feeding Jesus

St Cyprian talks to us about feeding Jesus today in A Year with the Church Fathers. We've heard alot about taking care of the poor in the last week or so... and I guess it's proportionate to how important this topic is in our spiritual life. Jesus made it very clear that our eternal reward will depend very directly on how well we take care of His children in this life.

St Cyprian says something interesting right at the end of today's selection. He says, "do you imagine that whoever feeds Christ is not himself fed by Christ?"

That's a powerful image, and it brings to mind the verse in which Jesus tells us "abide in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch can't bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, so you can't bear fruit unless you abide in Me. There are many ways in which we abide in Him. But one of them is by taking care of "the least of these" our brothers. When we take care of Jesus in the form of the poor, Jesus takes care of us.

The best thing you can do for the poor every day is to pray for them. Even Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. PRAY THEN that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers". Yes, going out and helping ourselves is important. But praying is more important. When we see people who need our help, we should help them. But when we pray for them, we are helping in a more global way.

God, please guide us to feed You in the poor, and as always, thanks for taking care of us.