We see them in the park or under the
highway bridge or in the wooded area near the river. They are the homeless, the poor who have no
place to rest their heads. We attempt to
deprive them of the dignity deserving of all humans when we only see their
poverty and their state of being outcast.
Our saint was one such outcast, a homeless drifter who visited shrines as
a part of his religious life, St. Benedict Joseph Labre.
After numerous attempts to join religious
orders to live the solitary life of prayer he desperately craved, he decided to
make the open air his monastery. He
eventually found his way to Rome where his confessor described his first
meeting: “I noticed a man close beside
me whose appearance at first sight was decidedly unpleasant and forbidding. His
legs were only partially covered, his clothes were tied round his waist with an
old cord. His hair was uncombed, he was ill-clad, and wrapped about in an old
and ragged coat. In his outward appearance he seemed to be the most miserable
beggar I had ever seen. Such was the spectacle of Benedict the first time I
beheld him." Holiness was hidden
beneath the cloak of poverty.
We have the opportunity to meet the
homeless and minister to them, whether at the local shelter or Open Door Mission. These
men, women, and children are not necessarily the holy hermits that St. Benedict
was, but they are God’s beloved. We are
called to shelter, feed, clothe, give drink, visit the sick and imprisoned, and
bury our brothers and sisters as Jesus taught (Mt. 25:35-45). St. Benedict Joseph Labre, patron of the
homeless, pray for us.
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