The Corporal Works of Mercy

Mr. Pablo CuadraReligion Class

ScriptureMatthew 25: 35-40

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

The Works of Mercy• The works of Mercy are divided in

two main categories:

• Spiritual Works of Mercy• Corporal Works of Mercy

• According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the works of Mercy are:

# 2447 “Charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities.”

• This presentation will deal with the Second category:

“The Corporal Works of Mercy”

Old Testament TraditionIsaiah 58: 6-10

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:        to loose the chains of injustice

       and untie the cords of the yoke,        to set the oppressed free        and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry        and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

       when you see the naked, to clothe him,        and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,        and your healing will quickly appear;

       then your righteousness will go before you,        and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;        you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

       "If you do away with the yoke of oppression,        with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry        and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,        then your light will rise in the darkness,

       and your night will become like the noonday.”

Which are the seven Corporal works of Mercy?

• Feed the hungry • Give drink to the thirsty • Clothe the naked • Shelter the homeless • Visit the sick • Visit those in prison • Bury the dead

Did you know?Hunger-related diseases claim about 24,000 lives each day.

The Hunger Site: ww.thehungersite.com)

Nearly 800 million of the world’s 840 million malnourished people live in developing countries,including 150 million children age five and under.

(Bread for the World Institute, Facts on Hunger and Poverty: www.centerforhunger.org)

In U.S. households, over 33 million people, including almost 13 million children, experience hunger or the risk of hunger.

(2002 Household Security in the U.S., USDA: www.usda.gov)

Overfed people in wealthy countries equal the number of the world’s hungry or malnourishedpeople.

(World Watch Institute: www.worldwatch.org)

Hunger is a symptom of poverty and inequality, and not of food scarcity, because the world produces enough food to feed each person between 3,000 to 4,000 calories per day.

Feed the Hungry• Consumerism is a social ill characteristic of

developed Western nations. This materialistic tendency lead people to the false notion that “having more equals being more.”

• As a consequence the individual becomes consumed by an insatiable hunger for things that cannot fulfill. Ironically, the wealth of our developed nations its at the same time its greatest poverty, “having more, but being less”. Our narcissistic obsession with diets for example, is a clear case of the opulence, excess, imbalance and selfishness, self-imposed by our greed and gluttony.

• According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture agency. One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.

• Our Catholic Faith challenges us to share our resources with the less fortunate. Christ shared and multiplied the bread and the fish for the hungry multitudes. We are called to do the same.

Did you know?• Worldwide, 2.3 billion people suffer from

water-related diseases; unclean water and poor sanitation kills 12 million each year, mostly in developing countries. (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Pollutionand the Environment: www.jhuccp.org)

• About 20 percent of the world’s population lacks access to safe drinking water; 50 percent lacks adequate sanitation.

(UNEP, Global Environmental Outlook 2000: www.un.org)

• All living creatures are impacted by polluted water and its usage for drinking, household needs, recreation, fishing and commerce.

(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov)

• At current water consumption levels, the U.N. estimates that by 2025 two out of three people will live in water-stressed conditions.

(UNEP, Global Environmental Outlook 2000: www.un.org)

Give drink to the Thirsty The missionary Maryknoll fathers and laity give us this advise:

• Learn more about the importance of ecosystems, water quality and protection of watersheds.

• Understand the basic causes of water pollution: contaminated run-off, natural and man-made

• disasters, acid rain, lack of sanitation and sewage treatment facilities.• Conserve water, never take this life-sustaining resource for granted.• Advocate for sustainable development projects to supply clean water sources at home and

abroad,• especially in developing countries.• Support domestic and international legislation aimed at protecting the environment.• Support water restoration projects and organizations working to halt environmental threats.• Adhere to domestic recycling programs designed to reduce environmental wastes.• Understand God’s creation related to the environment. ( source: www.maryknollmall.org)

Clothed the Naked• Imelda Marcos the former first lady of

Philippines was renowned for her shoe collection, she owned at one point more than 1,220 pairs of shoes, in a country where most people cannot afford the luxury of two pairs of shoes.

• Are your closets full of clothes you know you will never use? Are the days in the calendar too few for you to wear all the clothes you have? Maybe is time for you to consider donating some of your blessings with the less fortunate in our society.

• St John Chrysostom once said: “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.”

Shelter the HomelessCAUSES OF HOMELESSNESS:

• Poverty • Eroding Work Opportunities and Housing • Decline in Public Assistance • Lack of Affordable Health Care • Domestic Violence • Mental Illness • Addiction Disorders

• Many American are only a pay check away from being homeless. Declining wages have put housing out of reach for many workers: in every state, more than the minimum wage is required to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent. 

• In Miami – Dade county a family needs to work 126 hours a week at minimum wage in order to afford a moderately priced two bedroom apartment. 

(Camillus House.org)

Shelter the Homeless• According to Covenant house International

there are approximately 40 million homeless children in Latin America alone. Most of them will never reach their 18th birthday.

• the World Bank has estimated that there were an estimated 982 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less.

• Stop for a moment, look around you, pay attention to all the luxuries that surround you. The price of just one of them can support an average of 300 to 500 homeless and hungry people in our world for one day.

• Did you know? You can sponsor a

homeless family for one month for the same amount you would pay for a magazine subscription. What is preventing us from reaching out?

Visit the Sick• In 1984, while an intern at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, Dr. Pedro Greer had an encounter

with a patient suffering from tuberculosis that would change the course of his life. The man had been found on the streets of Miami and brought to the hospital by Fire Rescue. His only identification was the place where he lay dying - bed number nine. There was little Dr. Greer could do to medically help the homeless man. But he knew there was plenty he could do to help him through his last moments in life. Dr. Greer made a commitment never to let anyone die or suffer alone. He knew a clinic to treat the poor and homeless populations of Miami was needed. He quickly opened up Camillus Health Concern with no money or staff. Because of Dr. Greer's efforts, almost 100 physicians felt inspired to joined his cause and are now serving the homeless and indigent populations in Little Havana and South Miami Beach.

Have you ever considered volunteering at a Catholic Hospital? Have you ever considered donating your medical, dental or counseling skills, a few hours a week for a good cause?Have you considered being a Eucharistic minister at your parish? In order to bring communion to the sick and homebound of your parish.

Did you know?• In 2003, 100,345 Catholics went to

prison for defending their Catholic faith

• Our system of Justice has severe ethical flaws as well as racial inequalities:

A study released on June 12, 2000 said incompetent defense attorneys, and the suppression of evidence by police or prosecutors are among the most common mistakes made in capital cases.

• The study found that of capital cases returned for new trials, seven percent were found not guilty, while 93 percent of those tried were convicted again, with many receiving lighter sentences.

Visit those in Prison• Pope John Paul II reminds us in his encyclical, Rich in Mercy: “Jesus Christ taught that

man not only receives and experiences the mercy of God, but that he is also called to practice mercy toward others: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.’”

• 1961 British lawyer Peter Benenson launched a worldwide campaign, ‘Appeal for Amnesty 1961’ with the publication of a prominent article, ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’, in The Observer newspaper. The imprisonment of two Portuguese students, who were sentenced to seven years in prison for having raised their wine glasses in a toast to freedom, moved Benenson to write this article. His appeal was reprinted in other papers across the world and turned out to be the genesis of Amnesty International, an international organization working on behalf of prisoners of conscience and the wrongly imprisoned.

Pope visiting the man that tried to kill him

Visit the ImprisonedPractical tips:

• Pray for those in prison and their families.

• Pray for the rehabilitation of those in prison.

• Joined your parish or diocese prison ministry.

• Speak out against “Capital punishment. Jesus was the victim of capital punishment.

• Pray for the victims of violence and crime

• Pray for the wrongly convicted.

Buried the Dead• Catechism #1011

“In death, God calls man to himself.”

• Our Catholic Church teaches us to have concern and respect for the body, for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit and one day it will be resurrected from the dead.

• Catholics have the obligation to bury their dead according to Catholic practices and norms set forth by the Conference of bishops of each country.

• The Church condemns the trafficking of human remains, extravagant ways of disposing of human remains for example: throwing human ashes from a plane.

• The Church is against the disposal of aborted babies as if they were human waste.

• Catholics have the moral and Christian obligation to provide assistance to those who cannot buried their dead or those who died as indigents.

• Make sure to make arrangements to be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Ways to Help the Poor

• Understand the issues. Educate yourself and your children on poverty and homelessness on a local, national, and global scale. Stay informed of related news stories.

• Treat the poor and homeless with respect and understanding. Sometimes this is the one and only thing that makes a real difference.

• Stay politically aware. Find out how your local, state, and federal representatives stand on the issues surrounding poverty and homelessness. Write to them and let them know how you feel.

• Become an advocate. Speak up and speak out!  Inform others of the issues and clear up common myths.

• Donate your old belongings. We can utilize everything from your old clothes to appliances and furniture.

• Hold a collection drive. Collection drives for food, clothing, and toiletries are a great project any time of the year that both reminds people of the issues as well as collecting the goods.

• Raise funds or make a personal financial contribution. We’re always in need of cash donations to cover our operating costs, which keep our programs running.

• Become a regular volunteer. We utilize volunteers in areas ranging from hands-on work in the kitchen and warehouse to more behind the scenes projects in the administrative offices. We can also place volunteers who have professional skills or special abilities in positions that fully utilize their expertise.

• Get your group involved. We regularly use school, religious, civic, business, and professional groups to serve on our feeding line and often rely on their support for special events throughout the year.

• Support living wage laws. Living Wage laws and other new programs designed to eliminate poverty need your support to become public policy.

(source: Camillushouse.org)

In the end, what is really important?

• In the last century, a tourist from America paid a visit to a renowned Polish rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. He was astonished to see that the Rabbi’s house was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a bench. “Rabbi,” asked the tourist, “Where is your furniture?” “Where is yours?” replied the rabbi. “Mine? Asked the puzzled American. “But I am only a visitor here. I’m only a visitor passing through” Said the rabbi, “So am I.”

• Jesus once said: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

Money can buy us a house but not a homeA bed but not sleepStatus, and fame but not inner confidence and lasting securityComfort but not peace.All our possessions are useless at the moment of our deathAll that we take to eternity is the love that we sowed and the life that we lived before God and neighbor.It is this life and this love for which we will be accounted for before our maker and just God, on that day when there is no more hunger, and no more suffering and no more death.

The End

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