Then the scribe said to Jesus, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘He is one, and besides Him there is no other’; and ‘to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question. Mark 12:32-34

I was sitting outside a bank on the ground with a cat on my lap and next to me a sign, “Need Help for Food!” The teens were sitting next to me. There were tons of people passing by and I was feeling a little self conscious. An old man looked curiously at the cat. It is a new addition to the group. One day, one of the boys found it snuggling up next to him under the bridge. It appeared out of nowhere and took refuge among the children. It was a miracle that it safely crossed two busy roads to get to the children. No one knows why the cat was there but now it is part of their family. Besides, it also helps to have an animal when begging. One of the boys asked the old man for some change. Instead he snarled some rude comment and walked away. The boy became quiet for moment. It was obvious that he was offended. Then he turned around and said, “I know that no one is obliged to give us any money but why do they have to say such things?” I did not have an answer. He was right. It was completely unnecessary and cruel.

Then a young woman passed by and took an interest in the cat too. The same boy asked her for something. She did not say anything. Then the boy said, “Why do you keep looking at the cat if you are not going to help?” Immediately, he looked at me and laughed. He realized what he did. He had done exactly what the old man did. He was embarrassed about it. It wasn’t necessary for me to say anything. I needed to use the restroom so I left the children for a moment. When I returned, someone had given the same boy a plate of hot steaming food. He was dividing it up to share with the others. He set aside a generous portion and went out looking for Henrique. He was in a different corner begging for food. He wanted to make sure that everyone received a portion of the food even though a few minutes ago he had told me that he had not eaten anything the whole day. I was almost going to buy something for them but I am glad that I waited. The boy told me that this elderly lady comes by everyday and gives them food that she cooks for them. Henrique added that she hardly says anything but she always remembers them.

I don’t know anything about this woman but I have seen her before. She looks like a timid person but she was determined to show some love and tenderness to these children. The teens speak of her affectionately. I even heard once one of the boys tell her, “We appreciate your kindness.” These are not mere words. Her actions have inspired them to be kind and generous with each other. On the hand, the rude remark of the old man did not do anything but foster anger and bitterness. I do not know anything about her religious background but she definitely has represented the Love of God to these children and if course, the cat benefits, too.

The gospel text is an interesting one. The story itself reflects a light in the midst of darkness. The religious authorities were trying to entrap Jesus to say something contradictory. However, there was one scribe among them who had eyes and ears to see and hear that Jesus was different. His question was not an attempt to push Jesus into a corner. He wanted to know if Jesus truly grasped the essence of the Law. Perhaps, he wanted Jesus to confirm what he was discovering himself. The most powerful words of this man were his realization that these two commandments were more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Perhaps for modern people like us, this statement does not impact us so much. We live in a time where rituals and rites do not define our cultural outlook nor identity. In Jesus’ time, a statement like this was considered a taboo. It was considered an attack on the things which unify the nation. The whole episode reveals a shift in defining the characteristics of our identity in God.

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:1-3

When I was a parish priest, I considered myself as a Rite 1 priest (Episcopalians will understand). To be honest, I liked the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. To those who are not part of the Anglican tradition, it means that I was very traditional liturgically. I wasn’t always like that. I grew up with a more contemporary style of liturgy. I was even part of the Charismatic Movement which means I spoke in tongues. Later on, I was inspired by the Franciscan Order, especially its vow of simplicity. I was really into classical theology. Now, sitting with these children and teens outside the bank, I realized that none of these things are going to help me show love to them. They mean nothing to these teens. I am not saying that these things are useless. The traditional liturgy and classical theology are excellent tools if they reveal to us how to love our neighbors. I believed that they helped me communicate God’s love when I was in a certain parish but now many parishes have changed venue. I need new tools. I have to learn to put aside my old ones and listen to God to show me how to love these young people. Without God, it is impossible to love them in a way in which we can grow together.

In many ways, things are simpler now for me. Jesus has made it simple but far from being easy. It is easy to talk about liturgy or theology or politics. We can even have a spirited conversation about these things but it is not necessarily love. Loving someone is intentional. It also demands our time. A friend of mine once commented that he used to be part of a group which fed the homeless regularly. He thought it was an easy and gratifying experience until one day a homeless person started engaging him. He realized that listening to him was hard. He realized that he had to feign interest when he just wanted to hand over the food and leave. Now he had to give his time. This was when he realized that he was feeding the homeless without any genuine interest in them as people.

There is a saying, “Preach the gospel always, use words if necessary.” Unfortunately, it has become a cliché over the years. Allegedly, St Francis said these words. I am not sure about that. There is a legend about him traveling thousands of miles to preach the gospel to a sultan. Obviously he did use words quite often. It is impossible not to talk about Love when we encounter it. I do understand to what these words allude. We have heard lots of empty words spoken in this world. However, this only makes it more important that we talk about genuine love when we encounter it. There are tons of people who give something to these children but they only talk about this woman who hardly says anything to them. It is impossible not to talk about love. If we experience the love of God in our hearts, then it is impossible not to share it with those around us. Nevertheless, we need to learn to use the right tools to share His love.

Every time, I get up to leave to go home, the teens thank me. I often thought that it was strange. Most of the time I have done nothing for them. I just sit and talk with them. Today, Henrique came up to me and shook my hand. It was a simple gesture but a little unusual for him. He hardly talks to me. In fact, we have known him since was a tiny lad. Now he is almost six feet tall and only 15. He smiled at me in an appreciative way. For some reason, it made my day. Perhaps, there was an environment of Love in the place. The initial remark of hatred could not smother the power of eternal Love manifested in the silent old woman.

Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” Mark 10:42-44

Someone asked me recently if our ministry with the homeless youth was difficult. Well, the answer is a “Yes” and “No”. The part which most people think is difficult is usually not. Many imagine that our teens would be closed and hostile. In reality, they are very open, even those who are deeply involved in crime. It is a rarity to meet someone who is completely hardened and hostile in the streets. Even the most seasoned criminal is open to us. Of course, there is the violence. It is always looming around the corner but it doesn’t occur as often as one expects. Nevertheless, the fact that the possibility is greater here than elsewhere creates a certain stress. However, we, human beings, have great capacity to adapt. It doesn’t mean that we are accustomed to scenes of violence. Our children and teens are not accustomed to it. It disturbs them too. We just adapt to this reality and become more aware of its threatening presence. It is not difficult but it is not easy either.

Perhaps the most difficult part of our ministry is not easy to identity. With so many immediate needs present among the homeless children, it is hard to discern the real obstacle between us. Nevertheless, the more time we spend with the children and teens, the more we become aware of this distance between us and the children. The reality is that we are from two completely different worlds and it is almost impossible to reconcile them.

We have many things in common with the homeless adults. Most of them shared the same childhood experiences as us. They grew up in a home. It may have been dysfunctional but the structure was there. Most of them once held regular jobs and participated in the life of society. They developed their identity as individuals within the same framework as we did. Then something happened tondeconstruct their whole existence and they became homeless. Many say is their addiction but this is just the symptom, not the cause. Nevertheless, I can easily communicate with the homeless adults when they are not drunk of course. We share the same vocabulary and references. The adults and I derived our understanding of reality from similar foundations. This is not the case with our children and teens.

The homeless children’s life began with a rejection, not acceptance. They were rejected in some shape or form by their families. They felt this rejection in such a strong way that prompted them to abandon their families. Something which goes against the nature of your average child. Usually, children feel secure when they are close to their family. Our children had to distance themselves from their family in order to be safe. Unlike us, they could not construct their personal identity in a structured environment. They were forced to build it among people who are rejected and invisible to society. They had to gather up “scraps” here and there in order to discover their space in this world whereas most of us had a path designed for us to pursue. Our children and teens were given the leftovers and there wasn’t much. However, despite all of this, most of them have done an incredible job.

As a result, we have two different ways of looking at life and solving the problems confronting us.
The way we see a solution to a problem may not be necessarily obvious to the homeless children and teens. Most importantly, they may not be convinced these solutions would work for them. The things we have as priorities may not hold the same weight for them. Consequently, we may judge them as being inapt or clueless about life. However, their life experiences have taught them to employ different tools to confront their problems.
Most people, when they hear of homeless children and teens, think that they should brought to a shelter or an orphanage. We think they should not be alone without any adult guidance. There are many groups, both religious and non-religious, who operated on this principle and have opened up shelters. None of our children and teens go to these places. The idea of being in a closed place surrounded by adults reminds them of the trauma they experienced. Felipe lived in the streets since he was eight. He escaped from a household of violence. In the streets, he found peace among the other children. They became his refuge. The people who abused him in the streets were the police and other adults. These only served to reinforce his idea of authority. The words of Jesus from the above gospel text is good news to these children and teens. They don’t want God to be like the authoritative figures in their lives. It appears as if Jesus understood and spoke the language of our teens.

Personally, I find these words of Jesus to be tough. It is not that I want to be a tyrant and enforce my views upon our children. None of us desire to be tyrants. Instead I would rather be the nice guy who keeps insisting on telling the kids what is best for their lives. In reality, the ways of this world are deeply rooted in us. Our idea of being a servant still contains an authoritative tone. Jesus had a different approach. In the gospels, whenever an ill or physically disabled person was brought to Jesus, He always asked them what they wanted. Sometimes I thought that it was obvious. Nevertheless, Jesus never assumed that he knew what people needed. He allowed the people to inform him of their needs. Then He acted upon their request and refrained from giving them tips to avoid future mishaps. Maybe in one or two occasions He told the people not to sin anymore. They were quite specific situations. In general, Jesus refrained from imposing His ideas. Instead He was a servant who listened to those whom He served.

There are days when I am in the streets and I feel completely useless. Usually it is when nothing good nor bad happens; just a normal day in the streets among the homeless. I have normal conversations and feel a little unsettled in my spirit. I sense an internal pressure to do something more concrete. It was the way I was taught; we always have to be doing something to prove our worth. I was talking to Bruno about something uninteresting and then he mentioned something about Felipe. It has been a couple of weeks since I have seen him. We planned to meet a week ago but the rain postponed it. Bruno said that Felipe was asking about me. Then he decided to be direct. “You should go and see him, he misses you!” It is not that I have been avoiding him. We stay in the streets later now and I get a little tired to go over to Felipe’s house. I promised I would go the next day. Just before I left, Bruno asked me when I was coming to see him again. He always asks me this question. Not just him, I realized that the other children and teens do the same. I heard this question so many times but I never paid attention to it. They were communicating to me what is most important to them while I was fussing over being useless.

A servant listens to those whom one serves. Jesus wants us to be servants. This is good news in a world where no one listens to anyone. Everyone thinks that they know what the other should do or say. Everyone thinks that they know what needs to be done in order for things to get better. Jesus does not want His disciples to be like everyone. He wants us to be different. It is not easy to be different. I realized that Jesus does not want me to be telling our children and teens how to be successful in this life. This is not their priority. They want something else. They want someone to love them despite the fact that we might be from two different worlds. They want to us to just enjoy them. I decided that I was going to listen to Jesus and learn to be a servant who enjoys the people God has put in our lives. Felipe and Bruno and the other teens just enjoy us for being there. They don’t expect anything from us beside this. For them, knowing someone loves them is important for them to have the courage to move forward. They don’t need me to make life easy for them. They just want me to love them. A good servant listens.

Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” Mark 10:29-30

He was already unconscious when we arrived. It must have just happened. The children and teens were standing around him looking a little helpless. Some of the social workers were on their phones. I assumed that they were calling for emergency services. I was trying to figure out the identity of the young man. From the side, he looked like Felipe. He was about the same age. Thankfully, I could be sure that he wasn’t him. Felipe is with his family in a home far away from all these things which were once part of his life. I caught a glimpse of his face, his lips were bluish and he was motionless. In their desperate attempt to do something, one of the teens pleaded with him to open his eyes. I feared the worst. From experience, we knew the ambulance would take a while to arrive. A couple of kids were proactive and ran to the fire station across the street to get help. I saw the firefighters approaching. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry and much less enthused. Only on TV and in the movies do we see paramedics rushing to the scene to rescue the victim. In my experiences, most of the time they are like these firefighters approaching the young man. They just confirmed what we knew instinctively. They went through the motions of trying to revive him. It wasn’t very convincing. The ambulance came sooner than expected. They didn’t do anything except put the young man on the stretcher. From the way they acted everyone knew that it was too late. I asked the children and teens whether they knew his name. No one knew his name. He had been in the streets for a while. He ran away to the streets from an orphanage a few years ago and then his sister tried to take him in. He managed to stay with her for a few years. Recently he came back to the streets and now he is gone. No one knew his name. It was apparent that his death did not affect them that much. No one seemed to be moved by it. He was even an invisible person among the invisible people. As things slowly calmed down, we noticed Camila standing among the crowd. She did not recognize us at first because of our masks. Then she greeted us with her characteristic smile. It has been more than two years since we last saw her.

I remember clearly our last conversation. We ran into her by chance. She was very pregnant then. She was concerned about living conditions. She wanted a safe place for her child. She was a squatter in an abandoned mansion near where we live. She did not like her situation and was hoping to find a job and eventually rent a place. She went back to school and was doing everything possible to improve herself. It wasn’t easy. The father of her child comes from a large family of orphans who spent their whole life homeless. However, like Camila, he was also making every effort to better his life. We never met him but we know some of his sisters. Before we said goodbye, we tried to give her a small gift. She refused to accept it. She did not want money from us because for her, we had a different kind of relationship. She receives charity from strangers but not us. I had to explain to her that it was customary to give gifts to an expectant mother. Since we weren’t able to buy her any gifts, she should use the money to buy something herself and the baby. Finally, she agreed and accepted our gift. It is strange that we hardly had any contact with Camila before and yet she has a special place in her heart for us. In reality, modesty apart, we don’t deserve this place. I will explain why.

We met her only for a brief moment eight years ago. She was fifteen then. At the time, we were trying to reach a group of hostile and unfriendly teens and children. They were steeped in a life of crime and practically closed to anyone outside their circle. Sometimes we would have to endure hours being ignored by them. Many times I wondered whether we were wasting our time with this group. Camila was part of this group. When we met her, she had escaped from the juvenile detention center. Well, not exactly escaped. She was given a weekend pass and she decided not to return. We spoke for less than ten minutes and that was it. Eventually, she was caught and brought back to the detention center. We did not see for at least three years until one day we saw this tall elegant girl come to us and give us a hug. She had grown and matured. She has paid for all her crimes which were mainly petty crimes. She told us that she was getting all her documents and was going to register to go to school. She promised herself that she was going to avoid all criminal activities. Then she hugged us and thanked us for all our help and concern. We told her that she was confusing us with someone else because we hardly did anything. She disagreed.

Over the years we ran into her several times and each time, we saw her making some progress. At one time, she had a part time job but unfortunately, the business did not do well. On other occasion, she was washing cars at stoplights to earn some money. She always said that she was determined not to follow in the footsteps of her mother or the rest of her family. We never had the chance to ask about her family. Apparently, she couldn’t depend on them in this world. She was an orphan.

Seeing her smiling face brought some light after this tragic scene. She said that she wanted to introduce us to someone special. She called out for Gael and a healthy looking two year old came running up to her. He was a handful, she said. She was constantly on the lookout for him as she talked with us. She was alone again. Unfortunately, the child’s father decided to go back to a life of crime. She would not have any of it. She was raising Gael as well as her sister’s son on her own. Her sister is a drug addict and Camila wasn’t going to let her nephew be exposed to that lifestyle. Things have been hard for her and now she was going to lose her place where she was a squatter. She has to find a new place to live immediately. We told her that we could help with her rent if she found a place. She thanked us but it was apparent that she wasn’t going to ask for our help. In her mind, we were for there for her for different reasons. Maybe she did not want us to think that she was trying get money out of us. Maybe she did not want money to change the nature of our relationship.

Camila turned 23 a week ago. We have been thinking a lot about her. We got in touch with Camila and I asked how she was doing for housing. She said that she found a tiny room for rent. She managed to find money to pay the first month’s rent which was absurd for the space. However, she did not have money to get a truck to move her stuff. She was carrying things bit by bit to her new place. We offered to help her with the move. She accepted because she was getting a little desperate.

I met her in front of a church near our house. The name of the church is quite symbolic. It is called the Parish of the Consolation. Our neighborhood bears the name. Camila moved closed to our neighborhood. Incidentally, it is the same place where we meet Felipe since he left the streets. Now we are meeting Camila here. I had some time to ask about her family. Her mother’s passing led her to the streets. She never knew her father and all her older brothers and sisters are drug addicts. She is truly an orphan in this world. Thankfully, our Lord consoles those who are orphans in this world. We too are orphans in this city. We have no relatives nor children. Camila and Felipe and all the rest of the children and teens have filled that void in our lives. We talked for a while and Camila left knowing that she does not have to be alone in this world. I left thinking that God has given us another family member.