When our founder, Father Rick Thomas, was still alive, he was giving a teaching at the Lord’s Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico. The Scripture he was talking about was Acts 20:35 where St. Paul says, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
The people he was speaking to were living way below the poverty level themselves, but he was urging everyone to embrace a life of generosity. “Even if we are struggling, there are others who are worse off than we are. And Jesus tells us clearly that it is more blessed to give than to receive. No matter how little we have, we can always find something to give.”
To put this teaching into practice, he grabbed an empty crate and put it in the front. Then he said, “Whoever wants to can share a little of what you received. Then we can give it to someone who is in great need. Instead of just looking to the Food Bank to take care of people, we can all do a little bit to help.”
Someone came up and put a small bag of beans into the crate, then went to sit down. Suddenly, beans started to spill out of the sides of the wooden box. At first, they thought the plastic bag the beans were in had broken, but the beans kept pouring out. They poured and poured and poured without stopping. Astonished, Father Thomas asked, “Is everyone seeing what I’m seeing?” They said in amazement, “Yes!” When it stopped, they had to get other bags to put all the beans in.
It made such an impression on everyone that someone painted a crate with the Scripture from Acts that says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” And people can still come and put items in it that they want to share with others. When you ask anyone today who was present at the actual event, they will tell you what happened in an excited voice since they were eyewitnesses.
“The Lord really backed up my teaching that day,” Father Rick laughingly said.