Blind spots prevent us from seeing those in need

I would like to begin this with a quick analogy.   A quarterback drops back to pass, and he sees a wide receiver 15 yards down the field.  The quarterback throws the ball.  What he didn’t see was a defender closing in on the “open” receiver.  The defender intercepts the pass.  As the quarterback comes off the field his coach asks him, “What were you thinking?  Why did you throw it to that wide receiver?”  The quarterback responds, “I didn’t see the defender.”  Sometimes what we don’t see can be a really big problem.
What does this have to do with my faith?  Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel that how we treat the poor, the naked, the sick and imprisoned is in fact how we are treating Jesus Himself.  The problem is that we often don’t see these folks.  We drive to work, and we typically don’t see poor persons who need help.  We almost never see those who are incarcerated.  We typically don’t encounter the sick unless they are family members or close friends.  We tend to have a blind spot, or more accurately, multiple blind spots.  We are a bit like that quarterback, but we must be honest with ourselves.  What we don’t see does in fact matter.
The first challenge we face is training our vision to see.  This is what a coach would do with a quarterback.  He would teach the player where the defenders are on given plays how to adapt to that reality.  We too must learn where to look.  I would recommend a few easy ways to seek out people in need.  We can call Catholic Charities, speak to our pastor about initiatives in the parish that could use our help, we can volunteer in the St. Vincent de Paul ministry in our parish.  There are literally dozens and dozens of organizations that we can plug into to find people who would benefit from our service.  And, as I ponder that last sentence, I remind myself that we benefit as much, if not in fact more, than those whom we serve.
— Pat Arensberg is the Director  of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected]  For more information concerning the events of this office, visit us at mobilefaithformation.org