Washington DC: Pope Francis has lunch with homeless

After his address to Congress, Pope Francis opted for lunch with the homeless instead of a banquet with elected officials. The Pope visited St Patrick's in the City, the oldest Catholic parish in Washington, founded in 1794 to provide pastoral support for Irish labourers who built the White House. The parish is home to St Maria's Meals. Every Wednesday, volunteers set up tents on the sidewalk outside the Catholic Charities building and dish out hot food to about 300 people in need.

For this week's meal, organizers shut down an entire city block to accommodate the crowd. Chefs came in to prepare chicken and pasta dishes, along with homemade desserts.

Before blessing the food, Pope Francis said that faith can help us all to face unjust and painful situations. He said the homeless people reminded him of St Joseph, the figure to whom the Pope said he turns whenever he is "in a fix". Joseph faced some difficult situations, he said, especially when he found himself homeless with Mary about to give birth to her son, Jesus. The Bible notes clearly there was no room for them in the inn, the Pope said, so the Son of God came into this world as a homeless person.

Like St Joseph, the Pope said, many of you may ask yourself daily "Why are we homeless, without a place to live?" and it's a question which all of us might well ask: "Why do these, our brothers and sisters, have no place to live?

We can find no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, the Pope said, for lack of housing but we know that God never abandons us in our suffering. Faith also makes us know that God is knocking on our door and calling us "to love, to compassion, to service of one another". Pope Francis concluded the encounter by praying together with the homeless people, saying through prayer we learn to see one another as brothers and sisters.

Faith makes us know that God is at our side, that God is in our midst and his presence spurs us to charity. Charity is born of the call of a God who continues to knock on our door, the door of all people, to invite us to love, to compassion, to service of one another.

Jesus keeps knocking on our doors, the doors of our lives. He doesn't do this by magic, with special effects, with flashing lights and fireworks. Jesus keeps knocking on our door in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the faces of our neighbours, in the faces of those at our side.

Dear friends, one of the most effective ways we have to help is that of prayer. Prayer unites us; it makes us brothers and sisters. It opens our hearts and reminds us of a beautiful truth which we sometimes forget. In prayer, we all learn to say "Father", "Dad". We learn to see one another as brothers and sisters. In prayer, there are no rich and poor people, there are sons and daughters, sisters and brothers. In prayer, there is no first or second class, there is brotherhood.

It is in prayer that our hearts find the strength not to be cold and insensitive in the face of injustice. In prayer, God keeps calling us, opening our hearts to charity.

How good it is for us to pray together. How good it is to encounter one another in this place where we see one another as brothers and sisters, where we realize that we need one another. Today I want to be one with you. I need your support, your closeness. I would like to invite you to pray together, for one another, with one another. That way we can keep helping one another to experience the joy of knowing that Jesus is in our midst. Are you ready?
Our Father, who art in heaven...

Before leaving you, I would like to give you God's blessing:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace
And, please, don't forget to pray for me.

"He is a walking, talking parable, "John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, told KUTV. "This is a Pope who looks at the world from the bottom up and from the outside in. I think he brings to Congress and the White House a different perspective than they are used to hearing."

Read more about St Maria's Meals here: www.catholiccharitiesdc.org/volunteer/st-marias-meals