Gospel

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Render unto The Caesar…

“Show me the money for the tax.” And they brought him a coin. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled; and they left him and went away. Matthew 22: 19-22

The mayor of this city wants to clean it up. He wants the city to be beautiful. Everyday he sends the police to where the children sleep and forces them to evacuate the area. However, they are not allowed to take their blankets or cushions. These things are confiscated and eventually destroyed. Apparently, these things makes the city look unsightly. I am sure the presence of the homeless children and teens sleeping under the busy highway bridge does not qualify for a post card picture. The homeless are not part of the beauty of this city. They need to find another place where they would not be a burden to those who want a beautiful city.

The cushions are perhaps the few comforts that the homeless have. They are discarded cushions full of stains and holes. Now, the children sleep on the dirt floor. Now, their clothes and bodies are covered with dirt when we meet them in the afternoon. The mayor has yet to improve the shelter situation. However, it doesn’t matter. Our children and teens won’t go to one. They are treated like prisoners in these places. They prefer to sleep on the dirt floor.

I don’t know the mayor personally so I cannot pass judgement on him. I shouldn’t do it even if I knew him. It is safe to say that he is not an evil person. He does not deliberately want to make life miserable for the homeless. It is just that he doesn’t know them. He cannot imagine their sense of rejection because they are not part of his world. They are just concepts and numbers for him. The distance between him and the poor of the city is astronomical even though the city office is in the old center of the city where we work. If he stepped out of his building, he would see the large number of homeless that occupy almost every street corner. However, he never steps out of the building. He comes to work in a helicopter and leaves the same way. He has no reason to meet the homeless. He is a mayor of the city and no expects him to be listening and hanging out with the homeless.

No one existentially is further away from us than God and yet He is with us. He dwells among us not like a mayor or a king but as a suffering servant. It is a choice that He makes. Perhaps, God thinks that it is incumbent to His eternal office as God to be close to those who suffer. Jesus tells us that if we want to see Him, we have to go to the ones who are hungry and give them something they need. He is among those who are in prison where society puts people it wants to punish. He is present there among those who are easy to hate and despise. He wants us to know that He cannot and will not forget anyone. He wants us to give Him shelter when He is present with our homeless children. Perhaps when there is no shelter available, a discarded cushion would be fine or even in some cases, a filthy manger.

He works completely different from any government officials. These officials like things to appear good. They work in the realms of numbers and statistics. They like to present a beautiful image. Jesus is not into images. When the disciples commented on the beauty of the temple, He told them that it would be destroyed. Outward beauty never lasts. The Pharisees liked outward appearances. Jesus has some harsh words to say to them;

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whitewashed sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” Matthew 23:27

External beauty doesn’t revive a soulless society. Jesus was not interested in building great cities or empires. He was concerned about finding the lost sheep. He wanted to be their shepherd. His priorities were centered on being the Good Shepherd to those that society forgot and rejected. The Caesars of the world have other priorities. They are invested in the constructions of images that one day will stumble and fall. Yet, some people who consider themselves followers of Jesus applaud the actions of the Caesars even when they are soulless. Regardless of who they are and what they propose to do, their desires are not compatible with the priorities of the gospel. They dwell in a world that is too separated and distant from humanity. They judge the world from a distance. Jesus did not make decisions from a distance. He is close to each and every person. He revealed to us a God who is so different from our nature and yet chooses to be close to us. Caesars share our humanity and yet they hide behind walls and illusions of their own creation.

It has been a while since we had a decent conversation with Bruno. He was the one who told us about the police taking away the cushions and blankets. He mentioned that it was the first time that the police actually seemed apologetic and said that they were just following orders. Without us saying anything, Bruno talked about shelters and orphanages. He said that he was in a state orphanage for most of his life before he ran away to the streets. It wasn’t because he disliked the place. He had many pleasant memories. However, the government only allows them to stay in the orphanage until they turn 18. Then they have to leave. He had no where to go. He doesn’t even know the address of his family or his mother’s full name. He ran away before he turned 18. He is not the only one. There are many who share the same story. They leave before they get rejected one more time by the state. Bruno ended his poignant story saying that he won’t go any shelter just for the sake of sleeping there. He wants to have some structure and stability in his life. Strangely, the streets has provided something for him.

Caesar has the finance and the resources but he is too far away to do anything worthwhile with them. We have restricted material means but we are close to the children. Bruno hugged us with his dirty blanket wrapped around him. His hands and feet were covered with dirt. However, his outward appearance did not hinder us from seeing his beauty. Not just Bruno, but all our children and teens. They might be considered a nuisance or a pest by many who are far away. These will support the actions of Caesar. However, Jesus beckons His followers to draw close enough to see that within each of these little ones lies the beautiful image of God. It is something anyone who is far away will never appreciate.

Render unto Caesar what belongs to him but he will never understand the things that belong to God.

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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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Some Considerations about our Actions

Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.”- Ezekiel 37: 4-6

Every night, at about seven o’clock, a church group serves hot soup to the homeless in the downtown area. About two hours later, a group of spiritualists bring sandwiches and juice for the same people. Almost immediately after, a Pentecostal Church gathers all the homeless adults and children and they sing a short hymn followed by a longish sermon before serving some rice and beans with a piece of meat. There may be five different groups serving food to the same group of homeless people every evening. Unfortunately, many times the food goes to waste. A homeless person told us that they feel obligated to accept the food even when they are not hungry because they don’t want to offend the good people who serve them. It sounds like the homeless are doing the people who think that they are serving them a service. Something is definitely not quite right about this situation.

Everyone wants to do something to help the homeless. Usually serving food is the first thing that pops into everyone’s mind. It is a good way to get everyone involved and we feel like we are doing something concrete. The result is also almost immediate and the commitment has a beginning and an end. We hand the food to the homeless and they are fed. We go home happy and the homeless are no longer starving. I am not saying that serving food is a bad idea. It is not a bad thing but it should not end just there. We have something important to offer to the world as a church. Our vocation is to preach the gospel. Actions can give us the feeling that we have done our part for the gospel but in reality the message of the gospel is a message of Truth. Feeding the poor is never a substitute for the Truth. For that matter, no action can be a substitute for the Truth. Our actions are good and valid when they open the door for us to share the Truth.

Last week, we had interesting experience. While we were in the streets, a young man in his thirties came up and started talking to me as if we have known each other for ages. I just stood there smiling politely and wondering who this man was. I was a little taken aback when he asked about Mary by name. He even knew the number of years that we have been married. He eventually figured out that I did not recognize him and he told me that his name was William and he lived in the streets when he was a teenager twenty years ago. His words almost miraculously triggered my memory and he began to look familiar. Even then, I could hardly remember any specific detail about him. However, he was able to remember vividly our time in the streets with him. To make the situation even more bizarre, as we were talking, a young woman, Marcia, happened to walk by with her children. She used to live in the streets when she was teenager during the same period as William. This encounter was just a coincidence. William and Marcia started reminiscing about their time in the streets. They talked about the dangers and difficulties they experienced together in the streets. They said that throughout this time, they never forgot the times we spent with them.

Twenty years ago, our work was much simpler and we were much poorer. We did not bring games to the streets. We had limited resources. We went to the streets with a First Aid kit kept in a small tupperware. Sometimes we would bring some paper to draw with crayons. Most of the time, we just sat where the children and teens were and waited for them to come up to us and talk. Many times we felt like we were doing absolutely nothing. Occasionally the children would ask us to pray for them. Other times, they would just sit close to us and whenever they felt like it, they would talk to us. They knew that we were there when they needed us. There were occasions that we were able to say something profound to them but this opportunity only came after a long period of listening and waiting. I don’t remember saying anything significant to William and Marcia. However, they remembered spending time with us. They remembered talking with us. They remembered our presence with them. This was the most important thing for them. Life is a constant struggle for Marcia and William but they know how to survive. They don’t need our help to survive. They are fighters. However, in their daily struggle, it is hard for them to see God’s presence in their lives. It is easy for them to think that they are alone in this world and that no one cares. They desire to see that God is with them and they will never forget anyone who helps them see God’s presence in their lives.

We live in a world that values actions. I have repeated the cliché, “action speaks louder than words”, many times without understanding its implications. Action is power. It is a means of imposing our influence on others. It gives us a feeling that we are in control. Before we do any outreach activity, it is important for us to realize that the gospel is not about asserting our power and influence in the world. The essence of the gospel message is summed in one word, “Emmanuel” which means “God is with us” . The beginning of the gospel of John states that the Word became Flesh to dwell among us. The Word is the Truth and this Truth is manifested in the person of Jesus. However, we tend to overlook the fact that Jesus waited thirty years before He begin His ministry. The gospel of Luke tells us that He was aware of His vocation since his youth and yet, He waited for thirty years. Jesus waited for the right moment to speak the Truth. It is His waiting that gave Him the authority when He spoke.

Waiting is not doing nothing: waiting is learning and perceiving how God works in our midst. This cannot be done if we do not learn to listen to the Holy Spirt moving in our daily lives. The first few verses of Genesis tell us that first the Spirit of God moved and then the Father spoke. There was a period of waiting for the right moment even in creation. First we have to see and understand what the Spirit is doing before we can speak the Truth.

We cannot separate listening from waiting but they are not the same thing. Waiting is required even when we don’t hear anything. In our ministry, I have mistaken the silence of the God has a license to do things as I see fit. In the process, I desensitized my spirit from discerning God’s voice. Our words can only be powerful when we learn how to listen and speak from what we hear from God. Jesus waited because He knew that the Father was active in this world. Even Jesus needed time to understand how God works in this world and He acted in partnership with the Father. The Truth of Emmanuel means that we work in partnership with God to testify His loving presence in this world. The gospel is not about ending world hunger or solving the problem of poverty. These situations will always be our reality. Jesus Himself was born poor and died unjustly in a brutal and violent manner. When He resurrected from the dead, He did not give us a mandate to end all these injustices in this world. This is something that goes beyond our vocation. This does not mean that we turn a blind eye towards injustices. However, we should not forget that we have a higher calling. He gave us the commandment to preach the Truth that God is with us. He is with the sheep that wanders off into the loneliness of the wilderness. He is a God who suffers with those who suffer and mourns with those who mourn. He is the God who is able to touch the lepers of our society and heal them of their isolation and abandonment. This Truth when spoken at the right moment cuts into the deepest being of the human soul. It has the power to lift these people up and give them the voice and strength to stand against the injustices of this world. No political ideology or social program can do this. They can only perhaps identify the problem. The solution is found in the good news. God has given those who serve Him the privilege of sharing the good news. However, it is not an action. The Word of Truth needs to be spoken into the souls of the people. It is not the preaching of empty doctrines. It is the sharing of Truth that can be spoken with authority if we are willing to wait and listen to Holy Spirit.

This is a little longer post than usual. I don’t want to criticize actions without leaving an alternative. Actions are not bad. However, they should not be the first step if we want to serve those who are forgotten in our society. The first step is to go where they are and learn to discern to God’s presence in their midst. We should not talk first. We should wait and listen to the Holy Spirit who is already working there. We don’t bring God to the people. We are called to participate in His work. He is already there waiting for us.

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The Gospel in a Time of Turmoil Part 2

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks a foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.- 1 Corinthians 1:21-22

Since my last post, the protests have gone from a weekly phenomenon to a daily event. The protest are organized by diverse groups. There are liberals, conservatives, the landless laborers, university students, teachers, and even architects. However, the homeless children and teens are absent from all these protests. In a way, they are just like us. They are outsiders. We are outsiders because of the gospel. They are outsiders because they have lost hope. The people who engage in the protests still believe in a better tomorrow. The homeless children don’t even think about tomorrow. I am not sure if they know what to do with their lives in the present. They watch the protests go by like us but they are oblivious to the fact that they are not part of anything happening in this city. They are here but their presence does not make an impact in society. They live in this city and yet they do not belong to it in a real way. These children and teens are lost in the midst of this turmoil.

I sympathize with the protesters in the city. I think that it is good that they are exercising their citizenship. They believe that they are doing something. I don’t know all their demands. There are too many groups frustrated and angry with the government. They share one thing in common. They believe that political reform will bring positive changes to society.

Jesus lived in a time of frustration and anguish. People wanted a political leader who would change everything. They hoped that Jesus was this leader. They wanted a change. Jesus brought change to this world. However, it was not the change the people were expecting. It was the change to which only the lost or the little ones in His society responded positively. It was a change welcomed by those who lived in the margins, which is the meaning of the gospel term for little ones. They had no impact in society similar to little children.

The question is why did only these little ones respond to the person of Jesus and not the rest of society?

Jesus said, “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 2:17

The little ones in the Bible were the tax collectors, prostitutes, the sick, the lame, the very poor, the prisoners and the lepers. They were outsiders. They did not expect much from the established authorities because they had lost hope in the system. They did not believe in the established religion. They did not believe that political change would benefit them. Perhaps they exploited the situation to survive which made them more despicable to society and irrelevant. Nevertheless, the little ones were not expecting anything positive from political or social reforms. Perhaps this was why they were ready for the gospel. They did not have any illusionary hope that the government would help them.

In São Paulo, people predominately from the poor and middle class are marching in the streets because they believe that their happiness in some shape or form will come through political and social reforms. The homeless or the poorest of the poor do not entertain such illusions. They have lost faith in the idols of society. Not because they are wiser than the rest. It is just that they don’t have the resources to believe in these idols. Idols don’t come cheap and they are not accessible to everyone. The middle class still holds on these idols. The middle and upper class are religious, but in the conventional sense. God is one of the ingredients of life. He is not the only One. They believe that a happy life includes having God and…… You fill in the blanks. It could be wealth, family or power. None of these are accessible to the homeless. These are things beyond their reach. It does not make them more virtuous but it makes them open to believing that perhaps having just God alone can help them walk towards a happy and complete life.

It is quite uncomfortable to think this way; mainly because many will accuse me of being simplistic saying that I am spiritualizing the problems of the poor and society in general. However, I think it is very simplistic to think that political reforms can change society. It is even more simplistic and arrogant to think that this generation is going to be the one to do it. It is simplistic to think that we can solve the problems of humanity when a casual look in the mirror will make us realize that we are indeed very complex beings. I don’t claim to know the answer to society’s problems because I don’t think that there is an answer. However, we can point to the One who looks for those who are lost in this world. We don’t have a formula to solve the world’s problems but we know a person that can change the way we understand reality. He helps us see hope in a hopeless reality. This is the message of the gospel, a person and not reforms or theories, but a person.

The rest of society is marching and protesting and hoping that their false gods will answer them. They might not think that the gospel can bring the happiness that they seek. They might think that we are simpletons. However, for those who are lost in this society, they might be ready to receive and experience the healing touch of the Good Shepherd. The gospel is foolish to those who think that they are wise but it is power to those who receive it. We are outsiders because of the power of the gospel. I don’t disagree with the protesters and what they are doing. However, I think the Church in this time of turmoil has something more powerful to offer, not to mention more enduring.

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Better than Silver and Gold

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.-Acts 3:6-8

Today a young girl named Ana Paula asked us what we have to offer to help her leave the streets.  We were little taken aback when we heard this, not because of the question. It is just that Ana Paula rarely engages in any conversation with us. We were surprised that she asked us this decisive question.

Ana Paula is a young adult who had spent most of her childhood in the streets. She does not have any family except for her boyfriend. Igor, her boyfriend, is also an orphan and had spent his childhood in the streets. He has been in and out of the juvenile detention center for several years. Recently, he seemed to have stopped all criminal activities. He even tried to find a job as a cleaner. Perhaps together they have been seriously thinking about finding a way out of the street life. Henceforth, Ana Paula wanted to know what we have to offer.

There are so many social agencies working in the streets. Each group has something different to offer, perhaps a special program to help those living in the streets. It is only natural for Ana Paula to think that we are just like them. She thought that we must have something different to offer as well. Unlike us, most of the non-governmental organizations have silver and gold backing up their programs. We don’t have a social program nor the silver or gold to start one. Nevertheless, we still have something to offer. We do not go to the streets empty handed. The story from the biblical text above is rich in meaning and I believe that gives us a strong foundation for any Christian missionary work, local or otherwise.

Peter has seen this beggar many times. At this particular moment when Peter passed him, the beggar was expecting something from Peter. Perhaps he was asking the same question with his look as Ana Paula asked, “What have you to offer to help me?” Peter gave him the answer. The answer marks the difference between Christian missionary work and social work. We need silver and gold to be successful in social work but Christian missionary work can only be successful if we understand Peter’s answer.

Many things can be said about this healing incident. I have to limit myself here. Today we have a very superficial understanding of healing. Our understanding of healing is  limited to physical healing. We have doctors today to do this. However, doctors cannot heal the soul. The gospel heals the soul. Critics of our work tell us that social workers are more qualified to do our work. They are right if we are trying to do social work. However, we are here to offer the one thing that social workers cannot offer. We are here to offer what we have received. We are recipients of God’s healing. God’s healing has a name and His Name is Jesus. We present the Healer that brings wholeness to our lives has a Name. This Name is only powerful to those who have experienced His healing power in their own lives. If you think that this healing is purely spiritual and has nothing to do with practical life, then you have not experienced the healing power of Jesus. The man healed by the words of Peter was transformed completely. He could no longer return to his old way of living. Healing that the gospel proclaims changes our practical life. It cannot be the gospel if it does not do this.

We gave Ana Paula an answer. His Name is Jesus. We did not preach to her. We did not bring her to a church. Neither did we try to convince her to read the Bible. We told her why we were in the streets. We don’t have silver and gold. Silver and gold did not bring us to where we are today. We have one thing to offer and it is better than anything the world has to offer to her.

Ana Paula did understand what we were offering. She knew that she could not take advantage of all the social programs available for her if she was not healed first. Many of the social agencies have good things to offer but Ana Paula does not believe that she is worthy or capable of achieving any success in this life. She needs to be healed. She needs what we have to offer. We can only offer what we have received. Silver and gold cannot match what we have received from God.

 

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