Ministry to Children

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Discerning the Shepherd’s voice

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.-John 10:1-4

I used to be quite confident about hearing God’s voice. Then I met schizophrenic people who hear voices constantly. I met people who use God’s name for their own self-centered goals. It made me question myself; Am I  really listening to God’s voice, or am I just fooling myself ? I became a little embarrassed about claiming to hear God’s voice. This is not a bad thing. We should be careful how we speak about God. His Name has been used in a frivolous manner. Instead of saying He speaks to us, it would be more powerful to show how His words have changed our lives. This would be a true sign of God’s actions in our lives.

John the Baptist said to those who coming to get baptized to bear fruits to show their true devotion. People can claim to hear God’s voice but the Word of God must produce fruits consistent with the Nature of God. In the Book of Genesis, the words of God always produces goodness in the concrete sense. They bring forth beauty and order.  Order, in the Biblical sense, leads to conditions that are conducive to a complete and fulfilled Life. Therefore, anyone who claims to listen to God’s voice must manifest the actions of beauty and orderly love that lead to an abundant life. Besides, the words of God are always manifest in actions. In a way, they are synonymous.

I write this meditation with two particular teenagers, Yuri and Bruno, in mind. Both are in a crucial stage in their lives. They have listened to different voices in the past and were led them down the path of self-destruction. Now, they want to discern the voice of the Good Shepherd. They don’t know how to do it.

No religion can make God speak or act in our lives. Our rituals and ceremonies cannot make Him act. Our knowledge and doctrines do not make Him speak. God will only speak and act if it is in His nature.

Jesus, for Christians, is the evidence of God’s personal desire to act in our lives. The Gospel of John refers to Jesus as the Logos, which is inadequately translated as the Word, but for this post this translation will suffice. It reflects God’s willingness to communicate to the world. The image of the personal God is reiterated further through the Good Shepherd. The Shepherd seeks and comforts His sheep with His voice. His words bring healing and peace to our souls. His words bring beauty to our lives. They lead us to abundant Life.

Still, there is the question of how to discern God’s voice. We cannot teach people how to hear God’s voice but we can show them that He still speaks today. The best way to do this is to follow where His voice leads us. We heard His melodic voice calling us here and it has lead us to Yuri and Bruno. The Good Shepherd has enriched our lives with the presence of these two boys and many others like them. We can tell Yuri and Bruno that we are here because the Lord’s voice brought us here. The sound of His voice is our compensation. Perhaps for the time being they may not be able to discern His voice clearly. One day they will discern it for themselves and they will realize that He has always been speaking to them.

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Waiting for a Vacancy

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.-John 10:11-15

A teenager came up to us and said that he wanted our help to find a halfway house. We were a little hesitant at first because it was quite random. We thought perhaps he was just saying this because this is what we want to hear. It is quite common for the children to say things like that to get our attention. However, this boy was serious. He said that he just ran away from a shelter where he stayed for a week and he regrets his decision. Now he wants to return. This is not an easy task. We cannot just bring him to the nearest shelter and hope that they will take him. This boy is seventeen and legally he is still a minor. We have to follow the proper protocol for a minor. It is a walk through the labyrinth of bureaucracy.

Our first stop was at the Counsel for the Rights of Minors. This is the body which helps minors find a shelter and the Law states that whenever a homeless minor wants to leave the streets, they have to provide a shelter immediately. This is on paper, but the reality is completely different.

We entered the office and there was a balcony with three staff behind it sitting at their desks. No one wanted to attend to us even though there were five of us standing there waiting. Finally, one convinced the other that it was her turn. She came up reluctantly and asked what we wanted. The boy had his head down and was feeling intimidated. The staff did not help to make the situation better. She treated him with almost disdain and asked if he had a home or family in the city. The boy responded meekly that his parents died when he was two and he has been living in and out of shelters ever since. Then the staff turned to us and told us about the procedures to find shelter. She never once after this acknowledged the boy’s presence. She informed us that there was a slim chance that they might find a shelter today. However, while they try to find a vacancy, the boy had to wait in another agency which was about half hour away.

We walked together with the teenager to this other place. When we got there, no one had been informed that we were going there. However, the staff here were more cordial and they spoke with the teenager and tried to make him feel comfortable. There were at least five people in the office, but only one was in the streets working with the homeless people. We waited until six and there was no call from anyone. The teenager was told that he should return tomorrow. He had to spend the night in the street. He was used to it and he did not mind. We had our doubts that he would return the next day. We were surprised: he did.

The next day he spent the whole day waiting. Finally they received a call from another agency that was responsible for finding him a shelter and they claimed that in their system he was already living in another shelter. Therefore they could not find him a new place to stay. Well, this was the final straw and this boy gave up and went back to the streets. We called the agency and they told us that they made a mistake and the teenager in their system was another one with the same name. However, there was really very little chance that there would be a vacancy in any shelter for the next few days. They said that they would call us and then we can look for the boy and take him there if he still wants to go.

The teenager’s name is Kaique. This has been his reality his whole life. He moved from one shelter to another. We have visited these shelters and we understand why he would want to run away. They look like detention centers without locks and gates. Kaique wants a better life but he is trapped in two worlds. When he is in the shelter, he is thinks that life in the streets is better and when he is the streets, he gets disillusioned. The bureaucracy and the lack of compassion among some the staff makes it hard for a young boy to do the right thing. This is why we don’t want to receive any funding from the local government. We don’t want to be trapped in this world of bureaucracy.

Is there hope for someone like Kaique? Well, we don’t have the answers for his housing problem right now. We don’t know how to help him right now. However, there is an answer. It is not waiting for the government or the bureaucrats to do something for him. These agencies are the hirelings that Jesus talked about. They are not interested in Kaique. Only the Good Shepherd lays down His life for Kaique. It is best not to depend on hirelings. We hope to walk with Kaique and find ways to help him find his autonomy. The Good Shepherd is opening the way but we need to discern His voice. He is real and present. Most importantly, He has compassion for Kaique. I cannot say this for the government agencies that claim to be fighting for the rights of the minors.

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Faith in Action or Just Plain Wisdom

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.-James 2:14-17

How do we share the gospel in a culture saturated with Christian symbols and jargon?

It is not uncommon to see a homeless man lying on a dirty blanket in the streets holding a bottle of rum in one hand and reading the Bible. The children can sing hymns or choruses and pray extemporaneously and then sniff cocaine immediately after the “amen”. Even the drug gangs have adopted Evangelical Christianity as their religion. They memorize Biblical verses and write their favorites verses on the walls of the buildings to mark their drug territories. Even though I believe that their faith is real but there is no denying that something is obviously missing. Their faith does not seem to affect their reality.

As we can see from the writings of St. James above this is not just a modern problem. It has been with us since the beginning of the church. We have a tendency to keep our spirituality separate from our daily life. We want God as Plan B. The homeless children and teens believe in God but they want Him to bail them out only when they are in trouble. At regular times, they like put God in the closet and take Him once in a while to play with Him. They are like most people in this sense. I don’t think this is just a Christian problem. It is a human problem; people want spirituality, but they are not willing let it influence their daily lives.

However, faith without works is dead. It is an empty faith. It is not a life-giving faith. Most importantly, it is not the faith of the gospel message.

A young teenager, Sebastião, told us that he had an experience with God while he was in a shelter ran by a Catholic Order. He said that it was the first time he sensed the presence of God in a real way. He was new to us but he has been in the streets for years. He stayed in the shelter which he enjoyed but eventually ran away to the streets. His faith did not help him in his decision process and I don’t think he made the connection. I don’t think he knew that faith had anything do to with his daily life. Perhaps this is the fault of our Christian message today. It is faulty. It is Christianity without actions. We have forgotten to teach that genuine faith influences our actions. There is a word in the Bible that joins faith and action in a positive way. The word is wisdom.

Wisdom is not the same as knowledge. There is a lot of knowledge in the world today but there is not much wisdom. Knowledge is not accessible to everyone but wisdom is available to the poorest of the poor. However, wisdom cannot be taught; it has to be lived. This is why the Incarnation is important. Jesus lived among us to show how to connect our spirituality to our practical daily life. Knowledge can be taught by words but wisdom is seen through example. The gospel is only powerful when it reveals the wisdom of God to those around us. Sebastião experienced something real and he shared with us in hopes that we would show him what to do with this experience. He wants his experience to translate to actions. We cannot teach him, but we have to show him. To fulfill this, we need to be seekers of wisdom.

We cannot expect the homeless children and teens to connect their spirituality to real life if we ourselves do not do it. We cannot share the gospel effectively if we cannot show through our lives that it is wisdom that leads to abundant life. I guess this is the most effective way to preach the gospel in a culture saturated with Christians symbols and jargon.

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Bruno’s Intellectual Awakening

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.-Romans 12:2

“Why is it dark on one side of the earth and light on the other?”

“Do we live inside in the earth or on the earth’s surface?”

“If we live on the surface, why don’t we fall off the face of the earth since the world is round?”

These are common questions that a child would ask a parent at a young age. They don’t ask just anyone but only people whom they trust to help them understand the world. In our case, these questions came from a fifteen year old. Normally this would be sad. We expect a fifteen year old to know these basic questions. However, for us, these questions marked a new beginning. They were questions that we answered joyfully because they were signs of a mind that is being renewed.

Bruno was born an adult. He was never given the chance to be a child. His whole family is involved in drugs. His mother is in her early thirties and she was living in the streets when we first worked here. She does know not anything else but the streets and the only way she learned to survive was through dealing drugs. Unfortunately, it was the only trade she could teach her children.

Bruno is a lanky soft-spoken fifteen year old who loves to draw and he does this very well. He has been incarcerated for the past nine months for dealing drugs. All the staff working in the center say that he is an obedient and well-behaved teenager. We visit him every other week. It takes us quite a while to get to the detention center. The center is on the other side of the city where his family lives in a nearby slum. It takes his family about five minutes to walk to the detention center but he has yet to receive a visit from his mother or any of the relatives. He told us this without any hint of disappointment or sadness. For him, it was just part of his reality.

Bruno hardly speaks whenever we visit him. He listens intently to whatever we have to say and then he prays together with us. He speaks with a low voice and sometimes it is hard to hear him. At the end of our visit, he hugs all of us. He doesn’t show much emotion but enough to let us know that he appreciates our visit. One thing Bruno has been consistent and vocal about is his decision to leave the streets. He told us that he was afraid to die and he did not want to spend his life in prison. We told him that we would walk together with him and help him figure out how to survive as well as flourish in life. We reiterate at every visit that it is going to be tough and he made his first tough decision last month.

Bruno was entitled to be released to his home if he wanted. However, he made the hard choice and decided to remain incarcerated until they found him a shelter or a halfway house. Bruno never said anything negative about his mother but he knows that change is not possible unless he is willing to leave behind his family and seek a better life. The challenge of Jesus is a reality for Bruno.

“If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”- Luke 14:26

Bruno’s family would most likely interpret his refusal to return to the family as rejection and even hatred. Bruno has made the hard choice of leaving behind his family so that he could discover Life.

All his life, Bruno was never given the chance to be intellectually curious. He never had the opportunity to ask questions about the environment around him. In fact, none of the children in the streets have demonstrated any intellectual curiosity about anything. Therefore, when Bruno asked the above-mentioned questions, it was a good sign. It was a sign that his mind is slowly changing. He is learning to allow the child that is trapped within him to come out and marvel at the world around him. He is beginning to realize that there is a world out there for him to discover and he feels secure to ask us about it.

Bruno turns fifteen on May 9th. He hopes to be in shelter or halfway house by then. It might not be a possibility. Either way, we are going to visit him and celebrate this day with him. You can join us by thanking the Creator for his life and pray that Bruno will continue to discover the beauty of this Life that God has given him daily.

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Serving God is not the same as Altruism

And when the scribes and the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”-Mark 2:16-17

Every Monday evening, volunteers from different religious and social agencies take time off their busy schedules to feed countless number of homeless adults and children in the red light district. These groups are well organized. They come in their vans or trucks and serve nicely packaged hot meals. Their distribution method is immaculate. They take less than a hour to feed about hundred to two hundred people and then they move on to the next location. These volunteers get nothing out of this service except perhaps the knowledge that they have done a good thing. This is altruism in action in our context. It is a good thing.

However, it is not what the Lord was talking about when He said,
“And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”-Mark 10:44-45

In altruistic service, the action alone is sufficient. Relationship between the giver and the recipient is not a necessity. Sometimes the homeless do not even know or recognize the people who provide the food and the altruists give without attempting to find out the names of those who benefit from their generosity. It becomes a dry and mechanical exchange between two parties where the humanity of both parties is hardly acknowledged.

Jesus sat and ate with the tax collectors and so-called sinners. The religious authorities criticized Jesus for doing this. I think the pharisees and scribes would not have minded if Jesus just preached and taught the tax collectors and the sinners. However, sharing a meal with them changes everything. Jesus wanted to become their friends. Sharing a meal is an intimate moment. Even in our present reality, it is rare that we invite people into our homes for a meal. It means bringing the relationship to the next level. It is moving from a superficial acquaintance to a potentially profound friendship. It is a movement from altruistic action to Christian ministry.

Friendship in the context of the New Testament time was considered to be one of the highest virtues. Almost all the influential philosophies in the Roman times considered a happy man as one who is surrounded by friends. This is because friendship is voluntary. It is the one thing that belongs to us which we can freely give to another.

One of the homeless teens once asked our team leader whether she was his friend because of the work or because he wants to be her friend. He said that it was both. His ministry in the streets opened the door to knowing her and it set the foundation for the friendship that they have now. Friendship can be based on many foundations. Jesus is the foundation of our friendship for those who are lost and lonely in this world. Jesus came to be our Friend.

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”-John 15:15

Jesus changed the nature of his relationship with the disciples because they had come to an understanding of the foundation of their friendship. It is to make the Father known. The best way to make the Father known is through our lives. The Father is not a concept that can be taught. He is person who lives within us. His presence and influence is seen through our lives. We cannot manifest the Father in our lives without being friends to those are friendless and lonely.

Christian Ministry begins with altruistic actions, but this is just the key that opens the door to a friendship. We cannot preach the gospel if we refuse to be friends with those to whom we minister. However, friendship alone does not make it a Christian Ministry. The goal is to make the Father known.

 

 

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Redeeming our Individuality: An Easter Meditation

Mary said, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him,“Rabboni!” -John 20:13-16

There are a variety of ways of looking at the Resurrection. In a way, it is something that occurs daily in nature. Something dies giving life to something else. Life is always resurrected from death. The idea of resurrection is not foreign to us in some senses. However, it is strange and foreign that Jesus came back as Jesus. Not Jesus in a ghostly sense, but Jesus bearing the marks of His pain and suffering on His body. He remains the individual that died on the Cross but now, He is Alive.

Out of dust, we became an individual and we lose our individuality when we return to dust. This is the tragic state of humanity. We are aware of our individuality and we are also aware that it is fragile. We strive hard to be individuals. We want to be unique. We want to be special even if it is for one person. We want our individuality to be affirmed, but we also know that even if the whole world recognizes our individuality, it is pointless; we will eventually return to dust. This desperation and futility of life was expressed aptly in the Book of Ecclesiastes:

For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20)

Our struggle to assert our individuality makes us aware of the injustice and immorality of this world. We define anything that tries to destroy our individuality as evil. Well, the question of evil is closely related to our individuality. Buddha taught that our individuality was the problem. It was believed that we perceive evil  because we persist on our false idea of our individuality and the solution was to break free from our notions of self-identity. Still, this did not solve the problem. Our sense of individuality is still strong and despite the sufferings, we think that there is more joy in being an individual than giving it up altogether.

Jesus affirmed our sense of individuality. His disciples were fishermen and tax collectors, people who usually classed as a group and not as individuals. We don’t expect any prominence from these classes. He called individuals from these groups and made their names known throughout the world. Jesus affirmed the individuality of his female disciples in a time where their individuality was suppressed. Jesus, in one occasion, called an ailing woman to identity herself when she wanted to lost among the crowd. Jesus made people feel that their identity was relevant. They were important as individuals. His life was the hope that they could finally be someone and His tragic death robbed them of this hope. Only the resurrection could give them back this hope in a new and wonderful way.

Jesus bore the marks of His torture and pain. His torture and pain were once tools used to threaten his individual existence, but now they set Him apart from the rest. The resurrection changed the meaning of his suffering and death. It showed us that nothing can steal our individuality in this world. Our Individuality is not an invention of cultural conditioning or rational thinking, but it originates in the mind of the One who has the power to resurrect us. It always brings a new understanding of our lives here. Jesus bore the marks of hatred and death on His body, but His love overcame them and changed their meaning for eternity.

We know through Jesus that all will be resurrected (I am aware of the various debates on this subject). However, this has to change how we live our lives now. What we do with our body will be reflected in our resurrected body. Our bodies can be instruments of Love or Hatred and the marks of our choices are worn eternally on our resurrected body. Jesus reveals to us the most excellent way to shape our bodies and soul for eternity. He shows the most excellent way to cultivate our individuality.

Have a Blessed Easter. Christ is Risen!

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Self-Destruction or the Truth: A Good Friday Meditation

And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”- John 11:50

Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”- John 18:37
Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”- John 8:32

Caiaphas thought that he was saving the nation when he persecuted Jesus. We often overlook this part but the High Priest believed that he was doing something good and he ended up trying to destroy Life itself.

This is not just the unfortunate paradox of Good Friday, but it is the tragic reality of life. People who desire to lead a happy and free Life are the very ones who engage in a self-destructive lifestyle. These are not your drug addicts or common criminals. Caiaphas and the crowd that shouted, “Crucify Him!” were not such people. They were people who wanted the best things in Life and they ended up destroying the only One who could lead them to Life itself. They were not evil people: they were blind to the Truth. They refused to listen to the Truth.

Pilates asked, “What is the Truth?”-John 18:38

Jesus never answered Pilate. Jesus was not ignoring him. The question was a good question but Jesus did not have an answer to it. For Pilate, the Truth is a “what”. Pilates was expecting a teaching or a a doctrine.  However, for Jesus, the Truth is a person. You cannot teach a person to someone. They have to meet the person who know him or her. The Truth is a person.

Until we meet the Truth, we will engage in self-destructive habits. We will settle for false notions of happiness because only Truth can lead to freedom and happiness. When we talk to the crack addicts or the homeless children, as well as adults, they will say that they are the only ones who have freedom. For them, they think true freedom and happiness is being able to do what one pleases. There are some who engage in criminal activities because they want money to buy fancy clothes and have the latest technology. For them, true happiness is having possessions and being respected for what you have. They are no different from your average person except that we can see the self-destructive consequences of their mentality in a clear and distinct way. The affluent are able to hide their self-destructions more effectively. In the gospel account, the religious authorities were walking the path of self-destruction because they believed that the path of happiness was in upholding religious doctrines. Being religious, whether Christian or otherwise, is not a guarantee of the knowledge of Truth. If we believe that the truth is a “what”, then we won’t be able to recognize the Truth that is a “who”.

Today we remember that the Truth was hanging on the Cross. It seems like an irony that the Truth that set us free could not set Himself free. It is a stumbling block and it sounds like foolishness. However, before we receive the Truth, we need to know that Life without the Truth is a life that leads to death. It is a life of self-deceit. It a life that is full of contradictions. Jesus was the Truth that sets us free from our lies and we need to see the consequences of our lies in order to embrace the Truth. The truth is that our lies destroy the very essence of Truth in our midst. However, Truth is greater than the power of lies. In order to discover this, we first have to go to the foot of the Cross.

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The Silence of Jesus

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.-Hebrews 4:15

And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent.-Matthew 26:62-63

Jesus kept silent. His silence was perhaps a judgment or perhaps it was an acceptance of the way things are. The trial was unjust and there was nothing Jesus would say or do to change the outcome. Perhaps, silence was the only appropriate response.

Just outside our apartment building there is a small group of homeless adults. The people have grown accustomed to their presence here and consider them to be part of the neighborhood. They don’t beg for money. They do odd jobs to help them buy food and clothes. One of them is called Natal which means “Christmas”. He is a 40 year old man and has been homeless for so long that he has given up hope of ever living in a house. Natal and his friends have their own bed cushions and they even have a small cabinet with pots and pans which they bought or had given to them. Every weekend, they cook in the streets and when we walk by they always invite us to have a meal with them. Last week, the police came by and took everything that belonged to Natal and his friends, including their pots and pans and their cushions and blankets. We met Natal after the fact and of course, he was upset and depressed. He looked resigned as well. This was his life. The only thing he said was that they stole his personal belongings purchased with his own money. It was his property. However, it seems like the homeless have no rights to personal property. There was nothing Natal could do, except to remain silent.

I have witnessed this scene several times. A grave injustice is committed against the homeless, whether adults or children, and all they could do is lower their heads in submission and remain silent. Anything they say would only aggravate the situation. They can only remain silent.

Jesus allowed Himself to be in the shoes of those whose rights are ignored. In fact, Jesus did not imagine that He had any rights when questioned by the authorities. Jesus understands how Natal felt. Or rather, Natal might be able to understand what the Lord went through better than us. However, it does not end just with the silence. The silence is a recognition that the justice in this world is an imperfect justice. However, the One who is epitome of Justice understands how Natal feels and He has experienced what Natal is experiencing. The Silence of Jesus is a not a sign of defeat. His silence exposed the so-called justice of this world. It reveals its limitations. Natal got back what he lost the next day. The police did not return his things. The people in the neighborhood gave Natal their cushions and pots and pans. We saw Natal smiling. He said God is my advocate. He is right. Jesus knows what Natal felt and only Jesus can bring true justice for the Natals in this world.

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Jesus of the Palms or of the Passion

And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: 

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”- Matthew 21:8-9

Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!”-Matt. 27:22-23

At first Jesus was accepted joyfully.  They thought Jesus was a problem solver. They wanted a Jesus that would heal their illness, they wanted a Jesus who would be a political reformer, they wanted a Jesus….. They wanted a Jesus who would solve their problems. Jesus actually did all these things in his ministry but they wanted him to just do these things. The real Jesus had much more to offer. He is much more than just a solution to a crisis.

There is a danger in our ministry to preach “Jesus, the crisis manager”. The needs of the homeless are so overwhelming that there is temptation for us to present Jesus as a solution. However, this would be watering down the gospel to the level of marketing. The church is called to sell the Jesus product. Jesus is more than a product. Some people argue that we can use the tools of marketing in evangelism. I think we can only use these tools when we preach a different Jesus. The Jesus of the gospel was not selling anything. He won’t be reduced to the level of a product. A product is only good until it fulfills its purpose. This is what happened after Palm Sunday. Jesus was no longer necessary for the people’s purpose and He had to go. They killed Jesus because He outlived His utility for the people.

This is the problem with the “Jesus, the crisis manager”. Once the crisis is over or unsolved, Jesus loses His purpose. We cannot preach this Jesus to the homeless children and adults. It would be kinder to leave them in the streets than to give the false hope that Jesus is their crisis manager. Jesus does not want to fulfill this role and He won’t do it. Jesus is much more than this.

Who is Jesus then? Only Jesus can answer this question. The best we can do is to walk with people to the foot of the Cross. This is why I am a priest of a liturgical church. Good liturgy teaches me the meaning of evangelism. It is not convincing people that they need Jesus but it is walking with them to the foot of the Cross as we do symbolically during this week. The answer is at the foot of the Cross. Jesus came to fulfill one purpose and this was to hang on the Cross. St. Paul was right when he said that this sounds like foolishness to the world. It is a disappointment for those who are waiting for a social or political reformer. Yet, for those who can see and hear the Holy Spirit, they can testify with the centurion, “ Surely He was the Son of God.”

The best we can as do in our ministry is to walk with the homeless to the foot of the Cross and experience the Living Presence of God hanging on the Cross. This Jesus on the Cross is not a disappointment.

 

 

 

 

 

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Life Gets Harder

Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Acts 14:22

“When I was involved in crime, everything came easy to me and now that I decided to leave that life behind me, everything is hard.” Estello was smiling when he said this.

I was doing first aid on a wound that he sustained on his head while going through the trash for recycling materials. We met Estello and his wife living near Cracolândia in a small shack made out of recycling materials. He has been clean for a year or so. It is amazing that he is living in the midst of the drug culture and yet he was not tempted to return to the lifestyle. I asked him what brought about the change. Without any hesitation he said, “God.” When we told him that we were from the church as well, he smiled and said that he just learned that God is Love. This was the truth that captured his heart. It was his turning point. He attends a Pentecostal church close where he lives. He does not really consider himself a pentecostal or belonging to any denomination. He just wants to learn about this God who is Love. He recognizes that everyone that comes in Love to serve the poor and forgotten are sent by God.

It is quite common to hear people use religious jargon in the streets. Sometimes the worst drug dealer uses religious rhetoric but there was something different about Estello. You can literally see the joy in this man’s face when he shared about his newfound faith. He is really transformed by an genuine experience of God’s love. However, life has become tougher for him since he found his faith.

I would also like to follow up on another person’s story whose life got remarkable tougher after she decided to do the right thing. I shared the story of Suely in a previous posting. I wrote that her long-lost mother showed up pregnant and drugged out at her doorsteps. Suely is expecting a child soon and she and her husband are taking care of her two siblings and a young child. They work all day and are paid salaries barely sufficient to keep their heads above the water.

Suely’s mother went to the doctor for her pre-natal check up only to discover that she was not really pregnant. It was a cyst that was causing the symptoms of pregnancy. She had it removed and she decided that it was time for her to sober up. She asked for our help to find a drug rehabilitation program. This is good news but it does not mean that Suely’s life is going to get easy. Her mother is mentally unstable which makes it hard for her to keep a job. She needs help and she is willing to get help. Suely is the only one who could help at this moment. Suely wants to do the right thing. This means she is going to carry an extra burden. Her mother has nobody else except her daughter.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

Looking for the easy road is what brought many of the adults and children to the streets. It is the easy path to self-destruction. Life is not easy and easy has never been associated with Good. Putting our faith in God does not open the pathway to an easy life. Our faith is not a solution to our problems. It is an answer to a burning question in our soul: the answer that we need to face the challenges of this world. It is the strength that comes from within to give us courage to face the harsh realities of life and know that they cannot overcome us. It is the wisdom that reveals to us that nothing can separate us from the Love of God.

Suely and Estello can smile despite their challenges because they have discovered this Faith that is the foundation of their joy.

 

Link to my original post about Suely:

Cooking with Yuri: Suelen’s Story

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