of a diabolical presence in those worshipping a false god. There is a spiritual dimension to what we witness and we need to combat this with prayer and fasting and offering Mass.
