Midnight Run

It was sixty-two degrees yesterday and got as low as forty-three degrees at night, but you wouldn’t know it from Alice, who resides in Verdi Square in Manhattan. I use “reside” generously, as Alice is homeless and has been for the past three months. Her demeanor was anything but that which I would expect from a homeless woman; she was friendly, comical, even gregarious, and utterly willing to discuss her current state.

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t gamble, I don’t have sex, I don’t do any of that stuff,” she told my partner and me during our Midnight Run. “I want to live a wholesome life with good people. I may be homeless, but I still have my dignity.”

Not exactly what you’d expect to hear from a woman on a bench with a cart beside her.

Does God Want Us To Be Happy?

It feels like an offensive question. "Of course my God wants me to be happy!" one might hastily proclaim. "My God who sent his son to die on the cross. My God who forgives my sins. Of course my God wants me to be happy! Why else would He have done all of this?"

Frankly, it seems like God has ulterior motives. Happiness doesn't have much stage time in the bible: joy, peace, contentment, they're all there, as well as charity, patience, and kindness, which show up on the list of Seven Heavenly Virtues. Yet happiness is of a different flavor. Happiness is not necessarily synonymous with contentment or peacefulness. "Blessed are the poor, the meek, the merciful," Matthew recounts in chapter 5 of his gospel, listing states of being that are far from happy.

Where in the World Is Catholicism?

The Center for American Catholic Studies requires that we write a monthly reflection on our service. Thought I'd share:

Image c/o www.conversantlife.com

"I have a question: why do we always worship a white Jesus?" a high school student in the youth group asked this past week. Her question becomes particularly poignant when considering that she attends a predominantly Mexican parish, and even more so when remembering that her house is cluttered with images that portray a Mexican mother of Jesus.

Moreover, her question necessitates an answer that is much too big to explain fully in youth group. The real answer to her question would explain why I spent most of my life worshiping a white Jesus without thinking to question it, and why my Italian-American family doesn't recall that our Sicilian ancestors worshiped black saints.

Sam, the leader of youth group, circumvented the long answer. He explained that religious imagery has often been portrayed according to those who funded it and spread it, and then he allowed her to own Catholicism much more than Mexicans ever have in America's white-Jesus history. "Catholicism is, largely, thriving in Latin America and Africa," he replied. "In 500 years, I suspect we'll all worship a brown Jesus."