A cornerstone of the deacon’s work is the ministry of charity. This column from a Northern New Jersey paper, the Bergen Record, drove that point home, describing efforts to build a homeless shelter, and a memorial service for homeless men and women who have died on the streets:

Over the weekend the nine Faith Foundation regulars who died in the past year were remembered in a brief but moving ceremony held along the Hackensack River walkway, not too far from where the crane points heavenward on the site of the long-delayed county homeless shelter.

“We affirm that despite all the tragedy bound up with living, it is good to be alive,” said Faith Foundation volunteer Roz Altman of Maywood’s Beth Israel congregation, reading from the introduction of the Hebrew prayer for the dead. “We understand that there can be no love without loss, no joy without sorrow, and we have the courage to accept all of life.”

The names of 65 homeless people who have died in and around Hackensack were read during the ceremony. Ray Chimileski, a Catholic deacon from Morris County, came to Hackensack to be part of the ceremony. “It is incumbent upon us to be there to relieve some of the suffering,” he said. His own volunteer project, Operation Chillout, got started after he estimated that 800 homeless around the state were veterans of the Vietnam War and more recent military conflicts. “Those of us who are fortunate enough not to be homeless have that responsibility,” Chimileski said. “There’s something wrong with the picture when the most affluent country in the world can’t take care of all of those who fall between the cracks.”

Family members, along with occasional volunteers like Donna West, were among the 50 attendees paying tribute. Working out of Hackensack’s Mount Olive Baptist Church, West and a group of women get together at least once a month to deliver sandwiches to Reilly’s outreach shelter. Their “You Don’t Know My Name” mini-ministry scheduled a towel drive to collect toiletries for the homeless men and women.

Jesus’s words should haunt us all: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)