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A Message from Father David
Love Has Hands and Feet
I write this from Erwin, Tennessee, where I along with Dimitri Zgourides, I am spending the week helping to lead an IOCC Team (International Orthodox Christian Charities). Along with four young adults from different parts of the country, we are helping to finish a new home for a family whose house was washed away from flooding resulting from Hurricane Helene in 2024.
While our efforts might be seen to be of little impact when viewed from a perspective that only measures success by quantity or efficiency, we are reminded that our modest efforts are of enormous significance for a family whose home was destroyed by a devasting flood. What we are sharing in is the rebuilding of not just a house, but of a family’s life that has been turned upside down.
It’s easy for us to “practice compassion” from afar. We can support various charities or causes financially, and indeed we should – they need our money. But it’s easy for our involvement in giving to others to become abstract, removed from actual involvement in the lives of those in need. An experience such as serving on a Volunteer Team with an agency such as IOCC reminds us that “we are the hands and feet of Christ,” engaged in loving and helping those in need with tangible action and personal involvement.
In the words of our Lord in Matthew 25, we are called to serve Christ in the “least of these.” We are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, and by so doing, we are serving Christ Himself. This is not a mere suggestion or metaphor, but Jesus identifies these actions as the main criteria for our salvation. This doesn’t mean just having “compassionate feelings,” but actively seeking to offer love and help to others with whom we come into contact. Love is a verb. Real love requires action and engagement with persons, each of whom bear the Image of Christ.
We don’t necessarily have to go on a short-term mission trip to do this, although I highly recommend it and volunteers are always needed. But we do need to begin to see Christ in others, and to reach out to those in any kind of need. Pick up the phone and call someone you know who is struggling. Reach out to someone who may be lonely or hurting. Take a meal to someone. Look people in the eye. Talk to them. Pay attention. Learn to see everyone we encounter as persons, even the stranger, and to love them as God in Christ loves them with our actions. Love has hands and feet.
When we start putting love into action an amazing thing happens. We end up not only helping others (God-willing), but we find our own lives enriched and transformed. As we give, we too receive, and the Image of Christ becomes a little brighter in us. This is truly the path of salvation.
Blessings,
Father David
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