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Monica Portogallo ponders how God provides for those in need through the caring actions of others.


At one point in my career, I did public health nutrition work in various locations in San Francisco. Once a week I went to the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. 

For those not familiar with San Francisco, the Tenderloin is an area of the city that struggles with a number of issues: poverty, homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse, and so on. In response to these concerns, there are also many groups and organizations in the area (such as the Franciscans) to help meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people in the area. (If you’d like to read more about this neighborhood, Janelle Peregoy described the area beautifully in "Holy Thursday in the Tenderloin.") 

One of my tasks in this public health work was to screen clients for food insecurity, or unreliable access to food. I asked two questions:

  1. In the last year, how often did you worry you would run out of food before you had money to buy more?
  2. In the last year how often did you run out of food before you had money to buy more?

If they answered sometimes or often to either question, I would help connect them with resources for food. 

As I went between the different sites, I started to notice an interesting pattern: at the other sites in San Francisco, clients often answered that they worried that they would run out of food, but they had not run out of food in the last year. At the Tenderloin site, however, clients often said that they had run out of food in the last year, but they didn’t worry about it. Time and again people would say some variation of the following: “I know I can always go to a soup kitchen, like St Anthony’s or Glide, or there will be a church group handing out bag lunches, or something, so I don’t worry about not having food. No one has to go hungry in San Francisco!”

 

Click to tweet:
When I find myself worrying and failing to trust God, I think of those who don’t worry and let God feed them through the charity of those around them. #catholicmom

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How much more so will your Heavenly Father give

As I marveled at the trust my clients had in the people of San Francisco to feed them, I couldn’t help but see the connection to my worries and trusting God. After all in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus tells us,

If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. (Matthew 7:11)

 

If the people of San Francisco can take care of their poor and hungry, how much more so will my Heavenly Father take care of me! Just like for the hungry people at a soup kitchen, the good things God gives me may not be what I would have chosen on my own. I may have to wait for them. I may have to humble myself and admit I don’t have the resources to meet my needs and ask for help. God will provide, though. 

So, now when I find myself worrying and failing to trust God, I think of those clients who don’t worry and let God feed them through the charity of those around them. These people are living Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew in a very real way:

Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? (Matthew 6:26-27)

 

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Copyright 2022 Monica Portogallo
Images: Canva