A Faithful Friend!
@LGBTQ;homelessness;faith
Faithful Friendship!
Nothing is comparable to a faithful friend, and no weight of silver or gold is worth more than the goodness of his fidelity. A faithful friend is a medicine for life and immortality; and those who fear the Lord will find one. He who fears God will have a similar good friendship, because his friend will be like him ( Sirach 6:15-17)
????On a cold rainy night in the winter of 1998 walking by one of the Gay bookstores on Polk Street, I observed a young boy, around 15, Mexican descent bent over in tears. His name was Braille, an undocumented immigrant, crying, shared with me he had just been raped. He was afraid to go to the hospital, and so I brought him home, helped him clean up, made a bed on the floor, and he dosed off saying "Gracious", thus beginning a "faithful friendship" between both of us.
??? Through the three and a half years which followed Braille was in and out of my life weekly, sometimes daily. His dad had recently died, he was now at fifteen the bread winner for a family of five in Mexico, thinking he could make a ton of money to send home in San Francisco, being fifteen, and an undocumented immigrant he soon found out a different story.
??? Braille discovered soon after coming to San Francisco he had one item to offer men on Polk Street, being young and cute, his body. So he became a "whore". He loved women, but the dollar he loved more and so he began making a thousand to three thousand a month, and finding me the only person he trusted, I wired? the money to his mom in Mexico each week. ??? He was hurt, beat up, yet he kept making the money allowing his mom to pay for their house, take care of his sisters, and have a good life. He was happy, nothing was more important!
??? I tried to be his "faithful friend" through the years feeding him, taking care of him, sending his money home and finally helping him to go home when He had AIDS,
??? But he was my "faithful friend" as well, taking?
staying with and nursing me through two large? bouts of the flu; taking a knife wound when a "high" guy tried to knife me, and simply being his charming self.
????Several years ago I received a phone call from San Diego, a sister of Braille's, she was working on her PhD in psychology and wanted to thank me for caring for her brother, and through helping him, allowing her to go to college. He had died of AIDS in the early 2000's.
??? Braille found himself rejected by the Roman Catholic Church, and the other religious groups here on the street, he told me "You are my priest!' He believed in God, loved the Sacraments, yet not welcome by his church.
??? Churches in general have difficulty in reaching out to youth, fear of? being accused of sexual abuse, and not having a relevant message. Recent studies show thirty-nine percent youth and young adults claims no religion or religious belief, the numbers grow each year!
??? I remember Braille on Ash Wednesday, he loved it, being with me, and the liturgy. And I think of him this Ash Wednesday and the many others who have no belief or have been hurt so badly by the Church.
??? On Monday of this week, like Braille, a young woman was waiting on the stairs for me to come home. She had a hugh suitcase, and said "I have been to two or three churches and one told me to come to you the Catholic Worker, to find a place to sleep tonight."
??? My heart went out to her, as we made arrangements to go to a shelter and we talked. She heard in Dallas it would be easy to find a place to live and work in San Francisco. Like Braille she believed a myth of a City? paved with gold she to and found it paved with despair.
??? As I prepare for Ash Wednesday I remember a prayer by Steven Garners Holmes inviting each of us to take one line per day, journal our experience, know the journal is a prayer offering, and then go and "Be A Faithful Friend!"
"All Love Is Wasted!"
All Love is wasted
It is not a wise investment
It is not a powerful tool.
It is given away
without thought of profit or outcome.
Often it is swallowed up by ingratitude,
or falls into gaping wounds,
or it is sown among evil and hatred
where no amount of love can succeed.
Love is wasted gladly on the unknowing,
the ungrateful, the undeserving.
Even your love of someone
dear is a waste
for their love can only be a gift
not a return.
We tread on the seeds
of divine love.
Daily we go out to sow
wastefully, scattering
as much love as possible."
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Temenos Catholic Worker
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims, D.Min, D.S.T.
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“People ask me why do you write about food,
and eating and drinking. Why don’t you write
about the struggle for power and security and
about love, the way others do? The easiest answer
is to say that, like most other humans I am hungry (M.F. Fisher!”
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(Temenos and Dr. River seek to remain accessible to everyone. We do not endorse particular causes, political parties, or candidates, or take part in public controversies, whether religious, political, or social--Our pastoral ministry is to everyone!
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We are beggars. we beg for your gifts of support!
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