Shelter the Homeless
Welcoming Mercy by Cardinal Donald Wuerl
This post is one in a series on the Works of Mercy. Released on Mondays, each essay is a short reflection on one Work and one chapter of Dynamic Catholic’s book Beautiful Mercy. Read more about the series here.
Pondering the Corporal Work of sheltering the homeless brings to mind Kelly Latimore’s beautiful rendering of Dorothy Day and the Holy Family of the Streets. In it, the elderly Servant of God opens the door of a Catholic Worker House to a young Holy Family, bundled up on a New York December night. It’s gritty; it’s difficult; it’s bold. And thank God, some of us are called to live in a Catholic Worker home, doing the hard work of sheltering Christ in some of the most vulnerable men and women of our communities, day-in and day-out.
Many of us, however, are not called to live in a Catholic Worker home (yet!). If we feel a twinge of guilt or despair about that fact, we should follow the example of Saint Teresa of Avila and use that feeling to power the love we can do, the action we can take. As the great saint says in Interior Castle, “the devil sometimes puts ambitious desires into our hearts, so that, instead of setting our hand to the work which lies nearest to us, and thus serving our Lord in ways within our power, we may rest content with having desired the impossible.” So what are some examples of sheltering the homeless that may lie nearest to us?
Obviously, if we can’t open our homes, we can open our wallets for the people who can. This is a theme that runs throughout the Works of Mercy. We must give alms for the poor, even in the littlest ways we can provide. Catholic Charities, Caritas, Catholic Worker, and other organizations in our dioceses do this work, thankfully better than most of us can. We can give our treasure in support of it.
We can look to our time and talents as well, and our churches can point us in the direction of ways we can contribute. In our diocese, for example, there is a home for women in crisis pregnancies. A friend who works in finance generously gives her time to these women, helping them navigate the world of credit cards and checking accounts. She is performing a spiritual work of mercy, instructing those that know little about managing money, but she’s helping to shelter them too, offering them help in a place where they need support.
Many times the work of sheltering the homeless happens upon us unawares. A babysitter falls through, so we watch our sibling’s kids last minute. An old friend is coming through town, so we let them crash for a couple of nights. A cousin has a new baby, so we offer to let her older kids stay with us while she recovers. A neighbor’s kid has run off from their house down the street, so we pull him inside and let his mom know where he is. These are little works.
In his essay “Welcoming Mercy,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl reminds us that “family must always be home, the shelter for the lonely, disabled, or elderly family members who can no longer care for themselves.” Many of us have witnessed the sacrifice required in caring for loved ones in this way, from the disabled teenager to the elderly mother-in-law. Some of us bear this cross daily. It is some of the hardest work we can do, not often thought of as sheltering the homeless.
Cardinal Wuerl also reminds us that “love and mercy must always begin at home.” The day-in, day-out work of family life is a way of sheltering those who would not have a home without us. Our homes don’t have to be perfect, but every time we kiss our loved ones to sleep at night, we’re providing shelter from the world outside. It’s a little way, but the works start at home. So while we bless and support those like Dorothy Day in the little ways we can, we also lean in to the vocation of our own living situations, sheltering those we have been given.
Dorothy Day, Servant of God, pray for us.