Listen To Them

I have told you what I have seen with my own eyes and have heard with my own ears.*  I myself have experienced this love.  Feeling this love, I have also felt joy.  

I invite you to welcome Jesus in the poor person in front of you.  I invite you to listen to the homeless person before you.  

Welcome into your heart the impoverished people next to you.  As you become acquainted with the destitute person near you, and as you come to realize that this person is not as unlike you as you had thought, feel the joy that comes from loving your neighbor as yourself.**  Amen.  

* 1 John 1:1 
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Embrace Loving Wisdom

Jesus, You Are filled with wisdom.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit, You Are wisdom and love.  

Manifest His Glory

The glory of God is revealed in a human being who is living as God intended that person to live.  When we become who God has always meant us to be, we do the will of God.  When we become who God created us to be, through our actions then we praise God, for the glory of God is made manifest in us.  

Complete Your Joy

As we heard during the first reading at Mass today in celebration of the feast day of Saint John the Apostle, Saint John heard Jesus with his own ears, saw Him with his own eyes, and touched Him with his own hands.*  Saint John himself experienced Jesus, the Son of God.  

God is love.**  Saint John welcomed the love that is God.  Saint John felt this love, and thus felt joy.  He shared with us this love and this joy, so that our joy may be complete.***  

When we open our hearts to Jesus, we welcome love into our hearts.  As we obediently submit and do whatever Jesus tells us to do,**** we love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength.*****  When we love no matter what the cost, we love others just as Jesus has loved us.******  As we love our neighbor as ourselves******* and thus do the will of God, joy abounds in our souls and overflows to others.  

I have sought to share with you how I have encountered Jesus in the impoverished people around me.********  I have aimed to share with you the love I have been given, and the joy I have felt.  May your joy be complete.  

* 1 John 1:1 
** 1 John 4:8,16 
*** 1 John 1:4 
**** John 2:5 
***** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 
****** John 13:34 
******* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
******** Matthew 25:40,45 

Become Like Him

Jesus was born into the world as a baby.  As an infant, He was helpless.  As a newborn, He was vulnerable.  Jesus, the King of the Universe, was humbled by being born into the world as a tiny frail human being.  He did such a thing since His ways are not our ways.*  God loves us infinitely, and so Jesus, from His great love for us, obediently submitted to the will of Our Heavenly Father by coming to save us from our sins.  

Jesus was born in a stable.**  He came into the world in stark surroundings.  He came to us in a simple setting.  In how He came among us, He demonstrated that we are to acquiesce to becoming little.  We are to accept how God is calling us to be content with whatever God sends to us.  We can choose to happily and joyously depend on God.  We find a sure footing when we completely trust in God.  If we but totally trust in God, we find that there is much stability in humility.  

If we become like Jesus, we are built on a secure foundation, on solid rock.***  If we become like Jesus, we are loving no matter what happens.  If we become like Jesus, we love God for all He sends us.  If we become like Jesus, we love no matter what the cost.  

* Isaiah 55:8 
** Luke 2:16 
*** Matthew 7:24-25; Luke 6:47-48 

Hopefully Move Forward

The last year has been lovely.  God has shed His grace upon me.  Through His grace, He has empowered me to do His will.  I feel that I have done what He sent me here to do.  And so it seems that the time has come to move on from here.  

And so on January 1 I will move back to the hermitage.  I feel God is calling me back there. 

I imagine you are wondering how this conclusion intersects with my previous discernment to leave the hermitage.  

Although I did not explicitly say so, when I left the hermitage to serve poor persons, I was overwhelmingly focused on rejoining the Peace Corps.  I re-applied to the Peace Corps near the end of 2015, and in early 2016, Peace Corps informed me that they could not offer me a position.  

I applied or at least inquired with other organizations serving impoverished people abroad.  Either I didn't hear back at all, or at other times it didn't work out with those other organizations.  
Thus in time I came to realize that one reason I left the hermitage, to serve poor persons overseas, was not materializing.  I let it go, and so the path I thought I was following turned out to be taking me not as far away as I had envisioned.  

Since it started becoming clear I wouldn't be moving to another country again, I began to ponder serving poor folks here in the states.  Having been a Catholic Worker in San Jose before I moved into the hermitage,  I began to think about once again being a Catholic Worker.  

After a brief stint last summer filling in for my friends at Casa de Clara, the San Jose Catholic Worker House, I moved in here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House.  After not too long, I began to get to know homeless folks here in Redwood City.  I came to witness the sense of community amongst those living on the streets here.  I became much closer with them than I had ever felt with homeless folks anywhere else.  And so I have felt much fulfillment as I have served people living on the streets here.  

And yet I have gradually, steadily, increasingly felt more and more spiritually malnourished despite how I have continued the spiritual practices I deepened at the hermitage.  I read Scripture.  I attend Mass.  Yet I have consistently felt that God has been calling me back into more solitude, more silence, more stillness, more contemplation.  I have felt that God has been calling me back into the deep prayer which monastic life fosters, and then will flow whatever service to poor folks naturally, organically arises out of monastic life.  

I feel too that God has given me the grace to make vows to Him.  I know that I can make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to Him.  If I were not to do so, I would be wasting graces God has given to me.  If you know me well, you know well that I cannot stand wasting what God has given to us.  God has given us marvelous gifts: we should not only appreciate and use well His gifts, but thank and praise and adore and glorify God who gives us such magnificent gifts.  Out of gratitude to Him, I do not wish to be the servant who buries in the ground a coin or coins he has received from his Master.*  I do not wish to be the servant who wraps up in a cloth the coin He has received from His Master.**  

I used to think that God had not empowered me to make a vow of chastity.  Perhaps I was correct.  What I do know is that at times I have prayed to God for grace, and He has given it to me.  I have recalled how Our Blessed Mother Mary told Saint Catherine of Laboure that so many people do not receive certain graces because they do not ask for them.  I have seen for myself how it is true that you can receive a grace you have not had if you but ask for it.  

And so I will be moving on with a desire to use well what God has given to me.  I wish to invest well the talents God has given me, so that I may make more,*** just as Jesus teaches us to do.  

I look forward to trying to use well the gifts God has given to me.  I face forward into the future, though parting under these circumstances is bittersweet, and not just for me.  

I think of the homeless woman who once again I'll call "Kimberly."  She has shared her pain with me, and so she and I have come to appreciate each other.  Despite her sorrow, she has expressed to me that she wants to understand my reasons for leaving, and the goals I hope to reach, so that she can better support me in my decision to leave here.  

I think too of the homeless woman who again I'll call "Anna."  As she has been considering my moving away, in the context of how she has been well aware that she must repent and do her best to sin no more, she has confidently proclaimed that at the very least, she will see me again in eternity.  

I am greatly consoled by these mature words of faith, hope and love.  I am encouraged by the spiritual growth these words of sureness convey.  I am comforted as I adjust to leaving here, knowing that such faith resides amongst those who are homeless here.  

Thus I know that I am not deluding myself when I say that I have seen homeless persons rising up here.  I can move on since I have seen real growth and progress among them.  

I am reminded that recently a certain homeless woman who I'll once again call "Jane" showed up here at the Catholic Worker House.  She had rung the doorbell, and in speaking with a Catholic Worker here, she expressed gratitude, saying, "Thank you for helping me to rise up."  Jane too has been rising up from where she had been, to a better place, proven by the gratitude she has expressed.  

I have also seen with my own eyes how a certain woman, who I'll call "Helen," has also moved forward in her life.  Helen used to be homeless.  Now she lives in her own apartment, which I have seen.  I need not doubt her progress, which is evident.  

I hear and see all this proof of rising up with my own ears and with my own eyes.  As my time here draws to a close, I am encouraged by what I hear and see.  

And so, as night has fallen today, so too the twilight of my time here as a Catholic Worker is also upon me.  Yet as this night is upon us, I am not in despair, for a new dawn is rising up in homeless friends I have made here.  This dawn I have been seeing break open in them gives me hope, a hope which stretches beyond them, into the wide community of humanity.  This hope extends beyond this lifetime, into the limitless expanse of eternity.  The fruits of this faith, hope and love will be seen in eternity.  In eternity, we will see the consequences of our faith, hope and love.  

Let us move forward in faith, hope and love now, so that we may live in love for all eternity.  Amen.  

* Matthew 25:18,25 
** Luke 19:20 
*** Matthew 25:20,23 

Lovingly Respect Yourself

Yesterday I saw a certain homeless woman who I'll once again call "Sally."  As I've previously mentioned, Sally has repeatedly suffered domestic violence at the hands of partner after partner.  

Last night Sally shared with me that now she looks for warning signs that a man will abuse her.  She is trying to avoid getting into relationships in which men will mistreat her.  

By requiring her next partner to respect her, Sally is choosing to respect herself.  She is realizing and embracing her own dignity.  Sally is choosing to love herself.  

Loving herself, she can then love her neighbor as herself.  To love our neighbor as ourselves*  just as Jesus taught us, we must love ourselves.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Find Him Helpful

This morning I was unloading boxes from the van into the Catholic Worker House.  Each time I returned to the front door it was closed, just as I had left it.  

One of these times I got to the front door and a homeless woman, who again I'll call "Anna," was there on the front porch.  Anna came over to me and asked how she could help.  I requested that she unlock the front door as I handed her the keys.  She not only did so, but once I had gone into the house, she closed the screen door behind me.  I was grateful for her help since I could not easily manage both carrying so much as well as opening and closing the door.  

By contrast, one of the other times when I was at the front door this morning, I was struggling with a stack of boxes.  Anna had left.  A couple of women who did not look homeless were on the front porch, glancing around at available donations that had been left there for anyone to take.  They did not inquire if they could help me in any way, and they departed as I was struggling with what I was handling.  

The homeless woman, the social outcast, was the one who offered me the help I needed.  We can find people willing to help us in those who are the least among us.  We can get help from Jesus in those who are the least among us.*   

* Matthew 25:40,45 

Learn From Them

Today I heard the truth.  A man corrected a misperception someone else had of him, even though he could have let it continue.  I found his unsolicited honesty refreshing and beautiful.  

Once again the homeless man who I call "Manuel" sat before me.  A woman there with us said that Manuel had stopped using illicit substances.  Immediately Manuel set right this misconception about him.  "No, I'm using," he confessed, meaning that he has been using an illicit drug.  

"Oh, I thought you had stopped," she said.  

Again he could have let this inaccurate image of him continue, but again he told the truth.  "I did stop, but I started again.  I'm using now."  

From a homeless drug addict, I was instructed in the truth.  Jesus, who is The Truth,* comes to us in those who are the least among us,** and comes to instruct us in the truth.  

We can learn from the least of those among us.  We can learn from Jesus, who is still lovingly and persistently coming to us in the poor.  

We can learn to love honesty from those who are poor among us.  We learn about love from Jesus, who is in those who are the least among us.  

Let us listen to those who are poor.  Let us listen to Jesus.  Amen.  

* John 14:6 
** Matthew 25:40,45 

Humbly Request Prayers

The doorbell just rang.  When I opened the door, there stood a certain homeless man I'll once again call "Manuel."  He softly and gingerly inquired whether he was disturbing me.  I smiled as I assured him that he came at the right time, trying to welcome him.  He humbly asked me to pray for him.  

If people ask us to pray for them, they show they are humble.  It takes humility to request someone's prayers.  

In seeking someone else's prayers, we admit that we cannot navigate life's difficulties on our own.  When we would like another person to pray for us, we indicate that we realize that we need help in petitioning God.  

When we turn to God, we demonstrate humility.  If we are humble, we give God what is due to Him as we recognize our true relationship with Him.  Realizing that we are nothing without Him, and that we can do nothing without Him,* we are humbled before Him.  Seeing that God has given us all we have, with much gratitude, we thank Him.  Once we have humility, we become who God created us to be, and so we come to praise, glorify and adore Him.  Amen.  

* John 15:5 

Lovingly Recognize Him

If we do not listen well to our neighbor, it is because we have failed to recognize Jesus in our neighbor.  When we see Jesus in our neighbor, then we will find it easy to love our neighbor.  

Listen To Him

When we are indifferent to what we have, we do not cling to it.  If we value our friends more than our property, we can forgive them if they lose it.  As we value our friends, we help them to value themselves.  

We witness this indifference to property in those who society casts aside.  Thus if we listen to those who have nothing, we can learn from them.  As we embrace the least of those among us, so we welcome Jesus into our hearts.  

I have seen these truths lived out by my homeless friends who I'll call "Luke" and "Katie" here.  Luke had loaned his bicycle to Katie.  She made a stop on the bicycle, and at that spot was sitting and talking with another friend.  A little while later, Katie got up to go to the bicycle, but she didn't find it since someone had taken it.  "Oh, no!" Katie exclaimed.  "Luke is going to kill me!"  

Later when I saw Katie again, I asked her how Luke reacted to the news that his bicycle had been stolen.  She related that Luke had shrugged and had off-handedly remarked, "It's just a bicycle."  

Luke was indifferent about the bicycle.  He was able to forgive Katie for losing it because he valued her friendship more than having that bicycle.  

Valuing her more than property, Luke has helped Katie to value herself.  Forgiving her, Luke has freed her from the bonds of guilt and regret which had been enslaving her.  Loosed of the chains of regret over how she had acted in the past, Katie is free to move forward.  Luke has encouraged her to see herself as more than certain choices she has made in the past.  He is detached from, and is indifferent to what he has, and so he is empowered, by letting go of what he has, by not having anything, to help her let go of the destructive conceptions of herself that she has had.  

To look at Luke, one merely sees a quiet, unassuming, unpretentious individual.  He collects and hauls large volumes of recyclable materials, and brings them to the recycling center to earn a little income.  He is an impoverished, homeless man living on the streets.  

From this poor man, one could conclude that one has nothing to learn.  Yet from this man living on the margins of society, one can receive instruction on the need to be indifferent about one's possessions, or about which course of action to take, much like Saint Ignatius of Loyola counseled.  From a social outcast, one can be taught valuable spiritual lessons.  

Jesus, who is present in the least of those among us,* comes again and again to teach us.  Those who are homeless around us can help us see how to move forward.  In how we respond to them, we determine what we learn.  

In how we react to social outcasts, so we respond to Jesus.  Whatsoever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**  

* Matthew 25:40,45 
** Matthew 25:40,45 

Look For Light

Tonight the doorbell rang.  I answered it.  Out of the darkness came the answer I sought.  

Before me stood a homeless man who I'll once again call "Manuel."  Suddenly Manuel reassured me, "God sees everything you do.  Do not doubt that God knows all the things you are doing.  So just keep on doing what you're doing."  

Often we can wonder whether we're making a difference, and if so, how much of a difference we're making.  We can sink into spiritual desolation if we start to think that we're not accomplishing much.  

I find it apropos that it was today that Manuel came and gave me this particular encouragement.  Today we celebrate the feast day of Saint John of the Cross, who wrote about how one can journey through spiritual darkness.  

We can feel that we are not receiving much spiritual consolation in the midst of our toil.  It might seem as if we are laboring without it being clear what we are really doing.  

Yet in the midst of this spiritual darkness, a light shines.  A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not put it out.*  

After night had fallen tonight, the doorbell here rang.  At the door I found a homeless man who presented me with a spiritual candle, lit in the darkness, and bringing to me light through the hope he was urging me to maintain.  

Jesus comes to us in those who are poor, in those who are outcast, in those who are the least among us.**  Jesus comes to us and encourages us to keep moving forward, even when we are in darkness.  

Jesus is the light of the world.***  He shows us the way since He is The Way.****  

When we find ourselves in darkness, if we look for the light He is giving to us always, since He is with us always,***** we will see The Way.  Even in darkness, we can see Him, and so we can see The Way home to Our Heavenly Father.  

* John 1:5 
** Matthew 25:40,45 
*** John 8:12; 1 John 1:5
**** John 14:6 
***** Matthew 28:20 

Magnify Your Faith

An image suddenly appears.  Many years later, upon microscopic examination, much smaller images are discovered inside the originally visible large image.  All of this happens on a fabric which has not been decomposing even though many years have passed.    

The image is on the tilma, or the cloak, of an impoverished person named Saint Juan Diego, who lived in what is now known as Mexico.  In December 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego.  He went to the archbishop to relate to him how Our Blessed Mother Mary had told him that a church should be built there in her honor.  The archbishop asked for a sign to prove who she was.  At her instruction, Juan Diego gathered roses up into his cloak.  When he opened his cloak before the archbishop and the roses fell onto the floor, there on his tilma was the image of Our Lady Of Guadalupe, whose feast day we celebrate today.  

In recent years scientists have closely examined the tilma.  Able to magnify portions of it, they have found fourteen persons depicted in the eyes of the image of Our Lady Of Guadalupe.  

Normally a tilma like this would have started coming apart once twenty years had passed.  However, after nearly 500 years, the tilma has stayed together.  

Here I have related only three miraculous properties of the tilma bearing the image of Our Lady Of Guadalupe.  I find these scientifically inexplicable phenomena encouraging my faith in God, in Jesus, born of Our Blessed Mother Mary.  

Lovingly Find Fulfillment

I have been encouraged recently by a particular homeless woman who I'll call "Julie."  In her tenacity and commitment to her goals, she has been reassuring me that she loves herself and will keep caring for herself.  

Julie had been aiming to get some certain personal business squared away.  She had been working on it in increments, at times enlisting the help of some of her friends.  

In the last week, Julie finally finished the daunting task.  After she had completed it, she and I exchanged high fives.  

Although Julie has suffered from depression, she is rising up out of her despair.  She has found that antidote to depression which productivity provides.  

More significantly, she has started to value her own self, and so she has been making decisions which reflect her realization of her own self-worth.  Appreciating herself, she acts accordingly, loving herself.  

Loving herself, she can love her neighbor as herself,* just as Jesus taught us to do.  Love is the fulfillment of ourselves and of others.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Remember His Love

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  Some might ask what difference it makes to them in their everyday lives that Our Blessed Mother Mary was immaculately conceived without sin in her.  

In our lives everyday, we face challenges.  When these obstacles in our lives seem so daunting that they feel overwhelming, we can be considerably heartened and strengthened if we ponder the Immaculate Conception.  

In the midst of formidable trials, we can be fortified, and can remain on solid rock, if we consider the Immaculate Conception, for it is a sign of God's great love for us.  Our Blessed Mother Mary had not yet come into being, and so she had not done anything to merit being conceived without sin in her.  She was so conceived purely from the love of God.  

God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to us.*  God sent His Holy Spirit upon Our Blessed Mother Mary; she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.**  God sent the breath of His love into Mary, she conceived by the power of that love, and Jesus, love incarnate, came forth into the world.  God brought love into the world through Jesus, for God is love.***  

We can remember this immense love God has for us when we feel we are being overcome by misfortune.  If we keep in mind this tremendous love God feels for us, we can remain in peace despite intense tribulation.  God gives peace to those who remember His love for them.  Amen.  

* John 3:16 
** Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35 
*** 1 John 4:8,16 

Do Not Doubt

If I say that I am right with God, all I do is prove that I am not right with God.  We are all sinners.  We are all in need of God's mercy.  

Do not doubt; sin we will.  This is not to say that we should abandon our best efforts not to sin; certainly not.  Since God calls us back to Him, God calls us not to sin, for to sin is to choose to turn away from God.  

Despite our best efforts, we will sin.  When we sin, God calls us to repent.  

Do not doubt; God's mercy is greater than our sin.  God is infinite, and so God's mercy is infinite.  The name of God is mercy, as our Holy Father Pope Francis reminds us.  Jesus is love and mercy itself, as He told Saint Faustina.  

Do not doubt; God is love,* and so God is merciful.  If you think that God will not forgive your sin, you forget that God is infinite, and thus that God's love is infinite.  

God's love is greater than anything we think, say or do.  So often what we think, say and do is sinful.  As we come to see how much we sin, we can allow ourselves to be humbled.  If we come to see ourselves as the grains of dust that we are in this vast universe, then we can welcome the humility that can lead us to beg God to forgive our sins.  

God gives grace to the humble.**  By the grace of God, we can come to be who God made us to be, acknowledging that His love and mercy are infinite.  Through the grace of God, we do His will, and take our rightful places in this life, and in the next.  Amen.  

* 1 John 4:8,16 
** 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6 

Gratefully Become Ourselves

This morning I saw a particular homeless woman I'll once again call "Kimberly" here.  She announced that she has been sober for three days.  

She shared with me that when she went to be interviewed for the outpatient rehabilitation program she will soon enter, they didn't proceed with the interview because their computer system was down.  They said they'll interview her in two days.  

Immediately Kimberly expressed her contentment with the situation as she noted, "Well, then it'll be even better, since I'll have five days sobriety by then."  Rather than become disgruntled and discouraged, she chose to recognize and value the benefit of the delay.  

I am encouraged by how my dear friend Kimberly is appreciating what God is handing to her in her circumstances.  She is showing interest in being grateful to God for what He is giving to her.  

When we are grateful to God, then we thank God.  If we thank God, we are recognizing His love.  

As we realize that God is love,* we can come to adore God.  Coming to see that God is, we can praise God since He is.  

As we thank God, as we adore Him, as we praise Him, as we glorify Him, we become who God created us to be.  When we thank and adore and glorify and praise God, we become our true selves.  

* 1 John 4:8,16 

Respect Your Dignity

This afternoon a certain homeless woman stopped by here at the Catholic Worker House.  Again here I'll call her "Kimberly."  
Kimberly excitedly told me that she has been invited to start an outpatient rehabilitation program.  When she shared this good news with me, we happily exchanged high fives.  

She explained that the people running the program told her that if she wanted to enter the program, she should not use illicit substances.  Immediately she announced that today is her third day in a row being sober.  Upon declaring this wonderful news, her eyes welled up with tears.  

I rejoice in my soul that my dear friend is taking healthy steps to proclaim her realization of her own self-worth.  She is putting her self-respect into action by not abusing her own body.  

She is being lifted up from the spiritual and emotional morass in which she had been dwelling.  She is being delivered from her sins.  

God has raised high the lowly.*  He has helped her to recognize and to respect her own dignity.  God has filled the starving with good things.**  He has come to her aid, and in her dire hunger, craving true food, He has nourished her with the insight she has needed to value her own self.  

God has come to our help.***  God raises us up, mindful of His faithful love.****  

* Luke 1:52 
** Luke 1:53 
*** Luke 1:54 
**** Luke 1:54 

Care For Yourself

Yesterday I saw a certain homeless woman who I'll once again call "Kimberly."  Kimberly looked calmer and more composed and sounded more coherent than she had been.  

I noted, "You've seemed like you've been doing better lately.  Today it looks like you're doing even better."  

She explained, "Yeah, I decided not to get high today."  

I reassured her, "Well, it makes a difference."  

Kimberly has realized the ill effects which methamphetamines have on her.  She wants to stop using meth.  

Kimberly is choosing to take care of herself, and so she is loving herself.  When we love and respect ourselves, we begin to live the life God created us to live.  

Decide To Love

I know a particular homeless woman who once again I'll call "Sally."  Sally has been subjected to domestic violence on countless occasions by multiple men.  

Recently I overheard Sally declare that she will not have any more abusive relationships.  She has decided that she will no longer stand for being abused.  She will not tolerate abuse, since she loves herself.  

Sally has decided to love herself.  When we love ourselves, then we can love our neighbor as ourselves,* just as Jesus taught us to do.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14