November 21 Seeing Jesus I came in after 8 hours of being on the street, and I feel in a daze. Going up and down Haight Street I gave food, socks, and other items to over 300 people, mostly in their young twenties or younger. All of them are homeless. People often say to me, I dont see homeless people around, there must be fewer of them,, the truth there are more. We do not see them because we do not really look, we prefer to over look the obvious. I have basically stopped taking people out with me because they do not understand why I am totally focused on the street--and not on them, and that is because I am focused on looking for Jesus, and I find Jesus in every nook of the street. And it is hard sometimes for me to look them in the eye for I find myself in much pain. One young man commented the other night that you must come from money because your teeth and hair look so awesome, and it hurts because the majority of people in our country do not have access to dental care. It is hard to see the face of Jesus, but for me in seeing that broken face I find my own salvation--for in loving Jesus I too am loved. Below is article I found today which speaks to me: FEAST OF ALL SAINTS Greetings from Fr. Bob ... Many years ago, Morris West wrote a successful novel called The Devils Advocate. The main character is an English Monsignor, Blase Meredith, a Vatican Official in the Congregation of Rites, a lifeless and dry person whose only passion is books and work. He preferred paper to people. His prayer life was not very deep. He loved God, but at a distance. Msgr. Meredith learns he has terminal cancer, and now discovers that his faith is weak and has never been tested. Now it is too thin a staff to lean on. Faith should assure us that we are never alone or abandoned even in the loneliest act of our life, which is dying. Msgr. Meredith needed to learn all this and not from a book. He sought an assignment, as he was prone to do in difficult times. He goes to a village in southern Italy to investigate the cause of a man killed by the Nazis. The man had been a Christ-like figure in the village serving the needs of the people. He cajoled and compelled them to be more humane with each other, to share their scarce food and to bear each others burdens. He led them in prayer and gave them hope. The villagers were convinced they had a genuine saint and a martyr and asked the Vatican to start an investigation. The monsignor must determine if this was just a ploy to get a famous shrine that would attract people to this tiny village. He starts to get to know the people living in the village. There is a Jewish doctor who has lost his Jewish faith. There is a frightened old parish priest living a lie, a bad priest who is scared to have an official from Rome living in the village. There are others: an English painter, a local Countess and the young son and wife of the alleged saint. Something begins to happen to Msgr. Meredith. It is called Ministry or Response to Need--the principal way holiness comes. He does something that he has never done before. He gets involved not with books and the report, but with peoples lives. He wrestles with the problems of the living and not the dead. As his health worsens, he sends to Rome his report on the candidate for sainthood. He adds that he is more concerned about the welfare of certain souls in the village. In his last days, he concludes his report for Rome to adjudicate, then he disposes of his worldly goods. He confers a stipend on the parish and helps the parish priest turn his life around. He helps the English painter die peacefully and reconciles him to God. He helps the Countess redirect her life, and she starts taking care of the poor in the village. He makes sure that the saints wife and son have enough to live on and that the boy can go to school. The Jewish doctor sees his faith in humanity rekindled because of Msgr. Meredith. The Monsignor, the dry cleric from Rome, is now so closely involved with these people that his last request is to be buried there – a place that someone in Rome called that stinking, little village. What happened to Msgr. Meredith? What changed him? You could say he became a saint, but not a canonized saint with a capital S. He had become holy which is what saint means. He had become more like Christ which is Gods will for all of us. He had learned to love his neighbor, not by prayer alone, but by sharing his worldly goods, patience, time, love and compassion. How do you and I become holy? The same way. Simply respond to others needs. It is by doing so that we all become more holy, conforming ourselves to the image of the Loving God who made us.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 04:51:05 +0000