Remembrance

Following is a song written by my daughter, Mary. She sent it out recently in an email along with a link to a newspaper article regarding the continuing struggle that we understand the homeless as also human.


The night was the pain of the mourner.

We could hear the cries.

We could see the tears.

Where was our compassion?

Were we not also the idiots of our own fears?

Have not we seen the scar left on the brow?

Have not we touched the wound that sits and molds on the tip of our fingers?

We were the blind fools.

Our hearts had seen no light.

We were the mistaken.

We were the fallen.

We had stayed at the bus stop.

He had decided no more.

No more pain. No more crying. No more wounds.

Fear punished again,

And left us cold in shadow.

The night was the pain of the mourner.

We could hear the cries.

We could see the tears.

No more pain. No more crying. No more wounds... no more wounds

no more wounds...

http://www.journal-news.net/News/articles.asp?articleID=5097

A student of mine recently submitted a paper in which she wrote regarding a decision to help a househelper with her laundry:

"“we are human.” This thought captured my attention when I watched Oscar Romero in jail repeating this phrase and has played a key role in my learning this semester.

This thought humbles me and realigns my worldview every time I still myself with this phrase. It eliminates classes, races, social status. It humbles thoughts about saved and unsaved. It eliminates any self-appraisal that I have come to help someone or how I can change their life. “We are humans.” I see the world as my family and I can’t ignore the cries of the people going on around me. When I think this thought I don’t see myself as an American who can help people if I choose to, but instead I hear the cries of the hurting and I begin to hurt because my mother, my sister, and my brother are in need. When I let this phrase affect my worldview I see people who could be me, who are me in pain. They are not far off people that have adapted to their life, people who can’t think or feel. The poor is no longer separate and foreign, but I see my face in them, and I see their face in me. I can’t turn away and act like I didn’t hear them or that they are far away. Instead I feel a pull to walk with them because ‘we are humans,’ we are the same, we are all weak, we are all vulnerable, we all need a friend. "

Paulo Freire insists that our task in the world, our "vocation" is "to become fully human". We are learning, we are learning. We are not there, yet.