There is a tough lesson to be learned from the most politically conservative among us–the utter importance of individual responsibility. Or, as I would slightly shift the term : response-ability. It is indispensable and it is simultaneously and surprisingly invincible.

All the hand-wringing about the hypocrisy of the rich and powerful in our society, all the outrage expended on the intransigence of a polarized Congress, all the distress over political gerrymandering and a Supreme Court taken hostage by one senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky are quite understandable. But it is vital to ask ourselves “why?” and to focus on that answer in charting a course forward. What is the effect of a politically gerrymandered Congress and of massive hypocrisy issuing from the actions and lips of those with the most federal and state power (and whose salaries we pay) across our nation?

Here, at least, is a partial list of my answers to what I am concerned about: I am concerned about what is happening to the poorest in our country. I am concerned about healthcare for myself (yes) and for all others. I am concerned about increased violence that can destroy communities and fan hatreds. I am concerned about women having the same right of bodily integrity and decision-making that men have. I am concerned that all the advances we have made for the well-being of children will be lost, including vaccinations, education in history, science, and civics, enforced child-labor laws, and the ability of children (and adults) to be free to love whomever they want and to express their own gender and sexuality in whatever ways are native to them. I am concerned that workers will be at the mercy of greed that will suppress their wages and stifle their voices. I am concerned of a new but no less horrific civil war erupting in our country.

So today’s saint is one of the better-known ones: Vincent de Paul. He is venerated for his concern for the poor and there’s the Congregation of the Mission (founded by him and frequently known as Vincentians or Lazarites) and DePaul University in Chicago, and numerous other organizations that can trace their origin or inspiration to this 16th-/17th-century Frenchman. But the seeds of Vincent’s vision can be found in this small vignette from his childhood, as told by Butler:

The children [Vincent and his brothers and sisters] were brought up in innocence, and inured from their infancy to the most laborious part of country labour. But Vincent, the third son, gave extraordinary proofs of his wit and capacity, and from his infancy showed a seriousness, and an affection for holy prayer beyond his age. He spent great part of his time in that exercise when he was employed in the fields to keep the cattle. That he might give to Christ in the persons of the poor all that was in his power, he deprived himself of his own little conveniences and necessaries for that purpose in whatever it was possible for him to to retrench from his own use. [emphasis added]

As a child, Vincent may not have had the language to discuss “systemic poverty” or analyze its root causes (see my blog post of July 8 on that topic), but he understood that people who were poor did not have money or resources. His understanding went beyond this: he understood that he had power (though it be that of a child of farm peasant laborers) to do something about the poverty that he witnessed. And then he translated his understanding into action–he discovered that, even with what little he had, he still had “more than enough” and could cut back sufficiently to help others with less than he had. Vincent discovered as a child that he had response-ability!

Amazingly (or maybe not so much so, after reflection), the ripple effect of the course of life that Vincent embarked on from that point forward actually ended up affecting systems and policies at some of the highest levels of governments and religious bodies of his day–and for the centuries since! He did not spend his time telling others what they should be doing or not doing (unlike so many of the other saints we have discussed this year)–he acted out his sincerity and response-ability.

When I review my list of concerns (they all appear, of course, on my “liberal card” that I carry), what are my response-abilities? Well, I am trained as a mediator. I am an educator. I have a car with a GPS. I eat way too much food. I know people. I can practice law. I have a change jar with extra money in it. I am 6’4″ tall. I am a white male in America. It sure seems like I have even more than Vincent did. Maybe we all do. And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough–no matter what happens in the legislative halls around us to make vital and lasting changes in the here-and-now, and maybe that will even change what happens in those putative corridors of power.

Thanks, Vincent.