This summer I had the intense desire to serve and felt the urgency for people to be loved. I traveled to Ohio to do a Summer of Service with Christ in the City and was brought into a new place of Christ’s Heart. I witnessed how His Heart desires to descend to the depths and abide with the suffering. As Fr. Michael Gately expressed, “God’s mercy is like water, it always flows to the lowest place.” Christ has descended to the depths, and we are called to follow Him there. We enter with Him into the poverty of humanity, the agony of loneliness, and the pain of our separation from God. When I encountered the poor, I saw this pain. But also, I saw myself in them. I saw my own poverty before God and my own desperate need to be loved and delighted in.

Being deeply moved by encountering the poor on this mission trip, I wanted to move to Colorado and do a year of service. Yet, that was not what I was called to do. The realization came: there are people to love right here in Dallas; I don’t need to travel far to find people that need to be loved. As St. Mother Teresa stated clearly, “Love begins at home.” Further, she also urged us to: “Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are.” Ultimately, I was filled with peace and excitement with the decision to stay in Dallas and join the mission already taking place here with Project Finding Calcutta.

Project Finding Calcutta (PFC) follows the mission laid out by Mother Teresa, the mission to bring the love of Christ into the poverty of the world. This poverty takes on many forms, including loneliness. As Mother Teresa stated: “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” Essentially, we all are poor before God, and we all desire to be loved in our poverty. To be encountered in our poverty we must be present to it.

In practical terms, homeless ministry with PFC is walking the streets, giving out food and water to the homeless, and striking up a conversation with them. These are simple actions that run deep. By speaking with them and simply being humans together in a good conversation, they are once again treated as someone worth talking to. In one conversation, they are brought back to being treated as they should and seen as they should be seen- as an Image of God. Thus, the mission isn’t just to give things to the poor as if it’s a check list to breeze through. Instead, it is the mindset of abiding with the people where they are and loving them right there. It isn’t to fix them or their problems. They aren’t a problem. They are a beloved child of God, and God delights in them right now and as they are. We are called to become the incarnate reality of God loving them. Pope Francis articulated this mindset very clearly when he said:

“An invitation to work for “the culture of encounter”, in a simple way, “as Jesus did”: not just seeing, but looking; not just hearing, but listening; not just passing people by, but stopping with them; not just saying “what a shame, poor people!”, but allowing yourself to be moved with compassion; “and then to draw near, to touch and to say: ‘Do not weep’ and to give at least a drop of life’” (For a culture of encounter, 2016)

Accordingly, the focus of PFC is to cherish the people on the street and recognize their dignity – the dignity that is often forgotten and discarded.

Poverty is often caused by fractures in relationships, such as separation and rejection from friends and family, which causes them to have no one to turn to in times of hardship. They are in poverty of relationship. One specific example of how loss of relationship contributed to poverty is a sweet man in his 70’s that I spoke with. He grew up with a very good life and successful career. Yet, when his parents died, the pain was so great that he turned to alcohol and became so addicted that it ruined his life. The loss of his parents was so intense of a pain that alcohol became his one companion. In talking with him, sharing stories, laughing, and crying together, his face began to light up once more. For a little bit of time, he was no longer alone. For a few minutes, there was someone who cared about how he was doing. That is the mission of PFC.

Our own hearts are softened and made human again by these encounters. It’s not just for their sake that we walk the streets, it’s also for our good. Being moved with compassion is something that allows our hearts to breathe again, and it gives the proper weight to the experience of the poor. Pope Francis spoke about how encounter changes our hearts, saying:

“This discourse also reaches out to the people of today, who are far too “accustomed to a culture of indifference” and who therefore need to “work and ask for the grace to build a culture of encounter, of this fruitful encounter, this encounter that returns to each person their dignity as children of God, the dignity of living”. (2016)

Thus, encounter de-calcifies our heart. It makes us soft and no longer indifferent and numb to suffering.

Homeless ministry involves the challenge of awkwardness in approaching people and starting conversations. On a more serious note, it also has the challenges of witnessing drug and alcohol addictions, traumatic life history, severe mental illness, and diseases. Because of these intense conditions of street ministry, we must come vigilant for strange encounters. We aren’t well received every time, but it’s worth us taking on the risk of being awkward, mocked, and rejected, just so that they might be loved. And if we are mocked, we must take it as penance for the times we have mocked God by our own sin and remember that He has taken the step to love us anyways.

To my surprise, the people I have encountered are often some of the most receptive and genuinely kind people I have met. They have been humbled, and so what you see isn’t a painted grin or false joy. The suffering is raw, and the faith in God is also sincere. I have seen some of the deepest faith on the streets. They have so much stripped away that when they cling to God, it is a true outcry of the soul to be loved and provided for. In their suffering, they did not turn bitter against God, but instead dug deeper in their reverence and loyalty to Him. It is truly beautiful to see. Essentially, because Christ has already entered into the depths, we will always find His face there.

One encounter in particular affected me deeply. A man in his early 30’s was sitting on the curb. I offered him water and asked how his day was going. He was very kind, gentle, and heavy hearted. Soon he was telling me how his mom died only a month ago, and how he loved and missed her. I asked what he loved about her, and he told me how she handed him his Catholic faith. He said, “I have nothing, and so everything I receive is God providing for me and loving me. Right now, you talking with me is God loving me. You are the Face of God to me.” Tearing up, I was deeply moved. Further, I felt so unworthy to be called the Face of God to him. Yet, he was doing the mission of Project Finding Calcutta. Although he was the homeless one and I was the “missionary”, he was the one affirming my dignity and loving me as I am. He could see our common poverty before God, and our common need to be loved. Therefore, homeless ministry is a relational ministry. It is the mutual delight in the Face of God, and the mutual affirming of dignity. This grand mission is accomplished by simple conversations, stories of their lives, and laughter.

Grace
PFC Volunteer
DFW 2024