Home for Christmas?

Awaiting God’s Love to be born
November 30, 2017
What a Christmas!
December 21, 2017
Awaiting God’s Love to be born
November 30, 2017
What a Christmas!
December 21, 2017

By Sister Sharon Havelak, OSF 

Homelessness. Between Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent, it’s been weighing on my mind.

On Thanksgiving Day, a group of us Sisters were discussing an upcoming panel presentation on homeless schoolchildren. It turned out to be eye-opening. The facts certainly were staggering. Some 2.5 million children in the US are homeless, with about 47,500 homeless children in Ohio. Toledo ranks #1 in homeless kids, some 2700 in the Toledo Public School system alone, not counting private or charter schools. The national average age of a homeless child is 4 years old.

Two things the panel said really resonated with me. Homelessness is so much more than a lack of a house; it’s much more complicated than that. One panelist compared it to driving through a construction zone on an unfamiliar road, around many obstacles. Another speaker was very emphatic: it’s not their fault; systems create homelessness as much as an individual’s poor decisions. Community response is needed. Most poignant was the story of the child worried that Santa wouldn’t know that he was living in a shelter now.

Last week I spent a day collecting signatures. We were signing Christmas cards for the people that Campus Ministry serves at Helping Hands of St. Louis and through the Labre Project. Though they were on their way to or from final exams, many students, faculty and staff stopped to sign cards, many including personal notes. One young man chatted with me for a while about what it meant to him to come to know the poor and homeless as real people. One young woman wrote a long message inside her card; she had been homeless and knew what it was like.

To top it all off, the other day, I checked to see whether Pope Francis had announced the theme of this January 1st Day of Peace message, so we could plan a prayer service. I was thrilled to see that he announced the topic early – and that his theme was: Migrants and Refugees: Men and Women in Search of Peace.

As I reflect on all this, I can’t help but feel that this sense of restlessness, of up-rootedness, this longing for safety and stability resonates so deeply with the longing of the Advent season. The stories of the ancient exiled Jewish people longing for their homeland, the anawim longing for a messiah, the story of a young family traveling to Bethlehem and finding no shelter there and then needing to flee to Egypt are foundational faith stories. They’re also stories that speak to our own present day hopes and longings.

My prayer is that, this Advent season, in the flurry of preparations and as we celebrate the joy and blessings of Christmas, we keep the forgotten ones tucked in our hearts, knowing that our God of surprises often chooses seemingly unlikely paths and people to bring us salvation.

Sister Sharon Havelak

Justice and Peace

Sister Sharon is an artist, educator and long-time peace activist, who currently oversees All Good Things, a store/gallery/gift shop featuring art by the Sisters, handmade soaps and lotions, and Fair Trade products.*

She also serves as the coordinator of the Sylvania Franciscan’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation efforts, and teaches art history at Lourdes University. She keeps her creative juices flowing by painting on silk scarves.
* All Good Things gallery is located in our Sylvania Franciscan Village and many of the items are sold on our website.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

4 Comments
newest
oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Sister Irenaeus
6 years ago

Sister Sharon, thank you for this thought provoking reminder of the suffering homeless especially the Children, and so many, especially in our own Toledo area. I had no idea Toledo ranks # 1with homeless children, right in our own back yard. I admire the students and Staff at the University who made an effort to bring joy and hope to the homeless that they serve through “Helping Hands” and the ” Labre Project. Thanks you so much for bringing this to our attention. Lots to pray for.

Sister Maria Pacelli
6 years ago

Sharon, thank you for sharing this reflection on homelessness. Though we are aware of the problem those numbers are unacceptable in the richest country in the world.

Sister Mary Thill
6 years ago

The reality of homeless and starving CHILDREN in Toledo, Ohio, USA boggles my mind!
How can this be here and now? God, help us to find the solutions and to work together
to bring this to an end. Thanks, Sharon for sharing your experience and reflection on
these issues.

Sister Shannon Schrein
6 years ago

Sharon, this is a very thought-provoking blog. Thank you for your reflections.

4
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x