On Maundy Thursday, our church—St. James Community Church—celebrated the last meal of Jesus with his disciples among the homeless camped in the lower reaches of the city. We went three levels down from the main level of streets of downtown Chicago to what is sometimes called Lower Lower Wacker Drive, a concrete environment, dark, dirty and distant from the lively streets above. It was there that we joined those who had made for themselves beds of blankets, a few with tents, along with various other items of survival. We brought hot meals, personal hygiene kits, and blankets—and the Eucharist.
Our pastor, William Hall, by bringing us to this place, made the connection between the night when Jesus was betrayed and the experience of those who are homeless—many of whom suffer with addictions and/or mental illness, and are forgotten and discarded by the society above. In the night on which Jesus was betrayed, we joined with those who have been betrayed by our society and often by the church.
After his last meal, Jesus went to a place of prayer and brought with him Peter, James, and John and said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” (Matthew 26:38) Jesus still calls us to come and remain with him and to stay awake with him. So, where do we find Jesus grieving today? Where are we to remain and stay awake?
For us, at St. James, we found a place on Maundy Thursday where Jesus grieves, three levels down, distant from the lives of most of us. Our ministry to those who were homeless was at the same time—and, even more so, a ministry to our community of faith. We experienced the ministry of Jesus in our lives, as we came out of our places of comfort to a place of discomfort where Christ was present.
We offered Holy Communion to those who desired. Some embraced it as something they had long been without. Some joined us for prayer and asked for our prayers: “Pray for my deliverance from this addiction.” We saw hope in that place, the hope that is a response to being loved in some tangible way. There was community and God’s presence.
We do not have a ministry focused on the homeless at St. James. There are such ministries. And there are also justice ministries that work for societal change in relation to the homeless. What we had, on Thursday of Holy Week, was an act of serving that connected us with hurting people on the fringes of our society. We experienced Jesus leading us to deny ourselves (of what we could be doing instead), take up our cross (in the form of entering the suffering of others), and share in a holy communion from below.