Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:12-14

It is wise and reasonable to be selective about who enters our household. Not all friendships are equal. Only the special ones get invited into our homes. After all, our home is a sacred place. Whenever we have a special dinner or luncheon in our home, we are concerned about impressing our guests. There is nothing good or bad about this. It is just human nature. I always want my guest to be impressed with my cooking skills. I want them to say that their time in our home was memorable. This is why we invite people over. We want them to be so amazed by our hospitality that they want to keep coming back. Jesus never said anything against this attitude because it is the right one to possess if we are a host. However, He had a few things to say about the guest list.

Those who walk through the doors of our homes reflect who we are. If we are going to change the guest list, then we also need to change ourselves. We need to change how we perceive people and their social status. If we only deem those who look and act like us to be worthy of being in our homes, then we are no different than the world. In Jesus’ words, we would be just like the Pharisees. Jesus has a higher standard for his disciples. They are to see and judge people according to the Father in Heaven. He has a preference for His guest list. More often than not, it is very different from the ones we make up.

In the area where we meet the children and teens in the city, there are always cultural events. There are always excellent musicians who fill the air with beautiful music. There are always crowds that come to watch these performance. However, one thing is very obvious when we go to these cultural events. There is hardly any homeless person around even when the event is held in the open space. This is quite incredible when you realize that there are more than a thousand homeless people living in the area. Even then, not one of them is present at these special events. No one stops them from participating. They just feel that there are not welcomed. They are not wrong. People do notice them when they are around, unfortunately, not in a positive way. No one is rude to them but it is obvious that they are outsiders. It is strange that the homeless are outsiders in the very place they call home. They are outsiders to everything that is good and edifying that happens in the streets. On the other hand, when there is a crime committed in streets and even when it has nothing to do with them, they are usually the first suspects. They are invisible to everything good and the visibility given to them by society is that of a public nuisance. These are the people Jesus wants us to invite to our homes.

I haven’t mentioned Igor for a long time. He was perhaps the first one among the older teens to become our close friend. We haven’t seen him for sometime. However, we will always remain as friends. He told us something that happened to him once that impacted his life perhaps forever. He had been in the streets since he was 8. Regrettably, from a very young age, he engaged in petty crimes to survive and eventually he graduated into robbing with a gang. He had been imprisoned in the youth reform center more than 20 times. In the peak of his crime spree, he befriended a couple who worked near where he slept in the streets. It started with a casual conversation and eventually grew into a friendship. One day, Igor needed assistance in doing something and the couple volunteered to help him. Immediately after work, they invited him to their apartment so that they could change their clothes before doing what needed to be done. Igor told us that he entered the apartment and noticed that they had many valuable items in their house. As his mindset was that of a thief then, he quickly noticed things like this. There was a moment where he was left alone in the living room while they changed. He was never tempted to steal anything there. He told us that he thought that could never do such a thing to someone who treated like a real person. It was the first time he felt like a human being. He was friend to someone who trusted him enough to open the doors of their home. Igor shared this story in the living room of our house. He was the first teen from the streets to enter our household. He always comes back for a surprise visit. Recently, his visits have been more of a troubled nature. He is struggling and he wants to do what is right. However, in our home, he felt that he could be himself and be vulnerable and not be judged for it. We felt enriched by his presence. We hope to have a visit from him soon.

When Jesus told us to invite people into house, he wasn’t telling us to randomly bring people into our house. Maybe some might read it like this way. I am not in the position to argue with them. They could be right. However, for the time being, I don’t read it this way. I believe that it is a challenge for us to expand our circle of friends. Actually, it goes beyond this. Jesus is challenging us to make it a priority that these “invisible” people become the core of friendship. This requires time and patience and wisdom. All of these can be attained through careful prayer and reflection. The “invisible people” are hidden from us by society. God knows where they are because they are His favored children. There are the ones whom Jesus sought in each place He went. He tells us that they are the source of our blessing. They are the blessing. Each person we know and love as a friend opens a world to us that is previously unknown. The “invisible people” have been rejected by society but they strive because they are remembered by God. They have something to say about God that perhaps the rest of us have taken from granted. Any fresh and new understanding of God is a blessing. Igor thought that the hospitality and trust of the couple made him regain his humanity. However, he did not realize that he was also giving the couple a chance to discover their humanity too.

Sometimes, not often, people ask us what is our objective with these children and teens. Our children and teens come from extremely poor backgrounds. They are the poorest of the poor in the streets. They have survived without us and will continue to do so in the future. The way society is organized, nothing is going to change. Our children and teens will continue to struggle with poverty for the rest of their lives. However, this does not mean that their poverty should dehumanize them. Their social state should not make them invisible as human beings. Jesus showed a concrete way to overcome this exclusion and it is through a friendship. He did not tell us to have a friendship ministry. He just told us to become friends to those who often find themselves friendless. He was friends with the disciples and laid down his life for them. This is his bar. We should start small. We pray that God sends a person who is considered “invisible” and then open our hearts to receive them when we meet them. They could be living next door to us. They could work in our grocery store. They could be anywhere. Maybe we have walked passed them everyday without noticing. Now, Jesus has made it clear that the citizens of His Kingdom need to have a different guest list than the world.

The leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” Luke13:14-16

Sabbath is a glimpse into eternity. I read this somewhere many years ago. I think it was Abraham Herschel. The Jewish people considered this sacred day as their connection to eternity. On this sacred day, all the boundaries of earthly time diminish and eternity unites the past, present and future generations of the Jewish faith. The Sabbath is the symbol of their eternal vocation as God’s children. Consequently, a religious Jewish person orientates his life around this day. The days of the week serve as a mere countdown to the Sabbath.

As Christians, we find this hard to understand. We don’t have the kind of religious commitment that sets aside a period of time to reflect on our vocation. We attend church on Sundays for two hours at best. Then we go on with “life”. This is a poor imitation of Sabbath. Perhaps, this makes it difficult for us to understand the intensity of the debate between Jesus and the Pharisees on this subject. We don’t understand why the Pharisees were scandalized by Jesus’ action. We cannot truly appreciate the disappointment of Jesus to see how the Sabbath was reduced to mere dry religious rituals. The Sabbath is essentially about time and how we use our time to take a peek into eternity.

Unfortunately, we, Christians, are very secular when it comes to time. We understand that time is precious but not for spiritual reasons. Our time is a means to an end. We feel like we need to occupy our time with things and sometimes we are indiscriminate with the things we employ to occupy them. We consider certain things as a waste of time when in actuality they are God given moments for us to savor the reality of eternity.

This last Sunday, we went to church thinking about the Sabbath. It wasn’t because of the service nor the Eucharist but because our good friend, São, passed away earlier that morning. He is not stranger to my writings. I wrote about him once. I called him a window to eternity. On my journey to church on Sunday, he continued to serve as window into eternity for me.

One of our last encounters with São happened by chance. We ran into him on our way home from the streets with the children. He told us that he walked down the same street everyday to go home from his new job. It was strange that this was the first we bumped into each other. I may not look like the type but I usually have a strict schedule on how I spend my evenings. It’s my time to replenish myself spiritually. However, on this particular day, São took priority. He had terminal cancer and he was undergoing experimental clinical treatments. They were doing wonders. He looked his healthiest. He was full of life and joy. We went out for coffee and talked until the cafe closed. In the same week, São came by our apartment one evening. Once again, he took priority. We talked about everything; his cancer, his healthy choices, his young 3 year old son, and, most importantly, how he sensed God’s presence in the most unexpected places. He ended up going home close to midnight. I had many things planned for the evening but they seemed irrelevant compared to our talk with São. He gave us an opportunity to take a walk into eternity. It replenished our souls. Besides, this was the last time we saw him alive.

Everyday after these two encounters, we would walk down the same street where we bumped into him. I was always on the lookout for São, hoping that we would run into him. Unfortunately, it never happened again and never will. Later I discovered that soon after his visit with us, he caught an infection and it aggravated his cancer. He was in intensive care since then. Now I walk down the same street without any hope of meeting him. Our time with São in this existence has ended. I know that there is the resurrection but we are here now. We miss him in our present reality. Life just seems a little more melancholic with his death.

To see São lying still in the coffin was extremely difficult especially when he was such a joyous person who filled the room with his laughter. I touched his cold hands and closed my eyes. I pictured all the eternal moments we shared together in my mind. It made me weep but São deserved my tears. In our last conversation in our home, he said that his cancer has made him more sensitive to God’s presence. He talked about walking in a soccer field and sensing God’s presence in an inexplicable manner. He talked about a conversation with a receptionist at hospital and he sensed God speaking to him through her life experience. We talked about classical literature which was our common passion. He talked about living many lives through the writings of the great authors. He knew that his life would be short and he transformed the limited time he had into the Sabbath.

In Brazil, everything happens within 24 hours. The passing, the wake and the funeral happened on the same day. Then on Monday, we went to the streets and it started out as a cold cloudy day. All of the sudden, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the traditional time of Jesus’ death, the sky became as dark as night. No one understood what was going on. Some people went to take pictures but everyone, including ourselves, were little dazed and confused. It seemed like something ominous was in the air. Later we found out that it was due the deliberate forest fires in the Amazons and other parts of Brazil that had brought the ashes to the city. The following day, there was an unrelated and unnecessary riot where we meet the children. We had to take shelter in the Cathedral and we were locked in for half hour before we were allowed to leave. We came home obviously unsettled. We realized that we take the time that we have for granted. In reality, it never belonged to us. São knew this for a fact and he was zealous in seeking to keep the Sabbath. He opened his life up to relationships. He was never a saint. He was a simple young man who enjoyed life. He did not have much but he gave his time. He left us with memories of time we spent together.

We went back to the streets the following day. Nothing changed. Mary took the bus to the streets and she witnessed a scene of violence. I decided to walk to the place where we meet the children and saw the aftermath of a robbery. All these things reminded us that nothing is stable or certain therefore we need to stop running around and trying to fill up our time with activities. We need to allow God to transform our limited time into the Sabbath. Jesus showed the Pharisees how to truly keep the Sabbath. Unfortunately, they preferred to take the easy route and keep it as a merely religious event. São showed us that the Sabbath is about people. Having a glimpse of Eternity is about building relationships that reveal the face of God to us. This is the only thing that is real. We sat and waited for God to bring eternal moments to us. Then Wallace came the steps and gave us a big hug. He was our window to take a glimpse into eternity on this day. Tomorrow it might someone else, we never know but we need to make the time for God to give us the gift of Sabbath.

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.” Luke 12: 49-52

All wisdom comes from God. Whenever I hear wise words being spoken, they tend to find their way into the most intimate part of my being and then they linger there for a while. They wait for my response. They cannot become part of me until I allow their light to expose my vulnerability. The tough sayings of Jesus are words of wisdom. They require something on our part. Honesty is indispensable. We have to confront the difficult questions that these words pose to our souls. The first and foremost is whether I want peace in my soul. Of course, the conventional answer would be a resounding “Yes”. Who wouldn’t? However, these questions go hand in hand with the admonishment of Jesus when he advised us to count the cost before agreeing to something. This is the other problem. Many a time we say, “yes” without thinking about the consequences and then the powerful words of wisdom remain barren in our souls. They cannot bear fruit unless we are willing to pay the price. They eventually just whither away. They become dead words.

Peace is not cheap although there is an imitation out there. This is the emotional sensation that gives us an illusion of relief. We don’t need God for this kind of “peace”. Drugs can do the job. The peace that Jesus offers changes who we are. Our circumstances might remain the same but our eyes are opened to see something greater and permanent in this world of instability. If I want peace, then I have to change who I am. Not just a part of me but my entire being. This is the beginning of the conflict. Normally, we are comfortable with who we are. We just want our circumstances and the people around us to change so that we can have peace of mind. However, the Prince of Peace wants to bring something genuine and eternal into my soul, requiring a radical change in how I see and understand the world and the people around me. This is where the conflict begins. We, as human beings, resist change.

In the streets, we strive to bring peace to the lives of the children and teens abandoned there. However, we cannot truly transmit peace unless we change our views and understanding of eternal peace. We live in this world that values security and stability. Jesus lived in it without any security and stability.

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Luke 9:58

He was very much like our homeless youth. We have less in common with Jesus than these children have. In the past few days, the local temperature dropped drastically and we had a hard time trying to keep warm in our apartment. Just imagine how the children and teens must have felt sleeping under the bridge? Nevertheless, they refused to go anywhere. They preferred the warmth and comfort of each other than sleeping in a “cold” shelter with complete strangers. On the other hand, we would lose our minds if we were forced into their situation. We realized that for us to have peace and comfort, we need lots of material things. Whenever we imagine a secure and peaceful life, it is one based on many material comforts. The children and teens have nothing but each other and they are satisfied with this. They also trust God to keep them safe. Our apartment building has a staff person to ensure we are safe and sound. We say God protects us but we have a complex security as a backup plan. We don’t trust God completely like the children. Of course, we can argue that we are wiser than the children. However, Jesus was more like them than us. Therefore, how do we share about God’s peace to these children? It appears like they sense His peace in a more profound manner than we do. Maybe they are God’s agents of peace for our lives.

This week we met with Felipe. He was discouraged. He has been working in a job for almost 8 months. He has never missed a day and has done everything he was told to do. He did not even skip work when he was feeling ill. Today they told him that they received an anonymous complaint that he wasn’t doing his job. They were not able to give anything specific. Most likely, it was all made up, just one of the unjust tactics used in many businesses. Felipe is reaching the one year mark which means he qualifies for some benefits. His manager told him that he would be fired if they receive another complaint. The young man did not understand. He has always sought to do everything right. However, this is the reality we live in. Mary and I are relatively safe from these harsh situations. Unfortunately, Felipe and the rest of the young teens will face this their whole life. The only advice I could give to Felipe was not to retaliate. We cannot fight fire with fire. Felipe is going to suffer injustices like these many times and he needs to be prepared for it. This world does not belong to us. It belongs to another kingdom. My words may seem like something weak and fatalistic. Nevertheless, they are the only words that I could conjure up. We told him that we will deal with what comes together. He met us with his 6 month old baby. The baby smiled throughout the whole time. He had the peace of God which passes all understanding in his smile. We sensed God’s peace too. However, unlike the little baby, we knew that something will change in our lives. We have made a commitment to Felipe. He was relieved to know that he was not going to be abandoned. He doesn’t know what we can do and we don’t know what we can do. However, God’s peace reigns supremely in our hearts and we know something eternal will come out of it.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:13-15

There is nothing controversial about the above verses. They even come equipped with an excellent loophole for all of us who come from affluent countries. Our minds can do wonders with the phrase, “against all kinds of greed”. As long as we can convince ourselves we are free from greed, we feel comfortable with our money. Never mind the fact that we never define what constitutes greed. However, Jesus didn’t stop with these verses. He relates a parable that is more problematic. It is about rich man who was very prudent. He made some careful investments to ensure that he would have a prosperous life in the future. His goal was to enjoy his latter life relaxing, eating, drinking and being merry. I think that I heard of this investment plan many times over. By the world’s standard, he is a wise rich man. This is something that I want for myself. I have savings for the future. I have a pension plan that gives me a sense of security for my latter years. I do want to relax, eat, drink and be merry when I am older or even now. I am a lot like the rich man in Jesus’ parable even though I don’t consider myself as greedy, or rather, wanting more than necessary.

Maybe I can argue that I am not really rich. This is true when I compare myself by the American standard. I am an average middle class person except that I don’t have a car or own a house. I can also say that I come from a poor family or I don’t make too much money. All these arguments are irrelevant. When I stand among the “little ones” that Jesus called us to serve, I am a rich person. I am not speaking in the spiritual sense. We need to avoid spiritualizing wealth or poverty when we read this gospel passage. Jesus is speaking about concrete material wealth. It has already been established among the homeless children and teens that I am a rich man. Now, the question is whether I am a fool like the rich man in Jesus’ parable.

Someone asked Gigi a question in the beginning of this week. We have known her for a long time. However, we never asked her this particular question. We have our reasons. It was quite a simple and straightforward enquiry; “Where does she see herself in ten years time?” She responded without a moment’s hesitation. She said that she wants to own a house and have a steady job. More specifically, she plans to be a school teacher. The person asking the question was delighted with this answer. Unfortunately, the person disregarded the fact that Gigi is 24 and completely illiterate. She does not even know the sounds of the letters. She has lived under the bridge in a tent ever since she was 18. Before that, she lived in a shack in the slums. She spent many years in school and never learned to read or write. Her education consisted in convincing her that she is incapable of learning anything. In reality, she is very intelligent. Unfortunately, it is going to take long time before she can be convinced of this. The answer she gave was not based on her true desires. She just answered according to what she believed the person asking the question wanted to hear. In fact, if you ask any of the children or teens this same question, you will receive a similar answer. This is why we never ask this question.

Gigi is not lying but she is not telling the truth. It is just that she never thought about the question. In fact, no one living in the streets really thinks about their future. It is something people from affluent backgrounds think about and, very often, quite obsessively. The homeless adults, teens and children only think about today. The future is a luxury that their unfortunate past did not afford them. For them, tomorrow or ten years from now are not reality based. Therefore, there are no true or false answers to any questions regarding the future. It is all fantasy. According Jesus’ parable, she is closer to the truth than most middle class people like myself. Tomorrow is not something that is guaranteed. Somehow we like to think that we have control over the future. Maybe it has something do with money. It gives us an illusion that we have control over our destiny. In reality, the future never belonged to us.

Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

If having money today makes us worry about not having it tomorrow, then we are most likely obsessed with it.

It doesn’t mean that we live carelessly today without any concern for tomorrow. This would be a silly and immature conclusion. Living wisely in the present moment will prepare us for what appears tomorrow. Most importantly, Jesus’ words beckon us to reflect on the role of money in our lives. If we look to money to ensure a better future for us, then it is playing a certain role that only pertains to God. Some saints in the past including St Augustine and, of course, St Francis gave up wealth and their social status to embrace a life of poverty and simplicity. They wanted to trust God completely. Unless some angel of God appears to me in a vivid manner and tells me to do this, I am going to remain as I am. I need money to survive in this world. It opens the doors for us to be here in the streets with the children and teens. Jesus knows that this. Even He had people, especially wealthy women, financially supporting him in His ministry ( Luke 8:3). He was exposed to the dangers that money posed to his own personal life. He could have spoken these words to himself. After all, He was fully human.

The best way to free ourselves from the dangerous hold that money could have on us is to serve those who don’t have any of it. This is not saying that we become their financial contributors. If we do this, then we just contaminating others with money. Our money can help us build a spiritual bridge to connect with them. Money is not something neutral. Jesus never considered it to be neutral. It is, in fact, very dangerous. It is a wild animal that always wants to be our master. Therefore, we should never be comfortable with it. We can control its influence in our lives. We use our money to acquire true eternal treasures. We can use it to help us to be in places which are usually closed to us. We can use money to build stronger relationships with those who have no one in this world. Each of us have to figure out how to use our money to discover eternal treasures. However, money in itself is never a blessing. It is only a blessing when we use it to foster long-lasting relationships. It is not an easy task. It is something as Christians we need to consider with fear and trembling.

Gigi does not worry about the future. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a great life either. Her daily life is a struggle. Everyday, she needs to figure out a way to get her food. There is nothing to ensure her safety when she sleeps alone under the bridge. Her meager possessions are sometimes confiscated by government authorities just because they want to discourage the homeless in a certain area. Unfortunately, they don’t provide any shelter for them as an alternative. She has too much to worry about today so she cannot overburden herself about the future. On the other hand, I don’t have to worry about these basic things. My personal wealth frees me from all the things that Gigi and the other children and teens are concerned about. I am free in this sense. It would be a pity if I wasted this freedom by being occupied with tomorrow’s possible situations. Besides, the future does not belong to me. My wealth and my freedom are not necessarily a blessing. However, if I am wise with what I possess, maybe together with Gigi and the other homeless teens and adults we can discover how to live a meaningful life in the present. Perhaps, we can even discover what it means to be have abundant life in God.