Isaiah 58:7-10
1 Corinthians
2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16
I remember the instructions we were given on the Annual
Homeless Count in downtown Seattle.
As we walked the cold, dark streets, at 3 in the morning, we
were advised to bring a flashlight. But
this was only for us to see our way in the darkness.
Under no circumstances were we to shine the light on a
sleeping homeless person.
We were told the streets are their home and a light being
shined on them in the darkness would be rude and disrespectful.
But we were to study their encampments, and quietly and
respectfully discern how many people were living there.
This year’s One Night Count found 3,117 souls living outside of Seattle’s many homeless shelters. Men, women and children of all ages.
In Snohomish County, on the same night in late January, the
annual Point In Time homeless count found 1312 homeless people, 41 more than last year.
How a society takes care of the least of our sisters and
brothers is a measure of being a light of the world, salt of the earth.
The Prophet Isaiah spells this out in vivid detail:
“Share
your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the
naked… then light shall rise for you in the darkness.”
Jim Withers is just such a light of
the world. His salt of the earth daily medical
ministry is helping the homeless living on the streets of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
Since 1992, Dr. Jim Withers has made
house calls to people with no houses. He
works five nights a week.
He believes that “unless you walk in
someone else’s shoes, you don’t know what led them to have that life.”
This street doctor with the easy smile, easy laugh and easy-going
manner started his mission with a formerly homeless guy named Mike who works
with Operation Safety Net, a ministry of Pittsburgh Mercy Health System. Every night, Mike hands out sandwiches made
by the Sisters of Mercy at their Motherhouse.
Mike gave the doctor good advice
when they started their 22-year mission together: “Don’t dress like a doctor and don’t act like
a jerk.” He actually started out dressing
like a homeless person to gain the confidence of those he treated nightly.
Today, Dr. Jim has medical students
joining him nightly on his mission along with his friend Mike handing out
sandwiches, blankets and other needed supplies.
He’s treated 1,200
homeless people a year since starting
his special street ministry.
Dr. Jim confides, “people out there
are hanging on for dear life.”
He remembers vividly one of the first people he encountered
in 1992. It was an 85-year-old homeless guy who was severely mentally ill. His legs got so bad living on the streets
that he would actually get maggots growing in his skin.
Dr. Jim says “we have to stretch
ourselves, and care enough to stretch ourselves into their world, into their
reality.”
He believes this model is a whole new way health care can be
delivered to people in the greatest need in America and around the world.
Dr. Jim is committed to seeing this model worldwide and has
helped establish these street medicine programs in 85 cities around the world
and on five continents through his program “NationSwell.”
He says he’d like to see “NationSwell” “become a point of
pride, a jewel in the crown of communities everywhere.”
Dr. Jim says, “we can to do this
under one unified vision, that everybody matters. That we need to look out for the people that
are the most ostracized in our communities.
And that will make us a better people.”
Dr. Jim Withers is Christ among us. He’s doing just what Jesus and the Prophet Isaiah say we all should be doing as the People of God.
It’s not enough to just point to
others and say, “isn’t that nice.” If we
do that, we are salt that’s lost its taste.
No, each of us needs to commit ourselves to “not turn (our)
back on our own.”
Dr. Jim Withers is also living out
our Catholic Social Teaching in a beautiful way.
Many in our Church say Catholic Social Teaching is our best
kept secret in the world today.
But our Catholic Social Teaching
should not be a lamp hiding under a bushel basket. It should “set on a lampstand where it gives
light to all.”
You may have noticed the banners
hanging in the vestibules of both Churches listing the seven tenets of Catholic
Social Teaching. You’ll also find a copy
in the bulletin in the week's ahead.
The banners are there as a reminder
of how we can be a light of the world and salt of the earth in our daily lives.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (the
sixteenth) has written, “the protection of life in all its stages, from the
first moment of conception until natural death is ‘not negotiable.’”
I would encourage you to study our Catholic Social Teaching.
Know it. Share
it. Live it.
It’s our Catholic lamp for being light
of the world.
It’s a way for our light to shine before others, so “that
they may see our good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father.”
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