Blessings Overflowing

Last night at his Christmas eve Mass Pope Benedict XVI gave a homily some have titled “What would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door”. In it the pope talks about how the “great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof?” He talks about “The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God?” I jokily said to my wife he had probably read my parable If Joseph and Mary Would Come to Milwaukee Today.

Of course find God in all of nature especially the poor, outcast and marginalized is not my idea or even the Pope’s. Once when I was accused of pushing this idea I wrote back to the person saying to blame Jesus for the idea not me. Maybe if the local Archdiocese of Catholic Church continues to avoid the question of giving the 1.1 million dollars it acquired from sale of Catholic church properties in to poor and needy of the area we should ask the Pope, Holy Father, for help. As the Bishop of all the Bishops, the leader of the Catholic Church he might be interested in carry out his word, message of Jesus Christ, in action in this situation in Milwaukee.

I told the five members of the Corporation Board that owns the 1.1 million dollars in question that we would expect an answer by Jan. 1 to our request to dialog which we have persistently pursue for months. The Archbishop has responded putting the burden of dialog on the three of the five members of the board who are at St. Catherine’s parish were the money for the poor and need is deposited. But these three are silent.

Today I asked these three to play the role of the three Magi bringing the newborn Jesus gifts, in this case monies for vouchers for beds, refrigerators and stoves for those in need. 1.1 million dollars could go a long way in the hands of the parishioners of the three Catholic Churches that serve this area of Milwaukee, the poorest in the fourth poorest city in the USA and the most segregated neighborhood in the number one most segregated city in the USA.

Words are a beginning; now if we can get action on the words the blessings of Christmas will overflow to all of us.

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