Parson to Person - Do the small things with great love

St. Edward?s Cathedral, towering over the wreckage of one of the poorest neighborhoods of North Philadelphia, had long ago been shut down by the Catholic archdiocese.

Unable to find housing they could afford, a group of 40 homeless families, mostly women and children, took up residence in the church. They stretched a banner across the front, ?How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday??

So, the archdiocese decided to evict them and the media got ahold of the story. That?s when a group of idealistic college students went into action. They visited, they played with the children, they listened to stories, and they got to know folks. They prayed and sang together and shared communion. One of the students gave her bed to the homeless families of St. Ed?s.

The students maintained a ministry of presence with daily visits to the cathedral, and whenever officials showed up to enforce the eviction notice, they called in reinforcements from campus. For months, the students offered unrelenting, persistent solidarity. As people saw the story in the news and city agencies were persuaded to get involved, gradually homes were found for all the families and St. Edwards could go back to being an abandoned cathedral.

But the students were changed. What would happen, they wondered, if Christians took the words of Jesus seriously? ?For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.? (Matthew 25:35-36)

One of those students was Shane Claiborne. He embarked on a search for a ?fully devoted Christian,? a search that took him next to the streets of Calcutta.

He worked alongside Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, serving the poorest of the poor - in an orphanage, in a home for the destitute and dying, and even in a leper colony. But Mother Teresa?s council was, ?Find your own Calcutta,? so Shane eventually returned to North Philadelphia, to the poor neighborhood of Kensington, just minutes from St. Edward?s Cathedral. There he helped found a faith community called, ?The Simple Way? whose mission is to serve the needs of their community.

What?s an average day at The Simple Way? They hang out with kids, visit with their neighbors, reclaim abandoned lots, plant gardens, get fined for distributing food, and go to jail for sleeping under the stars.

Big things or small? Shane likes to quote Mother Teresa, ?We can do no great things, just small things with great love.?

Where are our Calcuttas? How can we be involved with the ?works of mercy? in our community and neighborhoods? What are the small things that we can do with great love?

Shane Claiborne is the author of the book The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. He will be speaking at Iowa Wesleyan College in the Chapel Auditorium on Sunday, March 1, at 2:30 p.m.