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 

Gratefully Humbly Listen

Yesterday I spoke with a particular homeless woman who once again I'll call "Anna."  Anna told me that we do well to be attentive to the many blessings God bestows upon us.  She described how we receive many blessings from God, so we ought consciously to express gratitude for these new blessings which arise so often in our lives.  

As I have previously related, Anna is not only homeless, but is addicted to methamphetamines.  It is so easy to conclude mistakenly from our neighbor's mistakes that we have nothing to learn from our neighbor.  If we judge our neighbor, we are deciding not to learn from our neighbor.  

In deciding not to listen to our neighbor, we are closing ourselves off to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to us through our neighbor.  We hear echoes of saints as our neighbor speaks to us.  

Saint Ignatius of Loyola prescribed that persons perform an examen at the end of each day in which they look back at their day and recall the many blessings from God over the course of the day.  Upon reviewing the numerous blessings from God during the day, we then give thanks to God and we praise God for so abundantly blessing us.  

When we are grateful to God, we become more conscious of how much He blesses us.  As we become more grateful to God, we become receptive to how He seeks to teach us in unexpected ways and through people who we would otherwise shun.  

As we open our hearts to those amongst us who are despised, we open our hearts to Jesus.  In how we react to those among us who are marginalized, so we treat Jesus.*  

If we refuse to hear what our reviled neighbor has to say, we may be rejecting saintly advice.  One who is maligned may very well be speaking the words of a saint without our realizing it.  

Everyday we are presented with wisdom as we go about our day.  If we are humble, we can learn from our neighbor.  

If we love our neighbor, we can learn from our neighbor.  God seeks to teach us through our neighbor.  

When we listen to our neighbor, we love our neighbor as ourselves,** since we would like others to listen to us.  Let us listen to each other, and thus learn from each other, and thus love each other.  Amen.  

* Matthew 25:40,45 
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Truly Loving Life

If we sow love, we reap joy.  Our friends bring us joy as they love us.  We bring each other joy as we let God love others through us.  

When we reach the final stretch of our lives, we can look back on our lives either sorrowful or rejoicing.  Thus we do well to imagine, much like Saint Ignatius of Loyola suggests, being near the end of our life and looking back on the choices we are making today.  We can envision on how we will feel in the last days of our lives about the decisions we are making today.  

Similarly, we can find consolation at the end of a friend’s life if we consider what kind of life our friend has lived.  At the end of our friend’s life, we can look back on his life and feel joy at the love he has chosen to be manifested in his life.  In focusing on the love we have received from our friend, we can feel gratitude for the gifts God has given us through our friend.  Thus as a friend’s life draws to an end, we can celebrate, out of deep gratitude and appreciation for the numerous gifts God has given us through our friend who is about to move onward.  

We can realize that death is an opportunity to be transformed.  Certainly we mourn the passing of our friends.  Yet as we weep, we implicitly admit we have received the gift of love from God through our neighbor.  

Thus in the midst of pain and suffering, we are presented with opportunities to thank God for the love we have felt.  Even amidst anguish and torment, we are given chances to be grateful to God.  

Certainly we are deeply disturbed when those who witness to the truth suffer.  Yet in their witness to the truth, in how they have lived their lives, they have encouraged us, and have helped us to feel the joy which comes from loving and from welcoming the truth into our hearts.  

And so on this particular date on the liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church we feel distressed as well as encouraged.  Today in the Catholic Church we especially recall the death of Saint John the Baptist.  Saint John the Baptist had lived a life of witnessing to the truth.  He had heralded the coming of Jesus,* who is The Truth.**  Saint John the Baptist had encouraged people to reform their lives,*** and so welcome The Truth, The Word that Jesus was speaking and living.  Saint John the Baptist was also not afraid to proclaim the truth to those in power.  He had told King Herod that it was wrong for him to be with Herodias, who was his brother’s wife.  Since Herodias did not want to hear that moral truth, she told her daughter Salome to ask King Herod for the head of Saint John the Baptist on a plate, which Salome requested.  Saint John the Baptist was beheaded for witnessing to the truth.****    

I am disturbed when I go back and read of how Saint John the Baptist was decapitated for proclaiming the truth to a leader.  Yet death need not be reason only for sadness.  When someone dies for declaring the truth, such a person has lit a candle of truth.  When a person dies, the statement of the truth of the person’s life has been made.  Life may have departed from that body, but the statement of truth which that person has made, and the expression of love which that person has lived, cannot be extinguished.  The truth and the love that person has shown lives on in our hearts.  

And so, in the face of impending death, we are led to consider a profound question: what kind of a life has someone lived?  As this life ends, we are faced with the question of how the gift of life from God has been used by the person who is going to meet God who gave the person that life.    

In considering the type of life that Saint John the Baptist lived, we see that he witnessed to the truth.  He fiercely loved the truth.  He loved the truth more than his own life.  He was not afraid to proclaim the truth, and he was thrown in prison for doing so,***** and then murdered for doing so.  He kept witnessing to the truth all the way to the end of his life, and witnessed to the truth even at the cost of his own life.  

Although probably we will not be imprisoned or executed for stating the truth, nevertheless we are presented with opportunities to speak the truth tenaciously and to love fiercely, not capitulating to temptations to despair.  I have been blessed with a marvelous model who has demonstrated loyalty to the truth and to the love inherent in the truth.  I have written before of my older friend who I address as “Uncle.”  Through his words and actions, he has stayed on the course God has laid out before him, witnessing to the truth of who and what God has called him to be.  I have written before of how Uncle had a stroke nearly a year ago.  For almost a year, Uncle has been unable to move as he used to move, and has not been able to speak.  Yet he has patiently stayed the course laid out before him.  He has continued to demonstrate the truth of how God calls us to face the challenges which unfold in our lives.  Uncle has bravely endured the suffering he has felt, doing as God calls him to do until death.  

He has kept showing his family how to encounter challenges they face.  I think of someone I know who has suffered multiple major setbacks over the course of the year which has just passed.  If Uncle could speak, perhaps he would say to this other courageous soul, “I am right here with you, suffering along with you.  You and I are sharing pain together.”  Uncle has been encouraging others around him.  He has been demonstrating to them how to persist in the face of adversity.  To the end, Uncle is embracing the task of teaching his family and friends how to welcome the duty of this present moment, as Jean-Pierre de Caussade described.  All the way to the end, Uncle is showing those he loves how to love, by embracing the duty set before him.  

If our nearly departed friend has lived loving God and his neighbor, at the end of our friend’s life, we can rejoice with our friend, grateful for the love God has shown us through our friend.  Looking back on choices well made, through which a person has witnessed to the truth that we are called to love God and our neighbor in every little choice we make in every moment, then we feel the joy that loving others brings to us and to others.  

When we welcome this duty which God sets before us, we welcome God into our hearts.  As we welcome God into our hearts, we welcome love into our hearts.  Opening our hearts to God, God fills us with the love we need to do His will.******  Filled with the love of God, we are enabled through His grace to carry out His will.  Overflowing with the love of God, we can witness to the truth, no matter what the cost.  Empowered with His grace, we can endure whatever hardships we encounter.  With the love of God, we can suffer through our own torment so as to help others weather their own storms.  Through the love of God, we can love as God has loved us.  Amen.  

* Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:26-27

** John 14:6 

*** Matthew 3:1-2,8; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3,8 

**** Matthew 14:3-10; Mark 6:17-28; Luke 3:19

***** Matthew 14:3; Mark 6:17; Luke 3:19-20 
****** Romans 5:5