Doing something beautiful for others

"The 'poor' are always with you" - John 12:8.

Doing something beautiful for God is often translated into doing more than something for others.

What is it that makes it beautiful? It could be its usefulness or the urgency of its need. Very often what makes it really beautiful is that it is voluntary, which we usually take to mean not paid, at least here and now.

"The worst malady of our times," said Mother Teresa, "is indifference, lack of concern." It is amazing how much could be done by so many. You could easily discover that you have an enormous amount of time and skills that you are simply squandering.

This holds good whether you are still young and have lots of time in hand which you can spare and, indeed, also if you are already of a certain age, for example, retired and, often enough, you are wondering how best to spend your time. Retirement could easily breed frustration.

Charities, as organisations for helping people in need are often called, offer excellent opportunities for voluntary work. Mgr Michael Azzopardi is said to have always considered his helpers on a par, whether they were paid or voluntary. On a par, in a way, of course! You have to pay your workers and you are entitled to count on them while you expect your volunteers to be on duty only to a certain extent.

There is, however, always an added value in voluntary work. It is an aura that purifies the volunteer's intention and gives him/her a good dose of sense of fulfillment.

A gentleman who has been regularly offering voluntary help to Dar tal-Providenza for some years has asked for a guarantee that he will have his funeral at and eventually be buried with the residents of these Homes. Lately, I had a second request of that type. This is all impressive and highly significant. No doubt, the motivation element plays an important role.

Indeed, there is a particular factor in voluntary work which, more often than not, is absent in normal paid jobs. This specific element which gives the above-mentioned "added value" to a service offered out of sheer love is described so well in Pope Benedict's encyclical God Is Love.

You can sense it, the Holy Father seems to say. It is what you really need and nothing can take its place in deeply-human relations.

We can hardly express it all in words better than the Pope's: "Love - caritas - will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the state so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable. The state, which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person - every person - needs, namely, loving personal concern. (Deus Caritas Est, n. 28)".

It is amazing what range of voluntary help is available. The whole adventure which we call Dar tal-Providenza with which I am most familiar is at present offering an opportunity of rendering a voluntary service to doctors, confectioners, an upholsterer, a couple of engineers and helpers of different ages, among others, who spend hours with our residents just sitting next to them or taking them out for a walk.

There are those who regret not having started years ago with their voluntary service. It is never too late but neither is it ever too early. Charles de Montesquieu is reported to have said: "Time is too short between when we are too young and when we become too old".