The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. John 1:35-39

This is such a strange story sandwiched between the Baptism of our Lord and Peter’s calling. I must have read this text countless times but never paid any attention to its peculiarity. This time I was drawn to it. Maybe it is because I am busy preparing for our time in Florida. I have been reflecting on what to share with the churches. We have been here ten years. If I had been a parish priest in a regular church, I would mostly likely be thinking about moving on to another parish. It is not because I do not like to stay put in one place. I often have the feeling after spending a long time in one place that I have nothing to offer anymore. However, I do not feel this way about our ministry here. I still feel there is a lot of room to grow. One of the older homeless youth said jokingly to us, “You are one of us now. You found something special in the streets and now you just want to be here all the time.” He is right. Despite all the violence and hostile challenges before us, we do want to be in the streets.

It is curious why the evangelist John mentioned that it was four in the afternoon. He thought it was crucial information but the exact reasons are lost to us. Maybe it is better this way. It gives us the freedom to read this and allow the Holy Spirit speak to us personally. As for me, it talks about the perfect hour to make a decision. It marks the end of the day before a new one begins. The disciples followed John the Baptist because they were seeking for a spiritual place which they could call their home. Jesus invited them to come and see for themselves.

I loved parish ministry. I enjoyed visiting people in the hospitals. I enjoyed visiting people in their homes. All the precious conversations I had with the congregants are part of who I am now. However, I am not a big fan of meetings, I have to admit this. In parish ministry, meetings are indispensable. Then the time came for me to make the decision. I was at a point where I could decide to remain where I was or move on. I was ready to go but I wanted to find a place I could call my permanent home. In the same sense, the gospel story tells us the disciples of John were faced with a crucial decision. They could remain as John’s disciples or follow Jesus. There was no contradiction in being one or the other. Strangely, it was John the Baptist who pointed out Jesus to them. In many ways, it was my years as a parish priest that pointed to me the direction which I should take in my life. It helped me discover who I am and the things which helped me sense that was living my vocation. There was the comfort of remaining where I was. There was nothing wrong with this. However, my soul was seeking its permanent home.

Not all of us feel at home at the same place. John the Baptist had many disciples but two decided it was time to move on. The others felt that they were in the right place and remained with John until much later. Those who remained were by no means inferior to those who left. Each person felt spiritually at home where they were. I asked the Lamb of God to show us where He lived. He asked me to come and see the streets of São Paulo. The hour was coming. We decided it is time to stay where the Lamb of God is most present to us. Maybe one day, the Lamb of God will bring us to another place. It is possible. After all, our Lord said,

‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Matthew 8:20

It is not the place in itself which makes it our home but where we see His presence clearly. It is late now but there is something else I want to say.

There is another reason why I was drawn to the this text.

I was hoping to have a relaxing week before our trip. However, you know, “Best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.” We had a young man, Wanderson, whom some of you pray for regularly, was admitted to the hospital. He had a serious case of pneumonia. The cold winds in the streets were not helping his condition. We had been after him for weeks to go the doctor and even offered to pay for his cab. However, he was stubborn and behaving like a typical male. For some reason, there is something in our masculine outlook that thinks our illness will go away naturally without any effort on our part. To make matter worse, he is HIV positive. He looked exactly like someone in the final stages of this dreadful disease. Finally, he was in such a bad state that they had to take him in an ambulance. He is not doing well but he is receiving the necessary treatment. It was quite stressful to see him in this condition. Now, we have to find a way to visit him which is not as easy as it sounds here in Brazil.

Then, one of our favorite girls who had left the streets became homeless again because of a breakup. She was desperate and depressed. She really did not want to go back to sleeping in the streets with the others. She felt that she might be tempted to use drugs again and all the other negative activities of the homeless life. Unfortunately, she has no where to go and no family support. She called us because we were the only ones she knew who could help her. She was afraid to sleep in the streets alone and rightly so. There are lots of predators lurking around looking for victims in the streets. She had been sneaking into the subway station after it closed so that she can be a protected area while she sleeps.

In both instances, I thought about Jesus inviting the disciples to see His home. I wondered what I would have done if either one of these young people had asked to come to our home. They didn’t. I am ashamed to say that I was a little relieved. Most likely we would have opened up our home if they had asked but not without a sense of .…I don’t know exactly. We are busy preparing for a trip. This seems like a weak excuse.

Thankfully, Wanderson is in the place where he needs to be. The young girl knows that we will do anything for her to help her avoid sleeping in the streets. She told us that she will let us how we can help her. We did pay for her to stay in a hostel of her choice. We saw her today and she seems to be doing better. She even asked a lot of questions about our trip and asked us to take tons of pictures.

We like having our children and teens over to our home. Felipe has come here before and so did Igor. We even baked a cake and had Aline over for her birthday. We usually love having company. We have an extra bed for guests. However, our relationship with our children and teens has grown over the years and their opinion of us matters greatly to us. I am afraid that they might see our home and feel that we are too different from them to be their friends. Our home is not luxurious by any means. Nevertheless, for those who have spent their whole lives sleeping in the streets and come from homes where seven people sleep on one double bed, our home is like a palace in comparison. Besides, our children and teens never get invited to homes as guests. When they do, they tend to clam up as soon as they enter an environment which is foreign and intimidating to them. It never happened to the ones who came here recently but we saw this when we first started working in this ministry in the mid nineties. Ever since then, we realized that the children needed to be prepared. It seemed to me in the gospel story, John the Baptist prepared his disciples and when they right time came, they knew exactly what to do when they stayed with Jesus. Perhaps, we have come to a stage in our ministry where our home becomes an extension of the things we do in the streets. There will come a time when someone like this young girl might need a place to feel safe and secure and if she asks, “where are you staying?” we want to say, “Come and see where we live.”