Welcoming and sheltering the homeless stranger

I wonder how the prodigal son would have appeared to others as he made his way back to his father's home from the "distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation."

Feb 05, 2016

By David Gibson
I wonder how the prodigal son would have appeared to others as he made his way back to his father's home from the "distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation" (Lk 15:11-23).

Did he look unkempt? Were his clothes tattered? Perhaps he seemed malnourished, downcast and anxious.

The Gospel parable of the prodigal son is a story that quite naturally does not provide such details. Reading between the lines, however, it is tempting to fill in the blanks and to imagine that someone witnessing him along the road might have thought he was a homeless, destitute stranger.

In his last days in that "distant country," after freely spending the entire inheritance received from his father, the prodigal son "found himself in dire need." So he hired himself out to a local citizen, "who sent him to his farm to tend the swine."

The prodigal son longed on that farm "to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any." That was when "he got up and went back to his father."

His father, in the best-loved part of the parable, defines through his actions what it means to be compassionate, welcoming and lovingly hospitable. He exhibits neither anger nor hostility over his son's past actions.

Upon the son's arrival home, his father immediately embraces him. Quickly deciding to celebrate his son's return with a banquet, the father instructs his servants to "bring the finest robe" for the young man to wear.

Thus, the father happily and generously accepts his son, treating him as someone worthy of respect, care and happiness. Before he arrived home, however, some surely would have thought he was an aimless wanderer.

Many wanderers in today's world are homeless, but not always for the same reason. Some temporarily lack a place to call home, having lost their jobs during an economic downturn. Others suffered a lasting illness that drained their financial resources.

Still others, like the prodigal son, become homeless after making self-destructive lifestyle decisions. It is well known, too, that many homeless people suffer from mental illness.

Refugees fleeing violence, hunger and religious persecution enter the ranks of the homeless for months or years. Some others become homeless after being abandoned by a spouse, or due to a lack of affordable housing, or in the wake of a natural disaster.

Still others suddenly discover, having had no choice but to live for a very long time from paycheck to paycheck, that events have overtaken them; their funds have run out.

It is hard to know why someone is homeless unless we ask. Appearances do not tell the whole story. But in communities everywhere, short-term and long-term homelessness are not rare.

In fact, homelessness is so common that it is possible for society at large to take it for granted, something that concerns Pope Francis. In June 2013 he famously remarked:

"That some homeless people should freeze to death on the street -- this doesn't make news. On the contrary, when the stock market drops 10 points in some cities, it constitutes a tragedy. In this way people are thrown aside as if they were trash."

Possibly some people wondered in biblical times if Jesus was homeless, Pope Francis remarked on another occasion, pointing out that the Lord was a wanderer. "Jesus' life was on the road," the pope told the pastors of Rome during Lent 2014.

Jesus identified with this world's wanderers, it frequently is noted. Jesus could see himself in their shoes. He considered himself at one with them. He respected their humanity and dignity.

This was noted in January 2014 testimony on the Syrian refugee crisis delivered before a U.S. Senate subcommittee by Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo of Seattle, who chairs the U.S. Catholic bishops' Committee on Migration.

"The image of the migrant is seen in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ," the bishop said. "In his own life and work Jesus identified himself with newcomers and with other marginalized persons in a special way" by saying, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Mt 25:35).

By identifying with the stranger and others who suffer, Jesus indicates that he wants believers to view these very people as signs of his presence.

It all reveals, moreover, that Jesus is genuinely hospitable toward the homeless stranger, the naked, the thirsty, the hungry, the sick and the imprisoned. "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me," Jesus explains (Mt 25:40).

The hospitality of Jesus -- his acceptance and welcome of others -- is a form of love put into action. It confirms, to borrow the words of Pope Francis, that "to love God and neighbor is not something abstract."

Boston's Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley commented in a spring 2015 homily that "the hospitality of the Gospel is about welcoming the stranger and, like the good Samaritan, making the stranger the object of our love, part of our community, even a brother."