By Rev. Marilyn Pagán-Banks, Executive Director of A Just Harvest
The Henri Nouwen Society recently tweeted a quote by Mother Theresa that read, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”
After reading this, my first reaction was—YES! We get this at A Just Harvest! This is why we intentionally create and maintain an atmosphere of community, dignity and respect in our Community Kitchen. This is why each and every person that comes through our doors is welcomed—no “proof of need” required. It does not matter to us whether they walked over or drove up, are without an address or live in the suburbs, are college students or never finished 8th grade, panhandled for change all day or just got off of work—they are greeted with warmth and acknowledged as guests.
It has long been our understanding that humans hunger for community, to be seen and heard, for a sense of belonging and to be known. Our humanity depends on it. This understanding is at the core of how we engage in the work against hunger and poverty.
Upon my second reading of the quote, a concern rose out of my gut for how poverty is taken and used outside of a socio-economic and political context. As an ordained Christian minister, I know the Bible speaks of the woes of being spiritually poor. As a former struggling single mother, I know firsthand that you can be dirt poor and rich in love, family and faith. However, my concern comes from how these interpretations are too often used to do nothing about ending poverty.
For millions of people in this country—poverty is tangible and concrete. Children go to bed hungry and attend overcrowded and underfunded schools. Seniors are forced to work past retirement age in order to afford the cost of lifesaving prescription medicine and keep a roof over their heads. Families work day and night and still don’t earn enough to maintain quality housing, the rising cost of food and health insurance.
This is terrible!
This poverty and the poverty felt across the world—the poverty witnessed by Mother Theresa in her ministry—reflected by swollen bellies, people dying of curable illness and disease, the lack of clean water—exits! And it exits because of greed, hubris and apathy.
These very different reactions cause me to pause and to pray. I pray I never get so spiritual as to ignore the call to put my body on the line—so that everyone has access to God’s promise of life and life more abundant. I pray I never get so caught up in the struggle that I loose opportunities to see how we are all interconnected and that the well-being of our spirits depends on our willingness to be so.