The laity, the leaven of the world
New Farm is an inner-city Brisbane suburb with a dual personality: on the one hand, wealth and success; on the other, hardship and struggle. It nestles in a picturesque bend of the Brisbane River and is known for its historic buildings and charming cottages dating back to the early years of settlement.
House prices are high, and late-model luxury cars dot the streets. Though not always an affluent suburb, today it is a magnet for the rich and upwardly mobile. Rubbing shoulders with the affluent are the unemployed, the mentally ill, and the drug-addicted, because New Farm has a large proportion of social housing and a high proportion of singles with multiple problems who live from one welfare payment to the next.
In the middle of this muddled society, the Society of St Vincent de Paul works to distribute hope. Without fanfare, its members do their imperfect best to steer individuals through a crisis or emergency, visit the sick, put people in contact with further help, speak for the voiceless, and, above all, show through action rather than words the ardour of the spirit of Christ.
As an organisation of laypeople, its members have been walking alongside those in need since the mid-19th century. They cooperate with people as a friend or good neighbour, offering a hand-up. But what does that mean? Can food vouchers or the second-hand fridges they distribute do that?
The Conference in New Farm puts it this way. It is not the voucher or the fridge; it is the knowledge that someone cares, someone is listening without judging, someone is celebrating your small victories, someone is simply being present. It understands material help is only part of the equation. It is compassion that matters, which means “to suffer with”.
Australia is a lucky country, one of the richest, with a robust welfare system acting as a safety net for those in need. Yet three million Australians live in poverty. What has failed? In 2017, the Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, spoke of “pathways to poverty”, which he identified as family breakdown, welfare dependency, mental illness, drug addiction, education failure, and financial indebtedness.
While absolute poverty is rare in Australia today, there is still impoverishment: “We see it acutely in remote Indigenous communities, but it is apparent in many other pockets of Australia, including in the suburbs of our largest cities.” Australia may offer a safety net, but there are always those who slip through the net.
In the minds of many Catholics, mission is the province of priests and religious. Yet the Second Vatican Council spoke of the laity as “called by God to exercise their apostolate in the world like leaven, with the ardour of the spirit of Christ”. Laypeople have the power to lift the societies in which they live. Pope John Paul II once said that people’s needs are best understood and satisfied by those closest to them - their neighbours.
This article was written on behalf of St Columbans Mission Society.
Mission Intention for June 2022
Families: We pray for Christian families around the world; may they embody and experience unconditional love and advance in holiness in their daily lives.
We ask your prayers:
The prayers of our readers are requested for the repose of the souls of friends and benefactors of the Missionary Society of St Columban who died recently and for the spiritual and the temporal welfare of all our readers, their families and friends.
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