We are our brothers keeper
Through no fault of their own, countless people are forced to live in their cars or on the streets. Many children will have their education put on hold because their parents will no longer be able to keep the children in their neighborhood schools. With a sense of shame, these families will join the countless other Americans who make up the homeless. As well, countless numbers of the homeless are our elderly, forced out on the streets because of medical bills, or loss of other income, during the very years that should have been filled with the warmth and security of their own homes.
An astounding one-third of the homeless population is made up of families, and of the more than 3 million people who are experiencing homelessness, 1.3 million are children. According to national studies, even more Americans are at risk of homelessness because millions of low-income American households pay more that 50 percent of their income on rent when estimates say the figure should be no more than 30 percent. This means that a missed paycheck, the loss of their unemployment benefits, a health emergency, or an unpaid bill, creates a crisis that can push them out of their homes and in to homelessness.
Beginning in the early 1980s, the number of homeless Americans grew dramatically, and the face of the homeless became diverse. It came to include mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and racial and ethnic minorities. The sense of shame and hopelessness that descends upon these people, should be a shared shame for all of us. They are our brothers and sisters, and they are God’s children. Some of them could be our former neighbors, or a cousin we have not seen in years. They could even be us.
We are our brothers keeper, and we must, as a people, and a nation, reach out with everything we have at our disposal to help bring these people back into the safety, security, and warmth, of their own homes. No person should be forced to live without shelter, and no child should be forced to live the life of a homeless person. Every homeless family is our neighbor, our brothers and sisters, and we must not allow them to become invisible to us.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: These fine young adults from Downtown Cornerstone Church in Seattle, made a pilgrimage to the monastery on Saturday.
Sunday July 19, 2015 / July 6, 2015
7th Sunday after Pentecost. Tone six.
Venerables Tikhon, Basil and Nikon Sokolovsky (16th c.) (movable holiday on the 1st Sunday after June 29th).
St. Arsenius, bishop of Tver (movable holiday on the 1st Sunday after June 29th).
Synaxis of saints of Tver (movable holiday on the 1st Sunday after June 29th).
Synaxis of All Saints of Radonezh.
Venerable Sisoes the Great of Egypt (429).
New Hieromartyr Simon, bishop of Ufa (1921).
New Martyr Euthymius (1931).
New Martyr Theodore (1943).
Venerable Sisoes of the Kiev Caves (13th c.).
Uncovering of the relics of Holy Princess Juliana Olshanskaya (1540).
Martyrs Marinus and Martha, their children Audifax and Abbacum (Habakkuk), and those with them at Rome: Cyrinus, Valentine the Presbyter, and Asterius (269).
Martyrs Isaurus the Deacon, Innocent, Felix, Hermias, Basil, Peregrinus, Rufus, and Rufinus of Apollonia in Macedonia (283-284).
St. Cointus (Quintus) of Phrygia, confessor and wonderworker (283).
Virgin-martyr Lucy, Martyr Rixius, and those with them at Rome (301): Martyrs Anthony, Lucian, Isidore, Dion, Diodorus, Cutonius, Arnosus, Capicus, Satyrus, and others.
“Bororodsko-Ufimsly” Icon of the Mother of God (1621).
St. Gleb Vsevolodovich of Kiev (12th c.).
Venerable Monenna, foundress of Killeevy Monastery (Ireland) (518) (Celtic & British).
Synaxis of the Apostles Archippus, Philemon, and Onesimus (Greek).
Martyrs Apollonius, Alexander, and Epimachus (Greek).
New monk-martyr Cyril of Hilandar, Mt. Athos, who suffered at Thessalonica (1566).
St. Barnabas, elder of the Gethsemane Skete of St. Sergius’ Lavra (1906).
St. Goar, hieromonk, hermit, and missionary along the Rhine
The Scripture Readings
Romans 15:1-7
Bearing Others’ Burdens
15 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” 4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Glorify God Together
7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
Matthew 9:27-35
Two Blind Men Healed
27 When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
28 And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it.” 31 But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country.
A Mute Man Speaks
32 As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed. 33 And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!”
34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”
The Compassion of Jesus
35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
I agree. The psychological side-effects of being homeless or homebound are grave. Many with PTSD with no medication are roaming the streets. Women are in more danger than men. A toilet, shower, kitchen, a bed with no bed bugs these are things we take for granted but are not available to those people.
I volunteer at a Roman Catholic Church that caters specifically to their needs. Catholics and Protestants offer a lot to the community on that level. I’d like to see the same done on a large scale with Orthodox Christians. In the centers where we have coffee. Or even food and clothing donations to christian, or none, organizations like St. Vincent de Paul. To donate a few hours on a Saturday serving in a soup kitchen can change a persons outlook on the homeless person
Much of the dramatic increase in the homelessness of the 1980’s can be directly attributed to the State. It was in 1988, I believe, that the State abolished the statute of “Involuntary Commitment” of our developmentally delayed (retarded) citizens, and also many of our institutionalized citizens who were afflicted with other diagnoses and disorders. This was done primarily as a budgetary measure, as opposed to being in the best interest of those who were institutionalized in mind. I was working for the department of Social and health Services at the time, when many of my charges simply “signed themselves out” in that summer of 1988. Some made it to the streets, many more made it to jail, with a few fortunate individuals being picked up and cared for on farms in Eastern Washington.
At present I work in the Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle. The visions of broken humanity that I meet on a daily basis will break your heart. It would behoove every Christian, of every creed, to help these poor unfortunates wherever they can.
For one of the wealthiest nations on the planet, this action against those people was unconscionable.