Food for thought

Jun 05, 2014

Some of us may find a little more time in our schedules for volunteer work at our parish or elsewhere in our community.

For Christians, volunteering, as religious leaders have reminded us, isn't simply an act of good will but an opportunity to encounter Christ in our brothers and sisters.

Addressing the good works of millions of Catholics who offered their volunteer work around the world, Pope Benedict XVI said in 2011, the European Year of Volunteering, that “the faith of all Catholics is surely strengthened when they see the good that is being done in the name of Christ.”

We become instruments of God’s love “in a world that still profoundly yearns for that love amid the poverty, loneliness, marginalization and ignorance that we see all around us,” he said.

But in the sharing of this work, he said, we shouldn’t be moved to make changes out of “purely human vision,” but as way to plant a seed that will bear great fruit, “a sign of Christ’s presence and love that like the tree in the Gospel grows to give shelter, protection and strength to all who require it.”