Editor, Times-Union: Early Tuesday morning, a homeless man died in Memorial Hospital after being picked up by police in South Bend. The cause of death was hypothermia. He had been attempting to sleep outside a café in the winter cold. The police listed him as “John Doe,” but his true name was Dick Scott. He was my second cousin.
I didn’t know him well. I had met him only a few times, when his endless drifting brought him through Warsaw. He was a veteran of Vietnam, and like many from that war, he struggled with an addiction to alcohol. He had family and friends who loved him and tried to help him. He loved them, too, but he would often disappear from contact, moving from city to city, shelter to shelter.
With no money for a proper burial, he will be cremated Thursday. With no money for a proper funeral, his ashes will be silently spread across New Salem cemetery. Few newspapers will note his passing, but like all people, he brought joy to a great many lives.
We don’t often take the time from our busy holiday schedules to think about the poor and homeless this time of year, but we should. What is Christmas, after all, if not the celebration of the most famous incident of homelessness in history – the birth of Jesus Christ, not in a comfortable house, but in a dirty stable. Yes, Jesus was homeless. But for those of us who truly believe, Jesus not only was homeless but is homeless – because Jesus is still alive. And he dwells today in the same places he dwelled when he walked the earth over 2,000 years ago – among the suffering and the poor, the lowly and the sick. He lives with those who hunger and need food, those who are naked and need clothes, those who are thirsty and need drink.
Dick was not alone outside that café Tuesday morning. Jesus was there, too. If Dick was hungry, then Jesus was, too. If he was cold, then Jesus was, too. If he was in pain, then Jesus was, too.
If you can afford to do nothing else this Christmas, please at least take a moment to quietly reflect. Thank God for everything you have. And pray that we never forget our duty to “the least of these.”
