Never Judge

St. Benedict Labre was born March 26, 1748 at Amettes, France. He was the oldest child in a family of 15 children. In his later teenage years, he tried to enter various Trappist, Carthusian, and Cistercian monasteries. In some, he was allowed to enter but did not persevere according to their standards. Some say it was due to either his health or his unyielding desire to be totally destitute that prevented him from staying in any one monastery. Sometimes, upon his return home, his family merely said, “We told you so.” He soon left home again, and the last word his parents received from him was that he was headed to Rome to find and enter a rigorous religious order.

After he arrived at Rome, St. Benedict seemed to have received a special illumination as to what his vocation would be–he felt called to make a perpetual pilgrimage to the famous sites of Europe. He wore only the shabbiest apparel, slept on the ground, and never begged for money unless he was sick. He carried two rosaries, a Bible, a breviary, and The Imitation of Christ. Upon Benedict’s entry into a confessional, the priest would often have to brace himself against the homeless odor of sweat and dirt.

Sores on his knees attested to his long hours of prayer. Sometimes, his body would levitate while he was praying. Soon, his intense austerities took their toll. Benedict died on April 16, 1783; he was 35 years old. Leo XIII canonized him in 1881, and his feast day is April 16th.

A couple of years ago, there was a young man twenty-something living homeless in downtown Los Angeles by the name of Nathan. He felt his vocation in life was to be homeless and to minister to other homeless people. After hearing the story of St. Benedict Labre, we probably should not judge.
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Just Some Famous People Who Were Homeless

Jesus:
The founder of Christianity who was born homeless in a barn and died homeless in a borrowed grave . . . In his own words Jesus said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head." (Matthew 8:20, Luke 9:58)

Ella Fitzgerald:
Grammy Award-winning singer and U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient . . . She lived on the streets of Harlem in New York City for a year as a teenager just before she won an amateur singing talent contest at the Apollo Theater that launched her career.

Jewel:
She is a Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter who in 1979 lived out of a VW van and was joined eventually by her mother/manager Lenedra Carroll. In her own words she said, "I was homeless when I was 18." (TV Guide magazine, March 16-22, 2009, pg. 9)

David Letterman:
He is an Emmy Award-winning television writer, comedian, talk-show host and author. As host of the television talk-show Late Show with David Letterman, he once lived out of a red 1973 Chevy pickup truck before making it in his television career.

"Dr. Phil" (Phil McGraw):
He is a well-known TV talk show host, best-selling author and psychologist. At the age of 12, he was homeless in Kansas City, Kansas after he and his father moved there. His dad was struggling to make it as he himself interned as a psychologist. In his own words, Dr. Phil once said, “I was homeless living in a car with my dad. We eventually got a room at the downtown YMCA for five bucks a week.”

Joan Rivers:
She is an Emmy Award-winning television talk-show host who frequently guest hosted the Tonight Show for Johnny Carson. She is a best-selling author, comedienne and once lived homeless early on in her career out of her car.

William Shatner:
The star and face of the Star Trek “cult”, he is an Emmy Award-winning actor-director and best-selling Canadian-born author. He once lived out of a pick-up truck with a walk-in camper on the back for a time after his divorce due to financial difficulties and after the cancellation of the television series Star Trek, in which he starred. He travelled in that time the east coast of the U.S. appearing in a play on the summer theater circuit and sleeping in the camper with his dog. Shatner said, "I now had three children and an ex-wife to support and I was just about broke. I even lived out of a pick-up truck for a while." (DailyMail.co.uk, May 11, 2008)
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Why did Jesus have to Die?

Why did Jesus have to die? How did he cleanse us from sin? The Bible refers to Jesus as the “unblemished lamb,” (Cf. 1 Peter 1:19) meaning he was pure and holy, made of pure love and charity. As a result, he had to suffer and die and thereby be a perpetual example of authentic love and forgiveness for all those who are to be saved. In his own person and by his own illustration, he became a living sacrifice, a living beacon of love that, by the power of his Spirit at work in the world for all ages to come after his ascension, he can also transform all those who believe in him into similar models of love, forgiveness and charity. He therefore reconciled us to God doing in his own person what the law could not do.

Why did he have to die the most brutal death possible? Because in that death he could forever show us the way to heaven – the way of forgiveness and the life of charity that unites us with the Father, who is love himself and through Christ makes us his adopted sons and daughters.

How did he cleanse us from sin? He reconciled us to God by putting a new heart within us, a new Spirit – sanctifying us with a Spirit of love, charity, mercy and forgiveness (Cf. Ezekiel 36:26). In the Old Testament, those who lived under the times of the law could not do that. But now he has reconciled us to God the Father by placing us under the law of mercy, for “Judgment is without mercy to those who have shown no mercy, yet mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Ultimately, Jesus died because as C. S. Lewis states in Mere Christianity, he had to pay our debt through his pure love and charity. That is to say that no one could pay but him the cost of the debt we human sinners had accrued - similar to when a judge sets the amount of a fine. The fine is to pay for the cost of the crime, the transgression committed. That is what Jesus did for us, he paid the debt, the cost, because otherwise none of us could have afforded it. The debt was beyond our capacity to pay.
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Lord, Give Me a Heart of Flesh

"A new heart will I give you and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will take away the stony heart and give you a heart of flesh."
Ezekiel 36:26

“Lord, give me a heart of flesh,
To hear your words your love,
I’ve had a heart of stone for so long,
And teach me how to listen close,
And where to hear your voice,
Now Lord, before I sing my song.” Joe Wise, from A New Day

“Some of your hearts are not worth keeping! The sooner you get rid of them the better. They are hearts of stone. Do you feel today that you have a stony heart? Go home, and I pray the Lord hear my desire that your polluted heart may be removed. Cry unto God and say, “Take away my heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh;” (Ezek 11:19, 36:26) for a stony heart is an impure heart, a divided heart, an unpeaceful heart. It is a heart that is poor and poverty–stricken, a heart that is void of all goodness, and you can neither bless yourself or others, if your heart be such.” Charles Spurgeon + 1892
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Your Light will Break Forth Like the Dawn

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor homeless with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I." Isaiah 58:6-7

“For freedom, Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1

Jesus Christ is our true liberator. We pray to him:

R Free your people, Lord!

For those who are called by your name in foreign lands and who are unjustly bound and tortured, we pray: R

For those who are called by your name in the land of the free and who are unjustly oppressed because of the good they do, we pray: R

For those who are trapped in homelessness, hunger, cold, thirst and nakedness, we pray: R

For those who are imprisoned in stony hearts from wealth, arrogance, self-righteousness and pride, we pray: R
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I Pity the Fool: A legendary actor uses his Christian faith to help motivate and inspire people to help the homeless

By Mr. T

“My celebrity status allows me an opportunity, allows me a pulpit to preach and reach out to the people. Not even always preaching but just leading, motivating them by being a leader.

“In Los Angeles I take food and clothes to the Midnight Mission the homeless shelter. Ever since ‘Rocky,’ I've gone down there quietly—I never call the press and say, ‘See me helping the people!’
“My mother told me, ‘Son, nobody else but God knows.’ And that’s what I’m about—reaching out to the people, crying with them, giving them hope. Visiting the hospital, visiting the kids with cancer, visiting the adults, and stuff like that. That’s what I do. And so the show sort of reflects those things, and gives me an opportunity to raise people’s spirits, inspire them to help others, to give them hope.

“The show is called ‘I Pity the Fool’, but we’re not calling nobody a fool--everybody knows that that’s my saying. It's not derogatory in no way, I guarantee that when people see the show they’re going to be surprised and they’re going to be hooked because it’s nothing like what people think. It’s a reality show [but] we’re not eating worms, we’re not naked, we’re not having sex with nobody, we’re not wrestling pigs and stuff like that. It’s me doing my thing, but this time the cameras are with me.

“I use my celebrity status to inspire someone, to give them hope. I tell them where I grew up—on the South Side of Chicago. I tell them how I was born and raised in the ghetto, but the ghetto wasn’t born and raised in me. About how I loved and respected my mother, how my mother used to teach us to bless our food, and reminded us to be thankful for what we had. She said if you can appreciate what little you have, God will give you more. And that’s what I think happened when I look back on my life.”

More on the Internet: http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Celebrities/Words-Of-Wisdom-From-Mr-T.aspx
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When a House is not a Home: In a broken home, homelessness is more common than you think

By Burt Bacharach, 1964

A chair is still a chair
Even when there's no one sitting there
But a chair is not a house
And a house is not a home
When there's no one there to hold you tight,
And no one there you can kiss good night.

A room is still a room
Even when there's nothing there but gloom;
But a room is not a house,
And a house is not a home
When the two of us are far apart
And one of us has a broken heart.

Now and then I call your name
And suddenly your face appears
But it's just a crazy game
When it ends it ends in tears.

Darling, have a heart,
Don't let one mistake keep us apart.
I'm not meant to live alone. Turn this house into a home.
When I climb the stair and turn the key,
Oh, please be there still in love with me.

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Through Mountain and Valley, Slope and Cliff, Thorn and Thicket, He will lead us all Home

I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun. (Zechariah 8:7)

Some at times can feel and sense the futility, the monotony of our exile here on earth while we yet work another day, commute another time, work hard and perform the same daily rituals at home. Hopelessness can easily overwhelm a person, especially leaving them with a sense of “homelessness,” that is until our soul comes home to rest in God, the one who made us and to whom we are going.

[Jesus said . . .] “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” Luke 15:4-6

The Lord is my shepherd and he will lead me home. Through mountain and valley, slope and cliff, thorn and thicket, he will lead us all home. In hope let us pray . . .

R Lead your people home!

For those who live on the streets, in the shelters, under bridges, on beaches, in parks and in the alleyways of our cities. R

For those left homeless by tornados, hurricanes, floods, fire, earthquakes and war. R

For those who have abandoned home, spouse, children, mother, father, friends and family. R

For those who have wandered from the church of their heritage. R

May the Lord, our Shepherd confirm our adoption with the Father and lead us to our heavenly homeland. Amen!

Wealth, Conversation, Wrath and Anger

For the sake of profit many sin, and the struggle for wealth blinds the eyes. A stake will be driven between fitted stones— sin will be wedged in between buying and selling.

Unless one holds fast to the fear of the Lord, with sudden swiftness will one’s house be thrown down.

When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do people’s faults when they speak. The furnace tests the potter’s vessels; the test of a person is in conversation.

The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so speech discloses the bent of a person’s heart. Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.

If you strive after justice, you will attain it, and wear it like a splendid robe. Birds nest with their own kind, and honesty comes to those who work at it.

A lion lies in wait for prey, so does sin for evildoers. The conversation of the godly is always wisdom, but the fool changes like the moon.

Limit the time you spend among the stupid, but frequent the company of the thoughtful. The conversation of fools is offensive, and their laughter is wanton sin . . .

Whoever has shifty eyes plots mischief and those who know him will keep their distance; in your presence he uses honeyed talk, and admires your words, but later he changes his tone and twists the words to your ruin. I have hated many things but not as much as him, and the Lord hates him as well. A stone falls back on the head of the one who throws it high, and a treacherous blow causes many wounds.

Whoever digs a pit falls into it, and whoever lays a snare is caught in it. The evil anyone does will recoil on him without knowing how it came upon him. Mockery and abuse will befall the arrogant, and vengeance lies in wait for them like a lion.

Those who rejoice in the downfall of the godly will be caught in a snare, and pain will consume them before they die. Wrath and anger, these also are abominations, yet a sinner holds on to them.

Sirach 27 - 28
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Those Who are Forgiven Much Should Love Much

By Simon Tugwell

Our Lord gives us a severe warning in his parable of the servant who owed his master an incredibly large sum of money and was let off (Matthew 18:23ff). The fact that we refer to it as the parable of the unforgiving servant already lays us open to the danger of misunderstanding it. Our Lord presents it, not as a story about servants, but as a story about their master. It was because he was too concerned about himself that the first servant, having been let off his enormous debt, went straight out to demand payment from one of his fellow servants. We are not told what was going on in his mind, but it is easy to guess. Presumably he had been worried to distraction by his colossal debt, and came into his master’s presence thinking only of that, only of his own prospects. When he had heard that all was remitted, he did not give a thought to his master’s generosity, he went away still thinking of himself; and feeling shaky and in need of reassurance, he went off, as we so often do, to take it out on somebody else, to restore his self-esteem by the exercise of power. He had missed the essential point of what had happened to him . . . Forgiveness, then, is something to do with the penetration of the totality of God’s life into our fallen world . . . The center of forgiveness is God himself.

Fr. Simon Tugwell is Dominican priest and the author of several books, including The Beatitudes: Soundings in Christian Traditions.

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