I have told this story on more than once occasion. The power of the story is such that it has profoundly impacted my life.
It was the first Christmas of my assignment at St Stephen’s, an inner city parish in South Minneapolis, that I experienced God’s light working through others. St Stephen’s at that time was a spiritual refuge for many disenfranchised Christians. Though a Catholic parish, there were many from other Christian traditions who regularly attended Masses at the church. The parish mission statement stated that the church was a large circus tent under which all were welcome. Because the parish based most of its ministry on the social justice teachings of the Bible and the Catholic Church, there was a huge outreach to the homeless in the city, to ex-offenders, the gay and lesbian community, former priests and religious, and all other disenfranchised in the area.
As in many parishes, the 5 pm Mass this one Christmas Eve was packed. At the beginning of Mass, a homeless man, dressed in a purple suit, came to Mass. He appeared to be intoxicated, and sat in the front pew of the church. Throughout Mass, he wept. At the conclusion of Mass, he remained in the pew. He had nowhere to sleep that night. Because he was intoxicated he could not stay in the parish homeless shelter. Newly assigned to the parish and living in rural New Prague, I didn’t know what to do. Among those at Mass were two gay men and their children. One of the men was employed in human services. I remember him sitting next to the homeless man. He listened intently to the man as he poured out his soul to him, and, embraced the homeless man when the man sobbed into his shoulder. Though this gay couple and their children had made plans for Christmas Eve, they took the homeless man into their care, and found a place for the man to stay that night.
As I witnessed this fount of God’s love, grace, and mercy poured out by my gay parishioners that night, I thought of the words of Jesus expressed in the Gospel today. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16, NAB)
We are living in a time when the “cultural warriors” judge one’s “righteousness” (their words more so than mine) or one’s “light” by a narrow set of criteria, namely, abortion and gay marriage. This is done to the exclusion of a far greater criteria spelled out in the Bible and in the life of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. By the narrow criteria of these cultural warriors, they would reject the ministry of Jesus, the followers of Jesus, and those to whom Jesus ministered. It was to those, who many “cultural warriors” oppose , that Jesus chose to associate and lived among. Some of the greatest saints of the early church emerged from the ranks of the greatly despised and rejected of Jesus’ society.
We are called to Christ’s light of the world. One does not have to be Christian to be God’s light to the world. There are many non-Christians, Mahatma Ghandi, for example, whose lives showed God’s light far brighter than many Christian religious leaders. The prophet Isaiah spells out the criteria that God requires of those meaning to be God’s light to the world.
Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday.(Isaiah 58:7-10, NAB)
If we truly live in a relationship with Jesus, we will respond to the plight of others by the criteria given to the prophet Isaiah by God, and, in the manner lived by Jesus. For Jesus, orthodoxy to God was not narrowly defined to a strict living of Mosaic law. Jesus was severely critical of the strict orthodoxy of the Scribes and Pharisees of his time. Jesus blew the confines of Mosaic law away. He didn’t define people’s worth by the narrow orthodoxy of the Scribes and Pharisees. Rather, Jesus peered into the hearts of people to see if they were capable of opening their hearts to the law of God’s love. What was that Law? In the Last Supper discourse of John’s Gospel, Jesus spelled it out very clearly to the disciples at supper. “Love one another as I have loved you.”
In the pastoral letter of James, we hear that spelled out in clear and specific terms. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone may say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. (James 2:14-18, NAB)
If we truly want to be the light of God to our world, we must be willing to share God’s light within us to those who are in need. This is what Jesus did. He became one with those most in need of God’s love and light. He fed them, listen to them, and led them to God, much like those parishioners from St Stephen’s who listened and cared for the homeless man that Christmas Eve in 2004. If we are truly in a deep relationship with Jesus, our relationship will be visible to all.
