I’ve often thought a good measure of a person’s character is how they treat the free sample people at Costco. People just walk up, grab their toothpicked gouda, and walk on without even looking at the person who prepared it. If it’s a good sample, they send in family members to get seconds or thirds. I can’t even fathom asking them to take a moment and say, “thank you.”

When I drive home to Tempe, there are usually people on the sides of the three lane offramp asking for money—and the center lane is always backed up. I guess people think lining up a whole lane away and refusing to make eye contact makes them invisible to the beggar.

Listen. I get that no one likes having to deal with it, but that probably isn’t the answer.

My wife and I make “blessing bags” (Ziploc gallon bags marked blue or pink with socks, a bottle of water, a meal replacement bar, some nuts, a card with St. Vincent de Paul information, a prayer card, etc.) to hand out with eye contact and a smile.

The examples are endless. Amazing people with special needs. Elderly in nursing homes. That relative who drives you (and everyone else) crazy. The SUV that cuts you off in traffic. The flustered cashier. And yes… the people in our own homes who “have to love us.” How we treat these people is the true test of our character.

In Matthew 25:45, Jesus says, “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Additionally, in this Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 14:1, 7-14), Jesus instructs us in a way that would shock most networking professionals. “When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

So let’s do it. Let’s thank the sample lady for the hummus. Let’s smile and nod at the beggar. Let’s make eye contact with the lady in the wheelchair. Let’s visit a nursing home. Let’s call the annoying relative. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt to the driver who cut us off. And let’s make time for date night. Let’s make Catholicism attractive to the world.

BACK TO LIST BACK