Service learning and volunteering are an integral part of the US educational system in the recent years with tremendous turn outs by the Youth. It helps to promote and learn certain values and principles that a classroom simply cannot teach. By engaging in service learning, you learn the practical aspects of Catholic health care ministry while applying the ethical and moral principles of health care in a realistic environment. Long has America been known as a nation of Service and only though service, can we be touched by God’s love.

Jesus Christ, during his ministry on earth, always went to the poor and needy and gave his all ministering to the vulnerable in society. He was seen at numerous times healing the sick, driving our demons, calling for reforms with the social hierarchy and the wealthy. In the same manner, we are called to serve our communities and families and though that act, express God’s love within our lives. As Christians, we are called forth to put into practical use the precepts and commandments that God issued to us. When people look at us, they should see the love of God at work in our actions and God’s presence in our lives. Thus serving the poor and needy are just one aspect of showing that love that God had on us and on mankind – that he was willing to die for us. Many people find themselves working in communities, volunteering and engaging in service learning to find that love in their lives and to do the act of mercy – for without mercy there is no justice.

We as human beings as all created in God’s image and blessed with the gift of freewill and understanding – and as such, we are all equals before God. As with God, we should also strive to treat each other with certain ethical and moral guidelines that define Justice. Service learning helps students understand that no matter your age, gender or race, we all are connected to one another in God’s divine plan of love and justice.

Thus service learning helps connect the community, Catholic Christian traditions and teachings, schools and individuals to the service of the marginalized in the society while adhering to the divine calling in every one’s life. Through seeing the injustice being done to the poor, seeing the roots of the problem and experiencing the authentic situations faced by these individuals on a day-to-day basis, students grasp a better realistic image of our broken health care system, understand the meaning of human dignity and be pressed to push towards fixing these conditions to better reflect the definition of Justice.

By real life interaction with patients and these “disenfranchised” individuals, students learn skills that no textbook or classroom can offer. Individuals engaging in service learning thus bear witness to God’s love and the “feeling” that they get when doing something good for someone they do not know. That “feeling” can them be translated to reinforce the principles of doing positive actions in that individual’s daily life and can reinforce that person’s notion of justice and human dignity. The person also gains an understanding into how our health care system works and how people view the system – through the eyes of the patients and the eyes of the workers in these institutions. Overall, the experience itself is what contributes and promotes a life-long service to the poor and offers key insights into justice as in the Vincentian Christian Catholic tradition.