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There are days and then there are days. This has been one of those days and it’s hardly half over! I’m on house, which means I cleaned the 6 bathrooms that populate our huge Victorian house and which help to create a harmonious atmosphere for 25 people. I also swept a large expanse of wood flooring, darkened by age and cracked on the third floor from a million footsteps. All in all, cleaning the house, washing dishes and taking care of the laundry takes about 3 hours.
Another element of our work involves hospitality in whatever form it takes. For me today, it was filling the cup o’ noodles with hot water that three Hispanic people, two men and one woman, brought. The woman returned later, holding a napkin to bloody lips and crying, begging us to call the police as one of the men punched her in the face. It wasn’t the first time, she said, and she was tired of it. He came in the house after her, approaching her even as she backed away. I got between them and luckily one of the house guests who spoke Spanish was able to ask him to leave and I followed him to the door.
As a rule, we don’t call the police since the police represent a huge oppressive force, and calling them leads to arrests, which only perpetuate the problem. Most of the time, we can diffuse tense situations with non-violent action. We also embrace elements of anarchy and don’t believe that we should surrender our call to faith to a state that works against our service to the poor. There was little we could offer the woman except an ice pack and some water and telling her she could stay for a little while. I also gave her 50 cents to use a payphone down the street.
Another way we give hospitality is to provide hospice to the sick and dying. Right now in our house, we have one man with cancer, cancer that has kept on growing despite chemo and radiation, cancer that will take his life. We take food to him, administer medicine and change bandages. It’s not easy, especially when it involves putrid, rotting flesh, but being a presence for the dying is significant and requires of us all to look our own mortality in the face.
It’s days like these when I feel like I’m able to do so little, like I’m watching storm clouds build, but they never bring rain, though the earth may be parched and dry. Yet we must reach out, we must trudge through the little things and believe that, as one of the founders of the LACW says, what we do might in some small way further the kingdom.
