Early today it was announced that the Vatican has “updated” aspects of sin with fresh attention placed on, among other things, a persistently broadening gap between the rich and the poor.
The Associated Press story from Vatican City was fraught with an undertow of an attempt a light humor, and not very graciously done. “The Church has announced a list of new sins,” nudge, nudge, har har.
Stupid journalists. I used to be one. I have repented.
The AP reported on Sunday’s edition of L’Osservatore Romano, which quotes Monsignor Giafranco Girotti on what amounts to fresh attention, or emphasis, on issues that are considered offensive to God (and therefore, sins):
VATICAN CITY (AP) - In olden days, the deadly sins included lust, gluttony and greed. Now, the Catholic Church says pollution, mind-damaging drugs and genetic experiments are on its updated thou-shalt-not list. Also receiving fresh attention by the Vatican was social injustice, along the lines of the age-old maxim: "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer."
… "If yesterday sin had a rather individualistic dimension, today it has a weight, a resonance, that's especially social, rather than individual," said Girotti, whose office deals with matters of conscience and grants absolution.
… "The poor are always becoming poorer and the rich ever more rich, feeding unsustainable social injustice," Girotti said in the interview published Sunday.
This last, about “unsustainable social injustice,” certainly applies to the homeless anywhere in the world. Their plight is not well-understood. Their existence is only absently noted by the passing world. Their innate dignity and worthiness as persons is somehow in a weird discount bin in our minds.
The homeless are spoken of as people who have other options, so they have an obvious need to get smarter, or get motivated, or just get on down the road and don’t embarrass this or that community with your want.
In fact, the vast majority of homeless people in America have played out all their options, and they need a hand, or an advocate.
In my town, all the social agencies are bumping into the emergence of a housing shortage caused by a certain amount of economic booming in the area. Although we are a small community (15,000) we have seen up-close and personal the effect of our own “unsustainable social injustice,” as some few get on the gravy train of progress, and many others are left at the station to decide where to sleep tonight. Many of our households have had long-term guests staying on couches, sparerooms, basements and vehicles of friends and relatives. I have a son-in-law-to-be living in my basement while he and my daughter search on for an apartment to live in after the wedding in May. Technically, I have a homeless young man living downstairs where we keep the cats’ food … and box.
We have come to depend on agencies and corporations and even churches to take care of our poorly-housed. The problem is pervasive enough that each of us is going to have to lend a hand.
This could mean a shift in attitude is the first order of business.
The question is not, “What is wrong with those people?”
Noted author (and Catholic convert) G.K. Chesterton was among several writers of his time who were asked to submit an essay on the subject, “What is wrong with the world.”
Chesterton’s response was succinct: “Dear Sir, I am.”
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Trying To Be Nicer, But So Difficult To Turn Away
As a man who feels deeply and thoroughly commissioned by God as a missionary of Divine mercy, I recognize complications in my role as a “foul-caller” regarding the pathetic treatment of people seeking assistance from my town’s homeless shelter where I worked for a year and saw ridiculous undignified and disrespectful treatment launched against scores of people, and tried to tone down the impact of this offensive conduct against vulnerable people.
You see how easy it is for me to use “Divine mercy” and “ridiculous” “offensive conduct” in the same sentence.
That is, indeed, the complication. On the one hand I am bound by faith and conscience to express the mercy of God. On the other, I am bound by faith and conscience to speak up when I observe injustice against another. The former involves the sanctity of my responsibility to God, and the latter involves my responsibility to the sanctity of life as flows out of my relationship with God.
These don’t ride together very comfortably in the backseat of my car.
Some of my advisors – very helpful and wonderful people in my life – want me to nicen things up. I like being liked, but this wrong-doing at the shelter is too horrible to turn away from.
I still need to deal with a question: What is the role of a man of mercy who sees Person A beating Person B? Stop the beating? I think so.
I believe that the person or people responsible for bewilderingly poor treatment of people at the Volunteers of America Sheridan Community Homeless Shelter have perhaps slowed down and thought twice before treating vulnerable people dismissively, patronizingly, and even unauthorizedly and unadvisedly diagnosing people as being mentally ill … to their faces.
They are being watched. This is a good thing. Maybe 2008 will only be half as cruel as was 2007, or 2006, or 2005, or …
You see how easy it is for me to use “Divine mercy” and “ridiculous” “offensive conduct” in the same sentence.
That is, indeed, the complication. On the one hand I am bound by faith and conscience to express the mercy of God. On the other, I am bound by faith and conscience to speak up when I observe injustice against another. The former involves the sanctity of my responsibility to God, and the latter involves my responsibility to the sanctity of life as flows out of my relationship with God.
These don’t ride together very comfortably in the backseat of my car.
Some of my advisors – very helpful and wonderful people in my life – want me to nicen things up. I like being liked, but this wrong-doing at the shelter is too horrible to turn away from.
I still need to deal with a question: What is the role of a man of mercy who sees Person A beating Person B? Stop the beating? I think so.
I believe that the person or people responsible for bewilderingly poor treatment of people at the Volunteers of America Sheridan Community Homeless Shelter have perhaps slowed down and thought twice before treating vulnerable people dismissively, patronizingly, and even unauthorizedly and unadvisedly diagnosing people as being mentally ill … to their faces.
They are being watched. This is a good thing. Maybe 2008 will only be half as cruel as was 2007, or 2006, or 2005, or …
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
'Homeless' and 'Hopeless' Only One Letter Apart
Hope is a casualty of homelessness.
The photograph to the right, under the word “Broken” is worth the 1,000-plus words it would take to describe what the downcast, ashamed, lost look that this young man expresses with his face and body language.
Yet, in the face of homelessness, all is not lost. Hope does not have to throw itself under a bus. Jesus Himself was homeless for a time, and in His experience is the implicit statement that He knows the ills and the hollowness and the pain of belonging nowhere and to no one, except His Father in Heaven.
I know a man who lost his home in the Katrina storm. He told me, “Once I got through that, I figured I could get through anything.”
Then, his wife died of cancer. Again, “Once I got through that, I figured I could get through anything.”
Then, with everything he had left in a van, while driving in Florida, he was in an accident and the van caught fire.
He stood on the roadside with nothing but whatever was in his pants pockets.
“Now that I have gone through that, I can go through anything,” he said.
He had the faith and the character to embrace something larger than life as an anchor.
He had, and still has, the understanding of God’s presence, which supercedes all losses. With this, he was able to keep a hold on hope. He could have given up, but he didn’t, because he was aware of something, or Someone, larger than all his misfortune.
It is often true that someone else must come along and provide hope for the one who cannot muster it. Each of us has enough hope in us to share. No hoarding, now!
The photograph to the right, under the word “Broken” is worth the 1,000-plus words it would take to describe what the downcast, ashamed, lost look that this young man expresses with his face and body language.
Yet, in the face of homelessness, all is not lost. Hope does not have to throw itself under a bus. Jesus Himself was homeless for a time, and in His experience is the implicit statement that He knows the ills and the hollowness and the pain of belonging nowhere and to no one, except His Father in Heaven.
I know a man who lost his home in the Katrina storm. He told me, “Once I got through that, I figured I could get through anything.”
Then, his wife died of cancer. Again, “Once I got through that, I figured I could get through anything.”
Then, with everything he had left in a van, while driving in Florida, he was in an accident and the van caught fire.
He stood on the roadside with nothing but whatever was in his pants pockets.
“Now that I have gone through that, I can go through anything,” he said.
He had the faith and the character to embrace something larger than life as an anchor.
He had, and still has, the understanding of God’s presence, which supercedes all losses. With this, he was able to keep a hold on hope. He could have given up, but he didn’t, because he was aware of something, or Someone, larger than all his misfortune.
It is often true that someone else must come along and provide hope for the one who cannot muster it. Each of us has enough hope in us to share. No hoarding, now!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Volunteers of America Is Lying About Its Care For The Homeless
The answer to the question of quality care for the homeless in my town is not the homeless shelter. The Volunteers of America Sheridan Community Shelter does not offer quality care. Residents are expected to act forever grateful that they are not being kicked out, or they will be kicked out.
Quality care of the homeless and the under-sheltered in my town is dependent upon one person helping another person. It involves one investing oneself into the well-being of another. The selfless and caring attitude and behavior of the Good Samaritan story, as told by Jesus, gives all of us something of a template to follow for the quality care of another.
The Samaritan finds a man who had been beaten, stripped and robbed, left at roadside to die. The wounded man has already been seen and ignored by two other men who found religious and societal reasons to leave him to his fate. The traveling Samaritan sees the man, binds his wounds and puts the fallen man on his mount. Thus, the Samaritan walked his animal to the nearest inn. There, the Samaritan kept watch over the man for a day, and tended to him. Next day, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper two days’ wages and instructions to take care of the fallen man. If the innkeeper spends more on the man than the money given, the Samaritan will return on his way back and make it right with the innkeeper.
There is a great deal of personal involvement, self-forgetfulness, compassion and trust in this brief but powerful example. Recall that, after Jesus told this story, he said to his listeners, “Go and do the same yourself.”
The Volunteers of America national office website says this in its “homeless” section: “Once Volunteers of America engages homeless individuals, youth, and families with children, we stay with them for as long as it takes to return them to self-sufficiency …”
This, of course, is a lie in Sheridan.
I know. I work daily on my own at no cost to help the people the shelter has wadded up and tossed out.
Quality care of the homeless and the under-sheltered in my town is dependent upon one person helping another person. It involves one investing oneself into the well-being of another. The selfless and caring attitude and behavior of the Good Samaritan story, as told by Jesus, gives all of us something of a template to follow for the quality care of another.
The Samaritan finds a man who had been beaten, stripped and robbed, left at roadside to die. The wounded man has already been seen and ignored by two other men who found religious and societal reasons to leave him to his fate. The traveling Samaritan sees the man, binds his wounds and puts the fallen man on his mount. Thus, the Samaritan walked his animal to the nearest inn. There, the Samaritan kept watch over the man for a day, and tended to him. Next day, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper two days’ wages and instructions to take care of the fallen man. If the innkeeper spends more on the man than the money given, the Samaritan will return on his way back and make it right with the innkeeper.
There is a great deal of personal involvement, self-forgetfulness, compassion and trust in this brief but powerful example. Recall that, after Jesus told this story, he said to his listeners, “Go and do the same yourself.”
The Volunteers of America national office website says this in its “homeless” section: “Once Volunteers of America engages homeless individuals, youth, and families with children, we stay with them for as long as it takes to return them to self-sufficiency …”
This, of course, is a lie in Sheridan.
I know. I work daily on my own at no cost to help the people the shelter has wadded up and tossed out.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Don't Miss Added Link 'Profound Message Of Hope' -- Very Cool
This morning I added a link to a great 5-minute video piece set to the song 'Everything,' by a Christian band called 'Lifehouse.' Over on the right. See it? Profound Message of Hope.
Please feel free to comment after you view by clicking right below here somewhere; where it says comments. 6
Please feel free to comment after you view by clicking right below here somewhere; where it says comments. 6
Sunday, January 27, 2008
St. Benedict Joseph Labre -- Saint for the Homeless
Moved and challenged by the words of Jesus in the Gospel - 'the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head' - Benedict Joseph committed himself to perpetual pilgrimage, wandering from church to church to worship Jesus. He never begged, but depended upon strangers who were moved to help him. Whenever he had more than he needed, he shared this with his fellow homeless. His clothes were tattered and he was often asked to leave churches due to his odor. These were forgotten or forgiven in light of his holy life. He died in a hostel in Rome in 1783, at age 37. Was canonized a saint in the Catholic Church on Dec. 8, 1883. His memorial day in the church is April 16.
Prayer to Saint Benedict Joseph Labre
Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, you gave up honor, money and home for love of Jesus. Help us to set our hearts on Jesus and not on the things of this world. You lived in obscurity among the poor in the streets. Enable us to see Jesus in our poor brothers and sisters and not judge by appearances. Make us realize that in helping them we are helping Jesus. Show us how to befriend them and not pass them by. Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, you had a great love for prayer. Obtain for us the grace of persevering prayer, especially adoration of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, poor in the eyes of men but rich in the eyes of God, pray for us. Amen.
Prayer to Saint Benedict Joseph Labre
Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, you gave up honor, money and home for love of Jesus. Help us to set our hearts on Jesus and not on the things of this world. You lived in obscurity among the poor in the streets. Enable us to see Jesus in our poor brothers and sisters and not judge by appearances. Make us realize that in helping them we are helping Jesus. Show us how to befriend them and not pass them by. Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, you had a great love for prayer. Obtain for us the grace of persevering prayer, especially adoration of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, poor in the eyes of men but rich in the eyes of God, pray for us. Amen.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Psalm for those with a heart for the homeless
Psalm 41
"Happy the man who considers the poor and the weak.
The Lord will save him in the day of evil,
will guard him, give him life, make him happy in the land
and will not give him up to the will of his foes.
The Lord will help him on his bed of pain,
he will bring him back from sickness to health."
"Happy the man who considers the poor and the weak.
The Lord will save him in the day of evil,
will guard him, give him life, make him happy in the land
and will not give him up to the will of his foes.
The Lord will help him on his bed of pain,
he will bring him back from sickness to health."
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