"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'

And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'

He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Matthew 25:31-46

As I mentioned last week, January is Poverty in America Awareness Month. (All information in the blog is taken from the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops website. They take most of their information from the U.S. Census Bureau.) 37 million Americans, or 1 in 8 are living below the poverty line; 34.9% of those are children. Of the 37 million, 16.2 million are non-Hispanic white Americans, 9.4 million are Hispanic Americans, 9.2 million are African Americans, and 1.4 are Asian Americans. The city of Milwaukee is number nine in the ten cities with the highest poverty rate in the United States and number four in the ten cities with the highest child poverty rate. These are "top ten" lists those of us who live in the Milwaukee metro area should be ashamed to find ourselves on.

The poverty line refers to the minimum amount of money set by the U.S. government as to what is required to meet the basic needs of a family. It is $19,971 for a family of four and $15,577 for a family of three. What is it like for a family to live on that amount of money? Using the average costs a family of four entails, once they pay for housing, utilities, transportation, food, health care, and child care, including all government benefit and assistance programs, that family would be $1601 short at the end of the year (see the breakdown or text-only). And yet a single parent with two children earning minimum wage only makes $10,712 before taxes working full-time. How are these families supposed to make ends meet? If you were trying to raise your children on $11,000 a year, what would you have to cut out in order to make sure they had food, shelter, clothing, etc.?

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, "You have faith and I have works." Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

James 2:14-18

So how can those of us who are more fortunate get involved? First of all, we need to educate ourselves on the issues. The Bishops' website is a good place to start. Another way to get involved is to advocate for systemic change by talking to our elected officials. Organizations like Catholic Charities USA or Network: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby can help you do so. Local food pantries, meal programs, etc. also offer opportunities to make a difference. In the Milwaukee area, we have St. Vincent de Paul and St. Ben's, two phenomenal programs that are always looking for volunteers and donations. There are numerous other organizations to get involved with that are doing incredibly good things in our communities. If you are looking for ways to get involved, ask at your parish or arch/diocesan offices. The archdiocese of Milwaukee includes volunteer opportunities in the job listing section of their website. For other ideas, click here! We should also pray: for wisdom for those who set policy, for resources for those who care for the poor in our midst, and above all, for those who suffer in poverty, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

This concludes our Catholic guilt/soapbox portion of the program (for now)! Thank you for all that you are already doing to make the world a little bit better each day!