The Least of These.... (David Jeremiah)

Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40

Courtney Steever is a missionary to the poor in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. The needs are limitless: "Some days it just seems too overwhelming," she says. "Often I get tired of the frequent tugs of little hands on my sleeves asking for rupees as I walk down the street . . . . Need is around every corner, under every bridge, down every street—yet it's so easy not to see."

Courtney and some workers from the Missionaries of Charity visited the Sealdah Train Station to search for the destitute and ill. She stopped to give a hard-boiled egg to a young man covered in rags, to wrap the wounds of a woman. They came upon a dying man lying on the ground, covered with flies and his own waste, and took him to the Sisters of Charity home where he lived only a few hours. But he died with a measure of dignity, surrounded by people who cared for him. When Courtney wonders if her work makes any real difference, she remembers that man. It made a difference, for a few hours, to him.

Your cup of water will not quench the thirst of all the world's poor, but it will quench the thirst of the one to whom you give it.

Keep Jesus Christ in your hearts, and
you will recognize His face in every
human being. John Paul II