Weekly THIS AND THAT for January 7, 2007: A Lot of “Faith-filled” People Doing a Lot of Good “Works”

This and That:
A Lot of “Faith-filled” People Doing a Lot of Good “Works”

Last week I had a little chat with Pat Schafer, the chair of our Outreach Committee. She was up to her eyeballs in filling large plastic bags with gifts for families, boxing food, and loading her SUV full to the brim for trips to our shelters and outreach centers. As I always say to her, “There goes God’s lover of the poor. No purgatory for you, Pat, you’re going to go straight to heaven.” This time she quipped, “Father, it’s too bad we’re not saved by works.” A very interesting statement, I’d say. I quickly retorted, “No, we’re saved by faith,” harkening back to the whole reason for the Protestant Reformation.

Regarding how “faith” and “good works” each play a part in our salvation, we Catholics take the words of the Letter to James quite literally. “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Demonstrate \your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. (James 2:14-18) The writer of the Epistle gets it right. “Demonstrating our faith from our works” is the exemplary thing to do.

Over the past month, you, the people of Our Lady of Grace have come across still again with a tremendous outpouring of “works” that flow from our “faith” as a community. As of 4:00pm Monday afternoon Dec 18th, the Outreach Committee had received some 1,500 wrapped gifts, filled 200 stockings to the brim, received 460 crackers (favors the go “snap”) from the Prime-timers, and loads of groceries from the Christmas Musical and individual donations.

The following is a breakdown of where your many contributions went:

➢ Gifts and stockings delivered to the Franciscan Center
➢ Gifts and stockings delivered to the middle school children attending the Franciscan Youth Center
➢ Gifts and stockings delivered to children and new parents at St. Benedict’s parish in Baltimore City
➢ 12 families “adopted” by Our Lady of Grace from the Head Start program at St Veronica’s plus a carload of Christmas gifts
➢ 100 gifts and a large quantity of food donated to St Cecilia’s parish
➢ Several car loads of supplies and Christmas gifts delivered to Sarah’s Hope Homeless Shelter and nine people “adopted” and cared for with personal gifts and items
➢ Many gifts donated to “New Life for Girls” and 8 individuals “adopted” as well
➢ Furnishing of gifts, food, and gift certificates to many local area families

In addition, the following is a list of the non-perishable food the cast brought to rehearsals and the funds collected after each performance for perishables such as meat and produce.

o Hereford Food Bank and Pine Grove Food Bank each received $600+ in Giant Food gift cards and shared in the over 50 boxes of non-perishable food items
o Our Daily Bread: received $600+
o Sarah’s Hope: received $600+
o The proceeds of the Bake Sale allowed for the donation of several packs of children’s socks, underwear, and craft items to Sarah’s Hope

The total distribution of funds collected from theatergoers was $2,531.79. Amazing isn’t it!

What a tremendous “demonstration of our faith from our works.” God bless all those who helped us help those in need.