Sharing Fund

Richard A. Sokerka

J. is facing some tough times. His trade is carpentry, but work has not been steady of late. M., his wife, is pregnant, and he knows the child is not his. But he loves his wife and has made up his mind to do what is best for her and the baby and for them as a family. Because they will have to make a trip back to his homeland and the baby is due soon, J. worries that they will have no place to stay and may be homeless for a time and they don’t have a shred of clothing for the newborn. Can you find it in your heart to help them this holiday season?

Think this is just another in the long line of cases about society’s neediest presented each week in The Beacon’s Christmas Sharing Fund cases?

Think again.

It’s the story of the Holy Family. His name is Joseph, and hers is Mary. The are poor and alone as they make their way to Bethlehem. Certainly they did not want to be homeless when it was time for the baby to be born, but just like many of the cases you read in The Beacon each week, they find themselves in circumstances beyond their control.

When the innkeeper told Joseph and Mary there was no room at the inn that cold, dark night in Bethlehem, he forever marked Jesus’ kinship with society’s poor and vulnerable.

This Christmas season, will we turn away from the cries of the poor who need our help or will we renew our common kinship with these brothers and sisters in need whom Jesus asks us to help?

The joy of Christmas comes in sharing with others. The Beacon’s Sharing Fund not only brings that joy to the poor who are helped but also brings those who give to it closer to the Baby Jesus.

There’s still time to help our brothers and sisters in need. Please give generously to The Beacon’s Sharing Fund.