Earlier this week I crossed paths once more with the homeless woman who again I'll call "Kimberly." When we met up on the sidewalk in front of the Catholic Worker House, Kimberly said she could use a sympathetic ear.
Soon after we started talking, Kimberly began crying. She shared how, when she is feeling down, she eats desserts without thinking how much she is eating. Later, after she has finished eating, she recovers her senses and realizes she has stopped eating. She added that you wouldn't know it from looking at her: she is quite slender.
Although I don't gorge myself on sweets these days, I do cope with low moods by having dessert. I cope in one of the same ways as the homeless woman who confessed to me that she takes methamphetamines.
We can easily convince ourselves that we have nothing in common with homeless people. We can believe we have nothing to do with them.
When we get to know people, we find we are like each other. We find we are closer together than we had thought. When we understand others who we had thought were very different from us, we have compassion for them.
As we find we are alike, we find the line between us and our neighbor is not as clear as we had thought. We come to see that our neighbor is like us. And so we come to love our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus taught us to do.*
* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
Soon after we started talking, Kimberly began crying. She shared how, when she is feeling down, she eats desserts without thinking how much she is eating. Later, after she has finished eating, she recovers her senses and realizes she has stopped eating. She added that you wouldn't know it from looking at her: she is quite slender.
Although I don't gorge myself on sweets these days, I do cope with low moods by having dessert. I cope in one of the same ways as the homeless woman who confessed to me that she takes methamphetamines.
We can easily convince ourselves that we have nothing in common with homeless people. We can believe we have nothing to do with them.
When we get to know people, we find we are like each other. We find we are closer together than we had thought. When we understand others who we had thought were very different from us, we have compassion for them.
As we find we are alike, we find the line between us and our neighbor is not as clear as we had thought. We come to see that our neighbor is like us. And so we come to love our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus taught us to do.*
* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
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