It's Breakfast Time

The Inn serves breakfast to the guests Tuesday-Thursday. Unlike dinner, this meal is not a sit-down meal. Guests arrive around 10 am and go to a window where they pick up hot coffee or tea, pastries(Tuesday/Thursday) or cereal (Wednesdays). Wednesday I was in the "yard" where the guests stand or sit and eat and socialize. The yard is a paved lot with some lovely plants and trees along the north and east sides. My job was to monitor the bathrooms. When I had bathroom duty at my various high schools, I detested it because it took time away from getting ready for my classes. However, giving the guests a clean bathroom to use and making sure the bathrooms stay clean made me look at this assignment differently.
While I was at my post, a man came through the gate into the yard. Suddenly, he collapsed on the ground. I ran over and could see he was having a seizure. I went into the Inn and had someone call 911. I could see that as he fell he had gotten abrasions from the gravel. I grabbed some latex gloves and napkins and returned outside. By this time the guest was conscious, but he was struggling against all who were trying to help. Finally, the ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital. Someone got a bucket of water and washed the blood off the ground.
Wednesday morning the reading at Mass had been Luke's version of the beatitudes. Unlike Matthew, who says "blessed are the poor in spirit", Luke says, "blessed are the poor." Luke says blessed are the hungry, not "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," as in Matthew. Fr. Michael related those differences to the people who believe that the Inn is just a bandaid for the poor, and not a way to make any systemic change. I would like to see a system of justice where there were no homeless people, where the addicted and mentally ill were cared for, fed and loved every day. It would be wonderful if the Inn had no guests because there was no need. Until that day, the Inn will be feeding the hungry and helping the poor.