Christmas Appeal 2024
Dear Friends,
At this time, there is so much one could write about the state of the world and the country in which we now live. We thought about sending around again a newsletter we wrote in December 2016; many are feeling the same fear. But after so many years, it’s clear that the world in which we find ourselves is not about one person, or one electorate, or one country.
This year, we have seen neighbors go to a city council meeting and say horrible things about unhoused people because of our county’s attempt to turn an old hotel into affordable housing for unhoused people. The citizens of this town recalled two city council members who voted to approve this housing. We have also witnessed our governor and local officials argue to the Supreme Court (and win) that cities should be allowed to arrest people for the crime of….not having housing. Currently, there are people in jails across the country who are incarcerated for “illegal camping,” for the crime of being homeless.
Thus, this lack of compassion towards others is seen throughout the body politic.
I have long thought that people and their political leaders despise homeless people, or at least despise seeing unhoused people, because at
their core, they are afraid. I used to think this was so because they were afraid of unhoused people themselves; they confused the way people appear with “dangerousness.” This is amplified by the media. There have been years of segments on news channels about San Francisco, for example, as an incredibly dangerous city. However, the images that were shown for shock value were of people forced to live on the street, or of tents on the street, or of human waste and debris on the street. Similarly, there was a candidate for office in Los Angeles who ran on a “tough on crime” platform and the images in his campaign ads when he spoke of crime were of…tents and shanties on sidewalks and under freeway overpasses. In other words, there was a conscious and cynical conflating of people living in extreme poverty with criminality. I believed this was what led to the fear of people who were unhoused.
And while this may be so, I believe the fear we have about seeing homeless people runs much deeper than this. I believe that many of us are afraid to feel truly, deeply, compassionately sad. It is painful to be sad. It enters into our hearts and bodies in a way that can make us feel powerless. To avoid feeling sad, we cover it up with anger. This can be directed at the unhoused individuals, or at leaders who “refuse to clean this up.” In order to not feel sad, we ask ourselves: Why should I have to see this as I walk down the street? Why should the good citizens of [name the town] have to see this? As we direct anger at poor people, we argue that people are unhoused because they are bad – they use substances, they didn’t work hard enough, they left school, they are ill and refuse what is offered as treatment. And, for the sake of argument, what if this were all true? Would that mean that this person is not suffering and deserves to live without shelter and dignity? Of course not.
The Christmas story itself, a story that our culture wants to sanitize, has some hard truths about fear, misdirected anger, and terrible suffering. A story of a traumatic birth is followed by the story of refugees who are forced to flee to another country. The ones who stay have their children slain by a leader who fears a threat to his power. These stories still ring absolutely true today. We daily witness the Slaughter of the Innocents, the bombs and bullets killing children, ordered by leaders who are afraid of, and therefore despise, a populace. We see refugees fleeing violence and desperate poverty being vilified in this country. We are told they will be rounded up and deported.
If we were to be unafraid to feel sad, we might then learn that sadness – devoid of anger, of guilt, of shame – is an aspect of love. I learned this from a dear friend who lost her child some years ago. Her young daughter took her own life. This is, I hope for most of us, an unimaginable loss. My friend recently shared with me that she will always be sad. However, she has learned – with the help of others and through deep spiritual work—that she can rid herself of the anger, guilt, and shame that she has also carried. My friend told me that it was these emotions, not the sadness, that have almost destroyed her. Surprising to her, the sadness itself was bearable. And, that sadness existed because she loved her daughter so much; her sadness was a manifestation of that love.
Similarly, if we were to allow ourselves to truly feel sad, we might sense beneath our own sadness a compassionate love. In the months and years ahead, we are going to continue to see people acting out of fear of others. The cruelty towards others will worsen. Instead of joining in this fear, I hope for all of us that we allow ourselves to feel our own sadness, let it be the soil where compassion for those in need can take root, and let that compassion guide our actions.
Wishing you all love and grace,
Kate Chatfield
For all of us at Catholic Worker Hospitality House