This boy represents the 250 million
Dalits (doll-leets), formerly called
Untouchables, who have been told by
the upper castes of India that they
are less than human.

After Church today my wife and I went on three St. Vincent De Paul home visits. The St. Vincent De Paul Society is the Catholic Church’s largest lay organization, whose mission it to visit with persons in need and in a nonjudgmental way provide them with some basics of life, like a bed, stove, refrigerator, food, clothes or furniture. With the cold and snow it was more difficult to get around today, but as usual, it was very worthwhile. Although we are the ones providing vouchers for necessary items, we receive much more than we ever give on these visits.

Saying this reminds me of a communication some years ago from an Indian Jesuit priest that we had made friends with when he was studying here in the USA. He told us how he was, at the time, during the day counseling low-income students at the universities and at night providing free marriage counseling in the poorest areas of the city. He himself was a Dalit, formerly called “the Untouchables” in the Indian caste system. Visiting with the poorest of the poor he found great joy and peace. In his prayer he asked God to give him the grace and blessings he found with the Dalits. He told us that one day God answered his prayer and said: “I have given all my grace and blessings to the poor, you must go to them to find it.”

I have probably told this story before in the Diary of the Worm postings, but felt it was worth repeating when in a week I will be in India on a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Gandhi. Although I will not see my Jesuit priest friend on this trip, his lesson of life lives in me when I make a St. Vincent De Paul home visit and as I journey to India.

If the lowly worm can do such great things for our garden, just imagine how much more the poor can bless our lives.

A small boy we met today on a home visit had autism. He was fascinated by my wife’s pen as she was writing out the voucher. In this almost three-year old boy, who could barely speak or understand, God’s blessing was with us.

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