Ministry to Children

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Small Dog Licking His Wounds

Jesus said, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.- Luke16:19-21

The dogs made it into the parable. It’s funny that Jesus included them. They appear to be irrelevant to the story. I haven’t heard a sermon preached about them. Nevertheless, they caught my attention. It is hard to be among the homeless and not notice the dogs. It makes sense that Jesus included them in this parable.

Dogs in the Jesus’ period were considered to be nuisances. They were just a little better than rats. They were definitely not man’s best friend. They were despised animals and taught to fear human presence. Yet, they had no fear of Lazarus. They knew him. They were aware of his sufferings. They brought comfort to him in their own limited way. The rich man was not aware of Lazarus. This does not make him an evil man. Jesus never said this about him. He was just ignorant of Lazarus. He was too consumed in his wealth to notice the beggar’s condition. However, the dogs did.
Every day, we walk by the hundreds of Lazarus that beg and sleep in the streets. They have his wounds and sores. There are even dogs that lick their wounds. At the steps of the cathedral, there is a mutt named Billy. He belongs to no one but all the homeless including the children love him. They want him to be their pet. He is an independent spirit. He does his rounds everyday and licks and comforts the spiritual wounds of those who suffer. He growls at anyone who is not a homeless person. He only knows those who are abandoned and rejected. He has come to know us now. He comes and greets us whenever we sit at the steps of the cathedral. I think the key to understanding this parable lies in Billy the mutt.

“Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame,
You look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name”- Bob Dylan, from the song,“Jokerman”

This parable is not about rich and the poor. It just tells of the contrast between two different people. The social divide is not a new thing. It has always been there and will always be. Jesus said nothing about the social injustice. He did not work concepts like social systems. He worked with individuals. There were two individuals in extremely different circumstances. This is the reality. The rich man did not do anything to cause Lazarus’ pain, but he could have done something to relieve it. It was within his power. Alas, he was too occupied having a good time with his wealth. He must have believed that he was blessed unlike Lazarus who only had dogs for companionship. Maybe he did not help Lazarus because he did not know what could be done for him. It is easy for us to criticize this man as an outsider. However, most of us have money to give to the person who begs around the corner or at the highway junction. Most of us try not to make eye contact and pretend we don’y see him. It is not because we are heartless. We just don’t know how to help in a meaningful way. The dogs did not think too much about it. They just did what they knew. Lazarus’ wounds needed to be tended. They did it. We can perhaps look beyond the money and try to discover the wounds of those who have been reduced to this desperate state. Maybe then, we can offer something more meaningful than food and money.

Alex came up to us one day at the steps of cathedral and showed us that he had gotten fifty dollars from begging. On top of that, someone had bought him a takeaway lunch and a bag full of cookies and chocolates for snacks afterwards. He was truly pleased. Then he sat there for a good fifteen minutes watching all the people going in and out of the cathedral. He decided that he was going to beg from the people. He asked for almost anything. If he saw someone chewing gum, he would ask for some. If someone was drinking a can of soda, he would ask for the rest. It was comical and yet quite revealing to us. He was begging even though he had no reason to do it. He had more than enough money for the day. Yet something was motivating him to beg. Alex is not a greedy person. He is actually quite generous. He always shares what he receives with the other children and teens. He was begging for a different reason. He was very selective. He wanted things from specific people and when they gave him what he wanted, he looked almost sad. He wanted certain people to notice him. He was begging not for monetary gain but for emotional recognition. His sad and disappointed look was because his only connection with these people ended after he received what he had asked for. Maybe he does not even realize this himself. He never asked anything from us. He knows that he has a connection with us. The other children and teens do activities with us because they know that these are symbolic gestures to show that there is a real connection between us. Begging is not just monetary. It is a plea for some human contact. It is the last and desperate attempt to reach out to humanity.

One of the saddest things for the homeless is to be invisible. Many people ignore them. Not because they are bad or unkind. They don’t how to deal with them. The homeless do many things to avoid being invisible. We have seen the homeless do weird dance routines and sing out of tune just to get some attention. We have noticed that the ones that smell the worse are the ones who are most introverted homeless people. Their dirty and pungent smell is not just a lack of hygiene. It is also their only attempt to be noticed in this world. They would do anything not to be ignored. Unfortunately, it is these very actions that sometimes keep people away from them.

Lazarus must have not been a pleasant sight. He was covered with sores in the hot desert environment. It would have been easier to ignore him than to try to do something. It is understandable why one would want to do this. However, it is not justifiable. Ignorance is not an accepted excuse. Perhaps the rich man should paid attention to the dogs. They did not have much to offer but they gave Lazarus what they could.

Lazarus was not upset that the rich man was rich. He did not think that his predicament was due to unfair social structures. All he wanted was to be satisfied with the crumbs from the table. He deserved more than this for sure but he would have been so happy with so little. The rich man had the possibility to do something good. Unfortunately, he wasn’t aware of Lazarus’ existence. He was too busy enjoying the fruits of his wealth. In the end, he only had the poverty of his soul to show for throughout eternity.

As I am writing this post, I remembered meeting a young man who used to be in square with the children and teens. He was a homeless child at one point as well. He just moved to my neighborhood recently. He is sleeping on the streets with a group of homeless adults. Incidentally, we took notice of him because he was a tough looking guy who had a poodle mutt as a pet. He found it abandoned and they were inseparable ever since. Unfortunately, the dog is gone and he is alone and sad. He saw us the other day and asked us to visit him. He said that we were like street parents to him. He did not want money from us. He just wants our time. He said that he was lonely. He is our Lazarus. We have to visit him. We walk thirty minutes to be with the other children and teens and this young man is just a block away from my apartment building. Yet I haven’t been down to see him. The truth is that I feel so comfortable here that I forget about this young man had asked us for a visit.

I am thankfully to Lazarus for reminding me that I could be like this rich man. It is easy to indulge in our own comfort zone and forget those who need their wounds to be ministered. I am going to look for this young man after I post this on my blog.

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Reflections on Being a Family

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”-Luke 14:25

This is a reflective follow-up on Michelle’s observations in our last blog post.

We have just completed three years here: a short time for those who understand long-term missionary work and a long time for those accustomed to short-term experiences. For us, it is just a time to reflect. Michelle’s observation helped us realize that we have reached a significant phase in our time here. We had hoped that we could be a family to the children and her observations confirmed that our intentions are materializing. Family, however, is a complex concept. There are all kinds of families. There are hospitable families where outsiders are received with much warmth and openness. Yet, the separation still exists between friends and “real” family members. There are dysfunctional families where the bonds of affection are loose and fragile. Relationships are volatile and interchangeable in these families. There are the kind of close-knit families where no one else matters except the blood relationships. The list of diverse family dynamics can be almost infinite. However, we do not go into streets to introduce our brand of family. We are here with the conviction that it is God who is leading us to be a family to the children. Therefore, we have to consider what kind of family God wants us to be in the streets. Before we can get to this answer, we need to first heed the tough and difficult words of Jesus regarding our family ties.

No one in their right mind would say aloud the things Jesus proffered in the above verse from the gospel of Luke. These sayings are often allocated to the tough sayings of Jesus. Everyone recognizes them but their implications are rarely considered seriously in the church community, despite the fact that the first Christian community did honor them literally in the Acts of the Apostles. Families in the primitive church sold everything and came together to be one. Traditional family ties were given up in order to become part of a broader reality in the Kingdom of God. We could only imagine the criticisms that Peter and the other married apostles must have endured. Christianity must have been considered then as a religion that was disruptive to regular family dynamics. We think that it is different today but in reality, in some countries where Christianity is not the dominant religion such criticisms still exist. Many friends of mine who came from Taoist and Buddhist backgrounds said that their parents considered them as spiritual traitors when they accepted baptism into the Christian faith. Some parents even disowned them. However, most readers of the blog, including myself, live in a predominantly Christian environment. We don’t face such social and cultural pressures. Nevertheless, these powerful and disturbing words of Jesus still apply to us. They should still scandalize and challenge us to rethink our idea of family.

Our commonly held family values are not from the gospel but they are based on our cultural and societal customs. They are, in reality, just a sophisticated form of animalistic behavior. There is nothing remarkably new or excellent about them. On the other hand, the gospel brings a radically new and more excellent dimension to our understanding of a family. It challenges us to go beyond our animalistic instincts and become human. Jesus’ words do not destroy family values but restore a true and godly understanding of them. We define families along blood ties whereas Jesus presents God’s idea of a family. This is clearly seen in one particular incident in the gospel of Luke when Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were patiently waiting to speak to him;

But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” -Luke 8:21

Family in the Kingdom of God is defined by our relationship to the Truth. We should not confuse this with doctrinal convictions. Hearing and doing the Truth is more than mere subscription to certain doctrines. It is a transformation of our attitudes. The first sign of this is reflected in our attitudes towards our neighbor.

Hearing and Doing the Truth does not mean that we have to abandon our families. At least, this won’t be necessary in our context. Jesus’ words are a challenge to us to evaluate and perhaps even abandon society’s restrictive concept of family in the Light of the gospel.

And no man puts new wine into old wineskins; else the new wine will burst the wineskins, and be spilled, and the wineskins shall be destroyed.-Luke 5:37

Ideally, our birth family is a training ground for us to learn how to love and accept others into our household. When our birth family becomes the be all and end all, then we fall into sin of idolatry. We need to discard the old in order to understand the value and beauty of the new concept of family that the gospel inaugurates. Discarding does not mean that we abandon them. It means that they should not keep us from accepting God’s richer and life-giving definition of family.
I want to bring this post back to the streets. God is teaching us to be a family. It is something new for all of us. A social worker once told me that he corrected a young teenage girl when she said that she considered him to be her father figure. He said that he will never be her father because he does not have the capability of accepting her into his household. I thought that it was tactless on his part to say these words to this young homeless girl. Nevertheless, he was being coherent with the world’s definition and standard of a family. However, by the grace of God, we are not social workers, not just us but all Christians. We have a higher calling . We are called to reconcile individuals back to the family of God. Social workers only deal with social problems. We are God’s children sent here to embrace those who do not know the true status of their existence as God’s children, as well.

I have been a son and a brother and Mary has been a daughter and sister. Now God has given us sons and daughters. Through the grace of God, we have become their father and mother. Many people who are living thousands of miles away from these children have adopted them through prayer as their grandchildren. Perhaps none of this would make sense to the world. It is a concept that is not common to them. They have to break away from their traditional ideas of what constitutes a family to understand this. Even then, it would still be impossible for anyone to do this until they have met the One who is the true Father of all. We have discovered our family in the streets and God has a family for you to discover as well. They may not be in the streets like ours but they are there somewhere waiting to be reconciled into God’s eternal family.

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Becoming part of the Family

It was a strange day. We waited on the steps of the cathedral for the children for three hours and not a single soul showed up. Usually we will spend time with at least one child but today was different. Finally, we decided that it was time to go home. We stopped at a grocery store on the way. As we came out of this store, a young lady came up to us and tried to get our attention. She did not look Brazilian: she was clearly a foreigner. We thought that she was lost and heard us speaking English and wanted to ask us for directions. Instead, her first words were: “Do you have a blog?” Her name is Michelle. She came to Brazil to discern a call to work with homeless children. Her first stop was São Paulo. She did some quick research the day before about missionary work among the homeless children here and our blog appeared among the list. Our meeting appeared to be random but we took it as an opportunity from God. We invited Michelle for lunch and she went with us to the streets. Then, Michelle decided to spend the last ten days of her trip here with us in the streets to discern her call. She met our family in the streets and it did not take long for her to become a part of it. I will let Michelle tell you about her participation in her own words.

Through the eyes of Michelle

michelle“Michelle!” Bruno shouted across the street to me as I sat on the steps outside Praça da Sé Cathedral. We met on the steps and he gave me a warm hug and told me he had missed me. I first met him 5 weeks before when we played Uno and talked. Bruno had immediately put me at ease and welcomed me as one of the family. I was so touched that he remembered me even though I had been gone for 5 weeks. He was instantly ready to open his arms to me and include me in his day and life, even though we didn’t know each other very well. I remember one of the first things that struck me about Bruno was how kind his eyes are. I know he has been through a lot but it hasn’t extinguished his kindness.

Through staying with Stephen and Mary and going out on the streets with them I learnt a lot about what true hospitality looks like. They welcomed me into their home, supported me, and showed me love in so many ways. Likewise, the street kids I met welcomed me as soon as they met me and treated me with respect and kindness. Even though I was a stranger to them and I couldn’t speak their language well they patiently waited for me to struggle through basic sentences in Portuguese. They accepted my presence as if it was normal and treated me either like a street worker or a friend, not just a random visitor.

Their acceptance of me is a testament to the work Stephen and Mary do. They have built strong relationships with them. They are friends with them. And Stephen and Mary introduced me to them as ‘our friend from England’. Friends meeting friends. The respect the street kids have for Stephen and Mary is obvious. It’s clear that Stephen and Mary have offered them safety and proved themselves to be trustworthy. I got all the benefits of being a friend of Stephen and Mary, as the street children’s respect for them meant I was welcomed so warmly.

The safe, trusting relationships Stephen and Mary have offered the children was most evident in one moment on my last day with them. Alex was the only child with us. He turned 16 that week but he looks and acts much younger. Stephen had a children’s Bible with him and Alex wanted him to read from it. As Stephen read, Alex was very engaged and interested. Lying on his side, he edged closer to Stephen, leaning over his arm, watching the words Stephen read and looking at the picture. He was physically close to Stephen, listening and enjoying the story, completely safe. It reminded me of a child listening to his father read him a bedtime story. Alex felt safe with Stephen and Mary and it showed in his body language and interactions with them.

It was a beautiful moment of innocence and safety for a child who lives and sleeps on the street. It’s hard to reconcile it with the other experiences I had of Alex over the week, like when I saw him do drugs, or when he showed us where he had slept the night before and pointed matter-of-factly at a bundle of dirty blankets on the street in the centre of São Paulo.

I remember during the week Stephen talking about family. He said he and Mary go out on the street as a family and they invite the kids to be part of their family. When I went out with them on the first day and met Bruno we played Uno on the steps of the Cathedral and I remember that it felt like a family playing a board game in their living room. The only thing that reminded me that this wasn’t normal was that other people walking by or sitting on the steps were looking at us in confusion and trying to work out why we were together.

Every day I saw the street kids come and find Stephen and Mary on the steps. They came knowing they would be accepted. Knowing that Stephen and Mary would be happy to see them. Sometimes they just talked, or coloured. More often they wanted to play Uno and there was a lot of laughter and friendly competition. Some of the kids came by for a brief talk and a hug and kiss. Others stayed all afternoon until we left.

waiting-for-the-children

There is a family reunion every day on the steps of Praça da Sé. It’s an odd looking family.Sometimes it’s a big family and sometimes it’s small. It’s a family that’s not always accepted or understood by onlookers. But it’s a family nonetheless. And Jesus is sitting right in the middle.

 

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Neither to the Right nor to the Left

Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.-Numbers 20:17

We had just sat down for dinner. We hadn’t seen our friend for a while and finally, after several unsuccessful attempts, we could have a quiet evening together. As usual, our conversation led to our encounters with the children in the streets. Our friend has always been interested in our work. She considers herself an agnostic for the time being. She hasn’t quite found her spiritual home yet. However, this does not hinder us from speaking freely with her about our religious experience. We often share the spiritual lessons that we believe God is teaching us through the children. We don’t do this to do this as an attempt to evangelize her. She is aware of this. In reality, it has never been an issue. She is free to talk about her doubts and spirituality in the same manner with us. We speak so frequently about the children and teens that she even knows the children and teens by name, even though she has never met any of them. We were about to share an incident with Alex when all the sudden we heard loud and rowdy noises coming from the streets below. It sounded like our street was being invaded by a mob. The city has been in a turmoil for the past few days. There has been a sudden change of government recently. Many consider it to be a coup and they tried to legitimize it by impeaching the present president. Everything was made official on this day. The president was legally impeached. The whole procedure happened in such a dubious way that it has made people question the authenticity of Brazilian democracy. The people have taken to the streets to reclaim the whole democratic process. People of all ages shouting their chants of discontent. In the streets their voices interrupted our meal and talk. Being the curious beings that we are, we left our dinner table to see the commotion in the streets from our window. Then we heard the gunshots.

The police were heavily armed and they were shooting rubber bullets at the protesters. We heard bombs of tear gas being fired. We were quite surprised that they were doing this in our residential area. The protesters became disoriented and started running away to escape the stinging affect of the bomb. We felt strange watching this from a safe place in our apartment. Maybe we should be down below with them. These people were protesting against a grave injustice. It was partisan politics at worse. The protest was not in favor of the president: very few people thought that she was doing a good job. However, I have to resort to a cliché and say that “two wrongs do not make a right”. The democratic process needed to be respected. This protest was a call for re-election. We watched this drama of violence and politics unfold from the comfort of our living room window. The police successfully dispersed the crowd. The excitement slowly died down but the sirens and helicopters continued to haunt our neighborhood. We had to shut all the windows before we went back to our meal which was slightly cold by now. Thankfully, I prepared something that would be good at room temperature as well. No reheating was necessary. We could just sit and resume our conversation about Alex. It was really about his pet dog. It seemed like trivial subject compared to what we had just seen.

A few days ago, we saw Alex sitting alone at the steps of the cathedral. He has been spending more time with us. He was never seen without his little puppy, Princess. She was about three months old. We were really impressed by the way he had been taking of her. He had proved himself to be a very conscientious pet owner. He took her to the vet to get her shots. He used a large part of his money which he gets from begging to buy her the best dog food for puppies. This was good thing because he had less money to buy paint thinner. He carried her around wrapped in a blanket so that the cold winter breeze would not bother her. It was quite a delight watching him take care of his pet. Therefore, he was without her on this day. We sat down and waited for him to approach us which he did almost immediately. He was visibly upset. He told us that someone had stolen Princess. We could see that he wanted to cry but he held himself back. He sat in a silence for a while. Then he turned around and told us that it happened at night when he was in a deep sleep. He returned to his pensive mood. We sat there with him in silence. Finally he looked up and asked if I could go with him to help him look for the dog. He thought that there might be a possibility that it might been wondering around in the area where they usually slept. The children sleep under a highway tunnel. In order to get there, we have to cross two busy and dangerous roads. Alex wanted me to go with him. He could have done this on his own but he did not want to be alone today. I said that I would go and we set off together.

As we were walking to this place, Alex muttered a prayer which he kept repeating until we got to the place. He was pleading to God to keep his puppy safe and sound and he wanted to her back. It was a heart breaking prayer. Unfortunately, I felt almost certain that his dog was not going to be there. Nevertheless, we searched high and low and never found it. Eventually we gave up and walked slowly back to the cathedral. Alex was silent. I could see the disappointment and hopelessness in his eyes. I wanted to say something to comfort him but nothing came to my mind. I just walked beside him in silence. I put my arm around him and he just kept quiet. He did not stay long at the steps. He was too distraught. He went away and we did not see him after this for at least two days.

The President’s impeachment and Alex’s new lost puppy are the two events that happened this past week. The media covered the former and it was in everybody’s mind including us. On the other hand, Alex’s crisis was not newsworthy. It is an incident that only we knew about and now our friend knows as well. Alex’s world is simpler than the president’s. He has very little to give him pleasure in this life. His puppy brought him some joy and meaning. Now, it is gone. Alex has only drugs and nothing else. The president, on the other hand, might have felt humiliated and betrayed. She lost the chance to run a large nation. However, the truth is that she hasn’t lost much. She never had the power to begin with. She did not lose anything except her pride. She still has many things intact. The fact that there are thousands of people protesting around the nation is a sign of her wealth (I am using this in the broad sense). Maybe more people are expressing their support for her now than when she was actually the president. She may have lost her executive powers but she is not poor and forgotten. Alex, on the hand, remains forgotten and unknown. Losing a tiny puppy has made him poorer than before. It wasn’t just about a puppy. It was about being alone in this world. For a brief moment, Alex believed that there was a warm living thing that would be with him in the streets every single moment of his life. This dream was shattered. The dog was stolen from someone who barely had anything. The media will never report this tragic story. It operates on a different political realm where only the rich and famous matter. Our political realm includes people like Alex, the lonely and forgotten. This is why we are not in the protest. We did not want the political climate of this or any country to distract us from walking on the King’s Highway. We shall not turn to the left nor the right but keep our focus on the road to His Kingdom. Alex is our guide to keep us on this road.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.- John 18:36

I feel like I should make something clear at this point. I do not intend to say that Christians should not be involved in political life of the country or even participate in protests and boycotts against injustice or the ruling party. I am not saying that they should either. The Holy Spirit is present in each one to guide us in our political involvement. We should not define political action in the restrictive manner of this world. We are not apolitical. We are very active politically but not according to the standards of this world. We walk in a different political highway.

We love this city. We love it despite of its pollution and traffic and lack of nature. However, we always need to be clear of who we are in this world. The crime and violence does not impede us from participating in its community life. Our friends consider us as “Paulistanos” (name given to those born in this city) at heart. We are proud of this. However, we are here because we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is present and real here. Kings, Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers come and go. They make promises that they cannot keep and most of them are not necessarily dishonest people. They believe like Pilate when he thought that he had the authority to decide on the outcome of Jesus’ life. The answer is always the same. They have no power except for what is given to them by God. Some people put their faith in them because they have no other choice. However, Christians are aware of a greater and eternal Kingdom. Our vocation is to be politicians of this Kingdom but we don’t take our cue from the politicians of this world. Unlike them, we don’t believe that it is up to us to materialize the Kingdom of God. It is not our prerogative to do this. It is already here present and active because the King of Kings is present through the Holy Spirit in this world. Our vocation is walk in this world as the Light of the gospel. This Light is to guide all peoples to walk in the highway that reveals the Kingdom of God. We don’t make God’s reality happen in this world. We are called to recognize its presence in this world.

I am saddened by the President’s impeachment. She is a human being and no one deserves to be humiliated publicly in this manner. However, I am not going to the streets because of this. We will go the streets everyday to protest against abandonment and isolation. We don’t need to carry signs. We don’t need to chant slogans. We don’t need the media or any public attention to achieve our goals. We just sit and wait at the steps of the cathedral. We wait for young children who have lost their treasured four-legged companions and want a parent to be with them in this tough and difficult moment. We wait for the Holy Spirit to bring the ones that are looking for the Kingdom to us. Personally, I have participated in protests against the government before. I ran away from rubber bullets. I suffocated on the fumes of the tear gas. I must admit that it is very frightening and exciting at the same time. It gives me feeling that I am doing something concrete. However, this feeling doesn’t last. In my soul, I know that there is a real and powerful way to make a difference in this world. Being with Alex on this sad day was a most powerful reminder of this. It seems like something trivial and some people might wonder how I say this about looking for a puppy. It wasn’t about the event. It was about the person. Being with Alex changed something in my soul. I can’t quite explain it yet, but it has kept me walking on the King’s Highway and discovering what it means to be a citizen in the Kingdom of God.

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Bruna’s story

Jesus said unto them, “Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.”-Luke 9:48

Bruna is not to be confused with Bruno. I have written about Bruno in several posts but for the first time I am telling Bruna’s story. They both are about the same age and share the male and female versions of their names. Their similarities end here besides the fact that they are both homeless. Both have very different stories to tell regarding their journey to the streets.

Bruna never had much of a chance. Her mother is a crack addict. Consequently, Bruna was exposed to drugs and crime since the day she was born. This did not stop her from hoping that she would have a decent mother. She really just wanted a mother, but her mother never wanted a daughter. This did not stop Bruna from trying to be one to her. She tried everything within her capacity to please her mother. Nothing seemed to work. Her mother was too broken to notice. It was really a question of identity. Children discover their self-worth through their parents. They are the first ones to give us some meaning for our very existence. Unfortunately, her mother never gave her this assurance. Bruna admits that she always had people willing to look out for her. However, for a little child, it is not the same. She wanted her own mother to love her. Bruna always tried to win her mother’s heart. She wanted her life to mean something for her mother. All her attempts only brought tears for Bruna. Her mother had nothing to give and this is why she was slowly killing herself with crack.

Bruna hardly smiles. She usually keeps to herself and does not interact with people easily. The thing that struck me most was that she remembered Mary’s name almost immediately after our first meeting. She would come to Mary and clearly articulate her name as if to say that I know you by name instead of just a generic anonymous greeting. She would always give Mary a kiss. She shares Mary’s interest in art and she loves to color complex designs and patterns. She shared with us that she discovered her love for art when she was living in a Catholic Orphanage. This was something we never knew about her. She could also recite the rosary in Latin which she learned from the nuns. São Paulo has a world-class art museum that has a permanent collection including those of Van Gogh and Rembrandt. Despite in her interest in art, Bruna had never set foot in this place. This is not uncommon because places as such tend to intimidate our children and teens. They feel too self-conscious to enjoy them. We asked her if she would like to go the museum with us. Her face lit up with a huge smile and she nodded enthusiastically. We set the date and time and when the day arrived, we found Bruna all dressed and ready for our visit together.

When we walked into the museum, Bruna just wandered off on her own and started admiring the different paintings. It appears that all the beauty displayed in this place just consumed all her fears and sense of insecurity. She started gazing at the paintings and savoring the colors and the details of the art pieces. On several occasions we were all drawn to the same pictures. TCriança Morta_1944here was one particular art piece by a Brazilian artist, Candido Portinari that arrested both our attention. The picture depicted the death of a child and the family were in tears and devastated by the tragic event. It conveyed a sentiment so palpable and Bruna and I just stood there absorbed in this sentiment. Pain and suffering unites all humanity. It is something we share in common. Bruna is only twenty and she has experienced more then her fair share of it. Maybe it wasn’t the hardness of life that attracted her to this picture. Maybe it was the family being together despite the tragic circumstances. This togetherness is something she did not even possess.

This was not the only picture that she reflected on. The paintings that held her attention revealed her distinctive taste and perhaps even a little bit about herself. After the museum, we went for ice-cream and we sat at a food court and just talked and ate together. Then we went back to our apartment and she went back to her spot in the streets. We hugged before we said goodbye. She was truly happy to spend the day with us. At least, when we were in the museum, our differences melted away and we were united in the different expressions of the human experience. There was no class or social divisions in the art themselves. There was just a longing for something meaningful.

I wrote the section above about three months ago. I don’t know why I never published it. We did not see Bruna for a while after this little excursion. It is not uncommon. Everything is very fluid in the streets. We might spend a special day or have a intimate connection with a child one day and then we won’t see them for months before our next interaction. We have learned to appreciate each special moment as a gift from God and not expect a constant repetition of it. Such occasions are treasures that we will stay with us for eternity. We shouldn’t get too greedy for these treasures but just receive them as the Holy Spirt gives them to us.

Bruna began eventually to reappear in our lives. Since we are always found sitting at the steps of the Cathedral, she knew exactly where to find us. A couple of days ago, she sat next to us on the steps and asked if she could color. As usual she chose one with a complex design. She is very meticulous. She never repeats colors and chooses them in a way that highlights particular objects in the picture which have impressed her. She sat and colored in silence for almost two hours. When finished, she wanted to work on another piece. Occasionally she would stop to say something but nothing really significant, perhaps a passing thought. She did not need to say anything important. Her presence alone spoke volumes. We found out that her birthday falls on the same day as Mary. We asked what she wanted to do. She had no idea. Birthdays come and go for these children without any significance. It is not surprising that they want nothing special for their birthdays. We convinced her to have coffee and cake with us. She smiled and agreed.

The times we spent with Bruna are quiet and peaceful. She does not say much but she just sits with us. I think this is all she wanted from her mother. She just wanted to be with her. She does not demand anything from us. She has never asked us to help her in any way. She just wants to sit and be with us. Bruna is known for her aggressiveness in the streets. She has to be this way in order to survive. With us, she has the opportunity to be a peaceful young girl who just want to be loved. She wants someone to think that her life matters. All she ever received from her mother was rejection. We hope that she senses that her existence is meaningful to us. I believe she does.

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Necessary Economy

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.-Luke 16:10

Today was not a good day. No one got hurt, sick or was ill-treated. Nothing happened that discouraged us. There just simply no one in the streets. Well, there were lots of homeless adults but not one of our children or teens were in the streets. We sat and waited for them for three hours and no one showed up. I tried to fill our time with reading the Bible and Mary attempted to draw something. We thought that we should do something at least. We wanted to feel like we were not wasting our time. There was an internal pressure within us to make every moment count. However, it did not work. Waiting and doing absolutely nothing made us feel a little restless and aimless. There is no cure for this. We just have to face it head on and deal with it.

It was different yesterday. We wished today was just like yesterday.

The children and teens were waiting for us at the steps when we arrived yesterday. We almost did not even have time to say our customary prayers before work. They were happy and eager to see us. Some of them came to us and asked us to do some activity with them. Ruan whom we haven’t seen for weeks was there and he sat next to us and told us all about his new pet. It was a puppy that someone had given to them. Then Caio came over. We have seen Caio around in the past few days but he is always on the move. He hardly stops to talk. However, yesterday was different. He sat down next to me and just started talking. He had read something about Holy Communion and wanted to talk about it. We asked about Bruno and then almost magically he just showed out of nowhere. He had a bunch of English words that he wanted Mary to translate. There were teens who wanted first aid to be done. Many wanted to tell us something interesting that happened to them. Some had questions about God and life in general. There were so many children and teens wanting our attention that our heads begin to spin in a good way. We felt like we were accomplishing something. It was a good feeling.

Caio asked me to read from John 6 about the sacrament of the Body and Blood. He had read something about the Lord’s supper stating that the Catholics confused the biblical text on John 6. Caio had read that the Holy Communion was really an invention of the Catholic Church. Even though he is from an evangelical background that doesn’t believe in the sacraments, he felt that the Holy Communion was something spiritual and mystical and not a mere doctrinal invention of the church. Together we read John 6:56 from my Bible,

He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him.

He said that whenever he read these words, he felt in his spirit that the communion is something more than a mere ritual or remembrance. He thinks that participating in the Communion somehow connects him with Christ in a real way. The best I could do at this point was to listen to his reflections. He wasn’t asking any questions so I wasn’t expected to give any answers. He wanted me to just listen. He said that he went to a church where the communion was done in a haphazard manner and he did not stay till the end. He felt that it was disrespectful. Whenever he goes to church, he goes for the reverence. He needs this sense of reverence that is lacking in his life. Then he remained silent. I did not try to fill this empty space in our interactions with useless opinions. I sat in silence with him. After a while he smiled and asked if we could play a game.

At this point, Alex walked up to us and told us that an elderly man had fallen and hurt himself badly. We asked what happened. He just said that old people tend to fall and we need to help them. He had tried to console the man but there were too many people around. As he was saying this, an ambulance passed us. It most likely carried the old man within. Bruno was also asking questions about the Bible and faith as well and Mary was trying to answer his questions in between playing a game of Uno. Bruno likes the comfort of playing a game while asking some serious questions. All in all it was a great day. We did not get the chance to speak with all the children and teens and we ended staying longer than we usually do. However, today was different. We might be going home at our usual time.

“Nothing is wasted in God’s economy.” An Anglican priest once shared these words of wisdom with me. Maybe it is a quote from someone famous; I don’t know. These words were spoken after he spent his time listening to me. They were his words to my soul. I was sharing a difficult moment in my parish ministry where I felt that I was doing and achieving absolutely nothing. I was doubtful about my ministry and I wasn’t sure if the congregation were benefitting from the things I did. Somewhere his simple words found a permanent home my heart. He encouraged me to focus on the gospel and not to worry if anything I did appeared to be fruitless. The same church where I felt useless is one of the churches where I can truly say that I had a successful ministry. It never grew leaps and bounds but I learned to become one with the church. We started out being worlds apart. It was a rural church in a small city in the Northeast of Brazil where they never had a foreign presence for centuries and I was a full-bred big city foreigner who loves big city culture. Superficially, it looked like a perfect recipe for a disaster. I decided to continue to wait even I felt useless. I learned to trust God to “waste” my time. This was actually the missing element that was needed for us to grow into being One; the willingness to “waste” my time.

Sitting at the steps and waiting is difficult. We feel obligated to be always doing something to justify our existence but God does not need us to do this. He created us. This is alone justifies our existence. We exist because God wants us to be. The salvation of the children and teens is not dependent on us. God loves these little ones and He will reach out to them regardless of whether we are there or not. He does not need us to save these little ones. He gives us the privilege to participate in His work. It is a gift from God for us just sit there and wait like the Good Father sat and waited for His prodigal son to return home. God calls us to wait with him for these children and teens. If we don’t do it, then He will call someone us to do it. God wouldn’t lose anything but we would have lost something precious in our lives. Therefore, it is a good thing to just sit and wait because it is participating in what God does all the time. It is an essential part of being a representative of God’s love.

I still wish everyday was like yesterday. This is just wishful thinking. Besides, I won’t appreciate and value the talks and openness of the children and teens if I don’t have days like today. Waiting and doing absolutely nothing makes me treasure the moments when something happens. The children on their part are happy finding us sitting on the steps waiting just for them. On a different occasion, we overheard Gabriel, one of the younger teens, divulging to another that we had spent hours waiting and looking for them. He was clearly impressed. It means something for people in general when they find someone just waiting and willing to “waste time” doing nothing until they come.

I know that we are going to have more days like yesterday but they are not going to happen without days like today. If we are not willing to wait, then nothing will happen. It is not easy but it is definitely not wasted time. Valuable and precious things happen to those who are willing to wait.

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The Beauty of a Complex Person

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.-Luke 11:34

I have written about Alex before but it has been a long time since I wrote about him. We haven’t had much contact with him these past few months. He is a complex person. He relates to people differently than the rest of the children. He is by no means a conversationalist. It is usually difficult to engage him in an activity with us. In fact, he hardly wants to do anything with us. At the same, he wants to be close to us. Sometimes he won’t even acknowledge our presence but he notices when we are not around. On top of this, he has some learning disability. It takes him a while to process things said to him and his constant abuse of paint thinner makes communication almost impossible. It is very rare that we have any talks with Alex. Since the time that we have known him, we had perhaps three occasions where we had meaningful contact with him. This was day different. He came to us announcing that his birthday was approaching. He wants to go to the Zoological gardens. He did this last year with another group but this time he wants to return there with us. We were honest with him. It wasn’t going to happen because of the logistics. It was too complicated for us to take three public forms of public transport with him to go the Zoo. I am not sure if he was willing to do this as well. The last time he went, the group had a car. Then again, I am not sure if it was really the trip to the Zoo he was after. An important aspect of our relationship with the children is interpreting their requests. I believe that it was an excuse for to talk with us. Alex has a hard time connecting with people. I think that his imminent birthday is just an excuse to talk with us.

After this animated announcement, Alex returned to his usual taciturn self. He sat next to us and was quiet. We sat there for a half hour in silence with him. Initially we tried making small talk but it was too complicated. His thinner-infused mind was not registering anything we said. He stared blankly at us for a few seconds and gave us unrelated answers. Silence was the best option for everyone concerned.

It is our practice to alternate between waiting at the steps of the cathedral and looking for the children at their regular haunts. Since nothing was happening with Alex and it looked like he wanted to be alone, we got ready to do our rounds. Alex looked up and asked why we were leaving. We explained that we were going to see if we could get the rest to come the steps. He said that there was no one around today. We understood what he was saying. He wanted us to stay there with him. He put away his thinner and then start talking about horses. I know it sounds random but this is Alex. The thoughts flow through his mind in some logical sequence that is foreign to most of us. We just are learning to go with the flow and listen to his stories. In a way, I am beginning to understand his logic. He has been thinking about his birthday and this must awakened in him a decision to talk about things that made him happy. Maybe during his silence, he was trying to decipher which happy story to tell us. Finally, it was the story of the horse. It was one of his most pleasant moments and it occurred in a state orphanage. He was given a chance to ride a horse at a small farm. Then he started talking about his childhood which led to the tragic story of his mother’s passing.

Alex was placed in the orphanage on a couple of occasions. The first time was because of neglect. It was much more complex than this. Alex was very sick at home and his mother went to get some medication. Unfortunately she was sickly as well and she fainted in the streets. She was taken to the hospital but they did not know how to get in touch with her family. This usually means that they lived in a makeshift shack that did not have telephone or even a proper address. The children being left by themselves and Alex’s deteriorating health prompted the neighbor to call the police. All the children ended up in the state orphanage until the mother could prove that she was capable of taking of them. She must have tried to be a good mother within her capabilities. She had very limited resources and finally they were forced to move in with their grandmother. The five children and mother were cramped up in a tiny room. This is all they had. There was a common bathroom which they shared with drug dealers and addicts. His mother became sick again and she fainted once more for the last time. Alex sat next to her as she was dying. The ambulance arrived after her corpse was cold. This is his most vivid memory of her. He told us this story several times. It is one of his most treasured memories.

It didn’t take long for Alex and his brother, Alan, to ran away to center. The street where their grandmother lived is one of the most dangerous areas in the center. In his case, being homeless was safer than being at home. It is the same street where some of the other boys like Ruan lived. Perhaps the lack of space and unintentional neglect had affected Alex in the way he interacts with people. However, he shared all this with eyes wide open and occasionally smiling when he had shared something funny. He transformed very before our eyes from closed up little boy into this lively and animated teenager. It was great to see this metamorphosis.

The next day, Alex saw us at the steps and he ran up to us. He placed his bag next to us and sat down by himself for a few minutes. Nothing unusual here. At that moment, a homeless man sitting not too far from us was being sick. Alex was the first to notice and asked us if we could something. We have seen scene many times before and we know enough to say the problem was that the man had too much to drink. We assured Alex that he will be fine. However, seeing the man’s discomfort bothered him, he approached the man and asked him if he was okay. The man was completely out of it and could not appropriately respond. Alex took a bottle of water out of his old worn-out backpack and gave it to the man. He then proceeded to pat him on the back and asked him to drink some water. He stayed with him until he got better. Alex walked back to where we were and sat down and went to being quiet and withdrawn. Mary tried to get Alex’s attention and she told him that he had a good heart. He did not say anything. I am not sure if he understood what she meant. He just sat quietly for a while and then start talking about different things that happened to him on this day. None of it followed a coherent sequence but yet we were able to understand him.

I have been taking the Bible to the streets recently. The children and teens know that I am a priest and they often ask questions about faith and God. I took the Bible out and before I could do anything with it, Alex started yelling out my name. He wanted to see the Bible. He flipped through the pages randomly. He was looking for the word, “John”. He is illiterate but he recognizes some words. I asked him if he was looking something specific. He wanted me to read the story of the Annunciation. I read from the gospel of Luke. He listened intently and then said that he did not understand anything. He wanted me to explain. He wanted to know how God came into the womb of Mary. We talked about the Holy Spirit and how with God all things are possible. His face lit with a smile. He said that he liked this part of the gospel when God became Man to be among us. His face lit with his characteristic smile that revealed a chipped tooth and afterwards he laid down his head to sleep. However, not before asking me if I could read to him another story from the Bible the next day.

There are two episodes from the gospels that Alex finds to be special; the Incarnation and the Passion of Christ, of course I would never use these words when speaking to him. He uses more simple and perhaps more profound phrases to describe them; God walking among us and God suffering with us. Incidentally, I found that the children and teens find it hard to relate to the Resurrection. It is not that they don’t believe it but they don’t understand its relevance to their reality. Maybe this could be our contribution. The resurrection means new beginning. The children take comfort and strength in God’s presence in their daily lives and sufferings but they cannot imagine a new beginning for themselves. Maybe through us, they can discover the words to describe this new reality.

We hardly use words in our relationship with Alex. Our conversations are sporadic and disjointed. Sometimes we feel that we are not getting through to him. This might be true. However, God has placed Alex in our lives. He is now part of our existence. In our storage of happy memories, our conversations with Alex are among them, despite the fact that sometimes we feel a little helpless and useless even when we are with him. Something is happening. It gives great comfort to know that God did not call us to save Alex. This is beyond our capacity. Our Lord did not call us to save people. He opens our eyes to see His Holy Spirit working in the hearts and minds of children and teens. Superficially speaking, Alex is not a friendly boy. It does not mean that he is hostile or bitter. He is neither of these. He is a complex young man and yet we can see the Holy Spirit working in his life. He is extra sensitive to the suffering of others. Mostly likely, he is conscious of goodness that surrounds him. He responds to these things in different ways. Our task is to testify the workings of the Holy Spirit in his life. Not just Alex, there are other children and teens who are moved by the Holy Spirit to do acts of compassion. The world passes by these children and teens and just sees a sad and depressing situation and people. God sends us into the world to proclaim and testify that the power of God’s love shines even when there is utter darkness. The gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Light of the gospel.

Alex has every reason to be bitter and angry. He did not ask to be born into the situation in which he found himself. However, when we spent these few days with him in silence, we did not see a hateful and closed person. We saw a young boy open to doing acts of love and compassion whenever the Holy Spirit prompts him. It is amazing to see that despite all the difficulty and injustice he has suffered, Alex continues to nurture a kind and loving heart.

With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.- Matthew 19:26

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Evangelism according to the Gospel

When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:12-14

These words were spoken in a banquet. The poor, the maimed, and the lame were not included in the guest list and Jesus wasn’t being a good guest. He insulted his host by saying that he only invited those who could return the favor. I am sure that if Jesus was a guest in my house, he would say the exact same thing about me. I have people over for dinner on a weekly basis. We have several friends living in the same neighborhood and we have made it a custom to eat a meal together at least once a week. The food and conversation is always good and edifying and we don’t want to change anything. It is an intimate affair but alas, it also an exclusive one. It is not our intention. It just happens to be such. In the same way, the Pharisee that invited Jesus was not being exclusive intentionally. After all, he invited Jesus. He must have known Jesus’ strong criticism of his sect and yet Jesus was on his guest list. To invite someone into your household is quite a significant gesture. It means that you consider the person as your equal. This Pharisee was definitely one of the better lot. However, for Jesus, being better was not good enough. According to him, we have to be different from the world. He is reinventing the rules for a proper and successful banquet, or at least successful according to the gospel.

Hosting a dinner was more complicated then than today. Then the guests usually travelled miles to make it to a banquet. They were expected to spend at least few days at the host’s house to make the trip worthwhile. It was the responsibility of the host to provide food, shelter and even proper dinner attire for his guests. The people who heard Jesus saying these tough words then would have found it to be more scandalous than us. Today we just have to put up with our guests for a couple of hours. Being a host for a dinner is less stressful and easier in our context but the guest list still remains the same throughout the centuries. We only tend to invite those who are similar to us.

It is not hard to imagine what a dinner party would look like if we invited both our friends and the poorest of the poor. My guess would be that it would be an utter disaster. Being with and among the homeless from Monday to Friday has done enough to eradicate all my romantic illusions of poverty. I can imagine real scenarios; Bruno in his clothes that he has worn for the past few months sitting next to our friend who is a germaphobe, no one saying anything because it would be socially impermissible. The night would be dominated by awkward silence with scattered small talk. It would hardly be a pleasurable evening. I don’t think that it would be a time of relationship building. I doubt that anyone would return for another meal in my house ever, not even the homeless. I don’t believe that this was the scenario that Jesus had in mind. He wasn’t into shocking people for the sake of challenging them. He was into relationship building. The gospel is about building bridges where there was none before. St Paul reiterates this when he wrote:

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.- 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

The point of having a meal together is to reconcile and not create a greater divide. Therefore, we need to go beyond the superficial understanding and grasp what Jesus is challenging us to do.

Personally, we would love for our friends to meet Bruno, Igor, Aline and Felipe and even the unpredictable Ruan. They are interesting teens and young adults and I believe that our friends would enjoy their company. In fact, we talk about them with our friends often at the dinner table. In turn, they often enquire after them and expressed that they were interested in meeting them one day. There is a willingness to include them into our circle of friendship. However, it is our teens and children that are afraid to meet them. They might be comfortable with us but they don’t know our friends. They are afraid that they would not be accepted. Even if we provided the proper attire and made all the attempts to make their appearances more acceptable, their inner person would not feel comfortable enough to engage with any of our friends. They would immediately shut down and not say a word. This has happened before in another circumstance. It is not just a question of opening the doors for the poor, the lame, and the blind but we need to prepare ourselves to receive them. By this, I mean that we need to be like good host and ensure that our guests have everything they need to overcome their insecurities.

When Jesus said that we should invite the poorest of the poor, He is not talking an act of charity. No one then and now does charity work out of their homes. The home is a sacred place. It is place of intimacy and friendship. When we open up our house to people, we are exposing a part of our life. There needs to be trust and confidence. These things come from true friendship. When Jesus challenged us to invite the poorest of the poor to our dinner parties, he was suggesting that we extend our friendship to include these little ones.This perhaps is the part that is the most difficult. It requires a complete change of our mindset. I don’t mean that we do what is commonly known as “friendship evangelism” which is not friendly or evangelism. That is using friendship as a means to an end. Jesus would not approve. He never loved his people so that they would become his disciples. He just loved them. True friendship is unconditional relationship. It is also rare and difficult. This is why we need the Grace of God even in our efforts to become a friend to His little ones. It goes against our common wisdom which teaches us to stay within our familiar social circles.

Being a friend in this sense is a growing process. It does not happen immediately. I am finding it hard to call our time in the street, “a ministry”. I use this word as an communication instrument so that people can understand the foundation of our presence in the streets. However, ‘ministry’ implies that this is work. Work, in turn, reflects a notion of obligation. However, our time with the children and teens is not work for us. It is a moment where we have a genuine spiritual exchange between us. They have became our friends. They have become our children and teens. They do not expect anything from us except our companionship. They share their questions and thoughts with us. They know that we will provide them with spiritual guidance when they need it. Most of the time, they just want us to be with them and the feeling is mutual. Recently we were playing a game with three of the boys on the steps of the cathedral when another older teen passed by and said, “What a beautiful family gathering!”. The statement was quite random but it describes a development in the growth of our relationship perfectly. Nevertheless, we still have miles to go. These teens and children are still not ready to come our house for dinner. One day they will because this is the goal of our evangelism in the streets.

Biblical evangelism is not about changing one’s religion. It is becoming part of a new family. The new creation begins with the creation of new family ties based on the movement of the Holy Spirit. Only God’s Spirit can break the barriers between us and the children in the streets to mold us into one family. However, for the moment, they are still in the streets. They are still separated from our friends who live in another reality. God wants to reconcile these two groups as well. They need to sit at the same table and fellowship as equals. Humanly, this is not possible. Even if we made these two groups to sit together by own cunning efforts, the result would be an artificial fellowship at best. Only God is able to remove the obstacles standing between us. All we need is to be open and willing to have these little ones to become part of our guest lists. I believe that this is the deep meaning of the Lord’s supper. I am grateful that I am part of a tradition where every Sunday, the Lord’s Table is open to everyone who accepts His invitation. At His banquet, all the human and sinful divisions are disintegrated and we become One because of our Heavenly Host. This is the goal of evangelism.

We should only invite our friends to our dinner. The dinner table is a place where trust and honesty must prevail. This is only possible among true friends. Jesus is not asking to invite complete strangers whose behavior might be dangerous or unpredictable. He is recommending that we change the way we choose our friends. They should include the homeless, the poor, and the lame. We need to open our hearts to allow these little ones to become our friends so that one day they will sit at our table and fellowship with us as our true friends. When this happens, the symbolic meaning of the Lord’s Communion will have become a living and practical reality in our lives.

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The Visible and the Invisible

“The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”- Luke 13:19

We were sitting on the steps of the cathedral. It was still early. It takes a while for the children to find their way to this regular meeting place. A man walked up to the front of the cathedral, waving a well-used bible in his hand, and started preaching at the top of his voice. He is a street preacher from a local pentecostal church. It was hard to make out what he was saying exactly. He fluctuated between frantic screaming to quiet mumbling. I have a feeling that he mumbled through the best bits. Nevertheless he got the attention of many. Some were filming him. Others just stopped and watched his antics for few moments before going back to business. No one actually was listening. The preaching sounded a little erratic and wasn’t creating any real connection with the people. This fact didn’t seem to bother him. Besides us, there were homeless adults and some young ladies watching this scene. The ladies were tourists who had just visited the cathedral. Then, out of the blue, a Roman Catholic priest walked by dressed in his cassock. It seemed like a joke was in progress, all we needed now was a rabbi. The tourists immediately approached the priest. It seems like they had something on their mind and wanted to speak to a religious figure. They chose the priest instead of the preacher. He listened intently to them while in the background the man was shouting something about sin and idolatry. The priest prayed with the tourists and blessed each one with the sign of the Cross on their foreheads. The ladies were visibly pleased and we overheard one of them say that she felt very blessed today. The priest then turned to the people sitting on the steps and reached out and shook the hands of a homeless man. He prayed a short blessing and the man smiled at him appreciatively. He made an effort to do the same for the rest of homeless adults. Finally he made eye contact with us and smiled and did the same for us. After which, he walked quietly back into the church. Meanwhile our solitary pentecostal preacher continued screaming his head off. Everyone eventually lost interest in him and he gave up and left.

Two kinds of Christianity were displayed right before our very eyes. One was very visible and had the attention of many but it did not touch anyone. The priest, even though he was part of the established church, was basically invisible. Hardly anyone noticed his presence except those who were close by but, in a very brief moment, he connected with many.

Visible Christianity is often heard and seen in the world. It is the religion that makes outrageous and embarrassing statements and proclamations. They claim that they are doing everything for the gospel but in reality they are only making themselves visible. They want the world to know that they are a strong and powerful presence. They adopt the methods and standards of the world. Everything becomes a question of strategy and numbers. People are no longer the end but a means to an end. Their end is visibility in the world. This religion has more in common with the spirituality of the Pharisee which Jesus spoke ardently against in the gospels. Jesus criticized them not because they adopted the principles of the world in their spirituality but because they claimed that they had monopoly of true spirituality. This seems to be the attitude of visible Christianity.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.”- Matthew 6:1

Jesus and the apostles did preach in the streets. They did not preach for the sake of preaching or promoting their movement. They preached to connect with people. Jesus did not heal to show that the gospel was true. He healed because He wanted to heal people. He did miracles because He had compassion for the people. He wanted people to understand the true nature of the gospel. For Jesus, it was always about the people. They were His goal. He wanted to connect with them. Nothing He did was to promote His own visibility. He spoke out against such attempts. Satan tempted Jesus with instant visibility in the world. Jesus turned him away. It is not compatible with the gospel. Visible Christianity is a kind of Christianity that is just visible but it doesn’t connect with people. It preaches a different gospel where people are just a means to an end.

“The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed….” Luke 13:19

I used to be a little confused about this reference to a mustard seed. A mustard plant is not a tree but Jesus made it sound like it was. I heard preachers say that this reveals Jesus’ sense of humor. It is a bit of a stretch. A closer look at the verse reveals that Jesus wasn’t talking about mustard plant. He said that that it was like a mustard seed and not a mustard seed. The presence of the Kingdom of God can be so small and quiet that it can be easily overlooked like a mustard seed. However, the potentiality of this small presence or lack of visibility does not hinder it from reaching great heights. The lack of visibility should not concern us because it doesn’t mean that it is not powerful. From Jesus’ perspective, being small is very positive. This concept is contrary to the system of this world. In this world, big always seems to be better because it has visibility. The world operates and understands only one reality; the material reality. The gospel opens the spiritual dimension to us. Unfortunately, Christians are more impressed with the material than the spiritual reality of the gospel. Christians seem to be always more impressed with bigger churches even when they do nothing to promote the reality of the gospel. Small churches are always considered in the negative light. No one speaks highly of a small church because small is synonymous with impotence according worldly standards. This idea is so prevalent and influential that even I believed it at one point. I still battle against it because I live in this world. However, we are not of this world and our Lord is our guide to live according to the principles of the Kingdom of God while functioning in this world. Our Lord Himself never bothered with having a large group of disciples. He avoided large crowds whenever possible. He refused to promote His own visibility even when his own family recommended it (John 7:3). He refused to break bread with those who were influential in the world. He walked and dwelled with those who were invisible in society. He always took the time to be with the people because they were his goal. He sought to build relationship with his disciples. He knew them by name. He knew about them. He knew them. This was only humanly possible in a small group.

The world overlooks the small because it is not focused on relationship. the world want us to achieve goals and results especially when they improve visibility. Small actions are invisible actions as long as the world is concerned and so are not commendable. Sometimes the media spotlights invisible actions in the news and always reduces them to something sentimental and vacuous. They just become nice and sweet stories that bring warmth to our otherwise cold souls. This is not how the Kingdom of God understands small and invisible actions.

The invisible priest did what came naturally to him. He wasn’t trying to draw attention to himself. He wasn’t trying to give visibility to the gospel or the church. He just lived the gospel in a simple way. In our churches and communities, there are tons of Christians who live the gospel in an invisible manner. Sometimes, they are members of churches that promote visible Christianity. They can be elderly women who visit their friends who are lonely. They can be people who always try to help those who are grieving with simple gestures of comfort. The priest prayed for the people around him. He did nothing spectacular. He just did simple things that almost anyone could do, except for the blessing of course if you are from a liturgical tradition. The priest connected with people within his means. This is something all of us can do but not everyone can preach in the streets. The gospel is about connecting us to people and through us, we hope people can see the Eternal Hope in Christ.

The children arrived shortly afterwards. We sat and drew with them. Caio came up after a month of absence and asked to play a game of Uno with me. We sat together and connected with each one. Not many words were spoken but there was a strong connection. If there wasn’t, the children and teens wouldn’t spend hours with us. Someone passing by would not understand what we were doing. They would think that we were wasting our time. It doesn’t matter. We are not doing it for them. We are doing this because it is good and wonderful to be connected with the people God brings to us. The message of the gospel is a message of reconciliation. When we connect with people in genuine way, the power of the gospel is manifested beyond words in the lives of everyone.

The priest in his invisibility has touched not just our hearts, but the hearts of the tourists, as well as some of the homeless who had eyes and ears to see what the Holy Spirit is doing.

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”- Rev. 2:29

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Walking in My Shoes

And the blind man cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me receive my sight.”- Luke 18:38-41

Bruno doesn’t have any shoes. He walks barefoot in the streets. His heels are dry and cracked. Perhaps you are wondering why don’t we just buy him a pair of shoes. We have thought about this before, after all; why wouldn’t he want a pair of shoes? Well, he doesn’t. He had a pair of flip-flops and he gave them away to another homeless person. He is perfectly comfortable walking barefooted. He doesn’t like wearing shoes. Maybe it is because he never had shoes growing up.

Bruno was placed in an orphanage at a very young age. His mother could not afford to take care of him. However, Bruno had other siblings but he was the only one who went to the orphanage. He doesn’t recall much of his family. He knows that he has a younger sister whose name is barely remembers. He has mentioned once that he would like to meet her. She would be fourteen now. He has lost all contact with his family. He does not even have any idea where his mother lives. He thinks that she would not recognize him even if she passed him on the street. I told him that this would be impossible. A mother never forgets her son.

From Bruno’s point of view, he was rejected by his family. I am sure that it wasn’t an easy choice for his mother. Poverty and other circumstances drove her to place her son in an orphanage. The other children remained with her. No matter how much we try it is impossible to explain the rejection away. Perhaps Bruno’s way of accepting extreme poverty in his appearance is an attempt to convince himself and others that he does not need material things. He was taken away from his family because of money and if he could live without it, maybe he thinks that people would not reject him. Not matter what his real reasons are, he has learned to organize his world without any need for it. Perhaps if we forced him to wear a pair of shoes, it could just upset his personal world order. Bruno would rather give up our relationship with him than upset his “perfect world”.

Bruno wanted to introduce us to a woman whom he met recently. He only had good things to say about her. When we met her, we could see why. She was a kind and generous person. They had crossed paths when he was begging outside a restaurant where she had lunch. She gave him a generous gift. It was a large offering which left Bruno amazed. She saw something in him and wanted to take the extra step to help him. She offered to put him up in a hostel where he could get cleaned and groomed. She was going to help him get his documents sorted out. As she is an owner of a successful circus, she wanted Bruno to work there. She told us that she grew up in a circus and it was very much like an open family. She was sure that Bruno would adapt well there. The problem is that Bruno was not part of this conversation. He just smiled and nodded agreeably to whatever she said. He made a comment that he never imagined living or working in a circus before. Before anyone could saying anything, she was already making all the necessary phone calls. At no point, Bruno disagreed with her but he did not agree to anything as well. The lady was kind and generous but she did not know Bruno. She assumed what she knew what Bruno needed. This is a dangerous assumption.

I don’t need to be a prophet to foretell the future in this case. This woman was going to disappointed that Bruno completely disregarded all her efforts to help him. She might come to think negatively of him. She might even say that he is an ungrateful young man and perhaps lazy. None of this would be true of Bruno but one would need to know him to understand why he refuses any help. The problem is not with Bruno or the woman. It is the way we approach people. We have a tendency to assume that we know what the neighbor needs. Jesus never did this unless He had a personal insight into the person’s life. Just because Bruno begs for his food does not mean that he is going to jump at every opportunity of a job. We must not assume that the homeless are sitting around waiting for one of us to give them an opportunity. The truth us that they have learned to survive in their situation. Bruno was organized his life to survive in this world. He believes it to be secure and stable and he is not going to give this up just because we offer a nice job and promise of a good life. These promises do not mean anything to him. He would prefer to hold on to reality that he is familiar with than give up everything for a possibility with no guarantees. If someone came to us right now where we are in life and made us an offer of a better life and we have to give up everything we have known to be our security in order to attain it, would we do it ?

Perhaps, some would say that if we were in Bruno’s shoes, we would take the opportunity. This is the problem. It is impossible for anyone to walk in Bruno’s shoes. They only fit him. His pains and joys, which have helped him formulate his worldview according to his personality and temperament, belong to him alone. He is an individual being and we are individual beings. Even if I spend a year living in the streets as a homeless person, I will never be able to think and act like Bruno. The best that I could do is to think like Stephen pretending to be homeless. When I assume what is good for someone like Bruno, I imagine myself to be Bruno and then think of things that I would want. Again, it is what Stephen wants and not what Bruno believes to be important. It is impossible for me to know what Bruno needs and wants to make his world better. Only he alone can tell these things. When Jesus, in the quoted text above, saw a blind man crying out for mercy. Jesus did not assume anything. He did not assume that he wanted to see. He respected the man and asked him what he wanted.

Asking someone what they want or need is an important question that opens the door into the life of the person whom we want to help. We judge the needs of the people by appearances. This is not an edifying approach because it simplifies everything. People are more complex than their basic needs. Bruno has been judged unfairly by his appearance his whole life. If we want to build a lasting relationship with anyone whom we are called to serve, then we have to follow the example of Jesus. We have to allow the people to share their needs with us. It may not be what we think of as priority but we must be careful that in our attempt to help someone that we do not dehumanize them further. Every human being has developed their own system of survival and we need to respect it. It is something that they have constructed based on their personal experiences. Jesus did not impose His godly ways on people. He gave them the freedom to allow Him into their lives as they were comfortable and ready. He never asked the old woman whose ailment he healed to become his disciple. He just healed her and let her carry on with her life. I am sure that she was transformed by the incident but she needed time to reorganize her world to truly understand what Jesus had done.

We spoke to Bruno a few days later. He said that he stopped going to the place where he met this lady. He said that he was afraid that she would force him to do something that he wasn’t ready to do yet. He did not want her to think that he was lazy or did want any help. He was just not ready to give up everything that he has known as his security and freedom to live in a circus. We encouraged him to be honest with the woman. I said that the most responsible thing to do was to go back and explain to her that the timing was not right for him to leave everything behind but he really appreciated her help. He seemed to like this idea. To my surprise, he immediately stood up and decided to go back to the place where he met her and be honest with her. It had been bothering him for some time. I said a little prayer and hoped that she would understand his position.

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