CATHOLIC CHARITIES — Called to Encounter, Called to Mission
Encounter at Catholic Charities
On a coach bus, traveling through the Scottish Highlands, I learned that there are more sheep in Scotland than people.
To some, this might feel overwhelming — to recognize one’s littleness and realize not only the vastness of the world, but also simply the rugged expanse of northern Scotland where one is more likely to meet a sheep than a fellow person.
An inherent loneliness accompanies this thought, and loneliness is what crept upon me while I studied abroad, alone, in Glasgow.
Yet, despite the grief — or rather because of it — I encountered God most during this experience.
Think of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam where God urgently stretches his arm towards Adam, his pointer finger fully extended, almost begging for the gap between himself and man to be closed.
Meanwhile Adam reclines, his hand lazily half-raised.
In my daily life, I was like Adam — lukewarm in faith, slow to respond, half-heartedly reaching back.
Nevertheless, God leaves the 99 sheep to search for the lost one.
While abroad, he found me — and I him — because for the first time in my life, I had nothing and no one to distract me from meeting him in constant prayer and witnessing him in everyone I met.
I was graced with this transformative experience, but its impact didn’t end once I returned home to a life full of “distractions.”
Truly, God is ever-present, encountering us at every time and place.
It is up to us to reach, to close the gap of distractions — created by our own doing — between us and him.
Mission is the way we reach back to God.
All the baptized are called to mission — not just priests or those who serve overseas, but each of us in our ordinary lives.
Indeed, we are all sent to share Christ’s love and mercy in every encounter: serving the poor, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned.
This mission of Jesus Christ — of the Church and of every baptized person — is our mission at Catholic Charities.
We carry this out guided by the practical, actionable principles of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) that illustrate how to live as missionary disciples.
Through the Church’s call to family, community and participation, our Family Immigration Services team reunites parents with children, husbands with wives, and sisters with brothers.
Supported by CST’s rights and responsibilities to restore welfare for the poor, our Predatory Loan Relief Program offers financial education classes, budget coaching and loan refinancing options for those weighed down by extreme interest rates.
We uphold the option for the poor and vulnerable with our client-choice Food Pantry and the care for God’s creation with our Community Garden, tended to by neighbors all year long.
And in everything we do, we proclaim the life and dignity of the human person and stand in solidarity with all our brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of faith, culture or situation.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus sends the disciples first “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (10:5-6).
He sends them not far, but near — to their own people, their own communities.
The same is true for us.
Mission doesn’t always mean boarding a plane.
It begins right here, in our daily encounters, in the neighborhoods, workplaces and parishes that God has entrusted to us.
How are you reaching out to God? How are you serving as a missionary disciple to others?
Join Christ’s call to mission with us at Catholic Charities.
Whether it’s stocking shelves in the pantry, welcoming a nervous client at the front desk or tending rows in the garden, you can encounter Christ in your neighbors — and allow them to encounter him in you.
I understand how difficult it can be to not only start something new, but to possibly start it alone — to feel like the one lost sheep.
Yet, we are never alone; God is always with us, dwelling in the depths of our hearts, eagerly waiting for us to turn to him.
Moreover, when we encounter others, even strangers, we encounter God for we all are made in his image and likeness and, as his sons and daughters, we are all heirs to his eternal kingdom.
In my new role as Communications Specialist at Catholic Charities, I hope to continue this mission by sharing stories where God’s love breaks through isolation and draws us back into communion — stories of encounter that reveal Christ working through us for the vulnerable here in central and northern Missouri.
I pray that these stories stir each of us to step out from the comfort of distractions, so we may reach out to God and say “yes” to the mission entrusted to us all.
Begin this life-giving work today by visiting our website, cccnmo.diojeffcity.org/volunteer/, or calling 573-635-7719.
