Sharing the Wealth: A Cup of Cold Water

Contributed by Father Ron Ramson, CM

Jesus says in St. Matthew’s gospel,

“Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

– Matthew 10:42

At DePaul Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, the Vincentian community literally gives out hundreds of liters of water every day, not in hopes of a reward from the Lord, but out of concern for the “little ones,” as Jesus calls them – in this case, the poor who seek water in a land scorched by drought.

People come to the center daily with large plastic containers to carry the water home from the mission’s ample supply. Some come by foot; others come pushing old wheel barrels to help ease the weight. Many come on bicycles, arranged in such a way to carry three or four large cans. Often, the women carry the filled containers back to their homes balanced on their heads.

Our ‘cold-water charity’ does not appear on any annual report – the fact or the amount – but it is one of the communal acts of charity that we perform here daily, month after month, for the poor. During this year’s drought, the number of people at our entrance greatly increased.

A blessing of our water is its purity. Ordinarily, the poor must buy water, because most do not have running water in their homes. They never know from where the water came, so they must boil it on their charcoal stoves to make it drinkable and usable.

With the DePaul Centre water, they know they can use it for drinking, cooking, and bathing without the needed step of purification. This not only saves time, but saves their precious charcoal, which is also expensive for the poor.

Blessed Frederic Ozanam was criticized for his charity and the charity performed by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. His critics wanted him to concentrate on the root causes of poverty – the area of justice – and pull back from charity. Frederic refused to cease or lessen acts of charity, because, as he said, it is not a question of charity versus justice. As Christians, we must be concerned about both virtues. The fact of the matter is that Ozanam was “a precursor of the social doctrine of the Church, which Pope Leo XIII would develop some years later in the Encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’” (John Paul II).

St. Vincent de Paul and Blessed Frederic Ozanam promoted the theological virtue of charity and the cardinal virtue of justice. The Vincentian family still advocates both virtues. As the gospel reminds us, an act of charity can be as simple as a cup of cold water. At DePaul Centre, we don’t forget.