material assistance, Eymard established a workers’ club which offered
food, drink, and fellowship. He provided additional spiritual assistance
through regular retreats. To obtain funds for these activities, Eymard
became a beggar himself by preaching and pleading for aid from the
richer parishes in Paris.”
What is clear from these sources is that Father Eymard was concerned
about both the spiritual welfare of the poor and the forgotten in the
barrière d’Arcueil and their material well-being. Like Jesus who preached
the word of God to the multitudes (see Mk 6:34) and later fed them,
Eymard ministered to the spiritual hungers and the material and social
needs of those he met.
In missiology, there is an accepted maxim that you first have to feed a
hungry person before you can preach the Gospel to him or her. Empty
stomachs make for closed ears! But this is more than a pragmatic means
to a noble end. It reflects the profound soteriological truth that the Good
News touches every dimension of our humanity. And, therefore, because
God is interested in the whole person, those who speak and act in his
name must be similarly disposed and attend to the demands of justice
and compassion.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard moved comfortably between the sanctuary
and the streets, where he acquired the reputation of being a friend of
the poor. The love of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist moved him to seek out
and to serve the suffering members of the body of Christ. He delighted in
initiating them into the Christian faith and the sacraments of the church,
particularly the Eucharist, and he cared for their bodies as well, helping
them to live dignified lives worthy of God’s children.
This issue of Emmanuel, continuing a longstanding tradition of a summer
social justice focus, offers reflections on “concurrent themes” in the
eucharistic thought of Father Pedro Arrupe and Pope Francis and on
social responsibility as an extension of the solidarity experienced around
God’s Table. There is Father Dennis Billy’s incisive analysis of the Scripturebased morality of Father Bernard Häring; and lastly, the moving story of
how one parish reaches out in friendship to people living on the streets
of a large American city.
Father Anthony Schueller, SSS
Editor
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