Fr. Jojo M. Fung SJ

Introduction

I came to Oxford on August 8, 2019, excited with what my sabbatical as an Academic Researcher/Visiting Fellow. I came with a particular focus  – get my research done and have my manuscripts ready for my two upcoming books and go home in May 15, 2020. But the presence of the homeless in the byways of Oxford disturbed me. So, I prayed, ‘God what are you asking of me?’ Little did I know how God ‘edges’ me to the margin, to be encountered by the homeless, and transformed me. Looking retrospectively on my journal entries, I realized that the graph of encountering the homeless climbed sharply towards the end of 2019 and peak in early 2020. Then the curve dipped in the 2^nd week of March 2020 with the advent of the pandemic in UK. Now they resurface gradually.

1. Season of Creation

The encounter with the homeless began on Sunday, September 1, 2019, the day when the Church Universal celebrates the first day of the Season of Creation (September 1 – October 4, 2019). Laudato Si’ 49 serves me a timely reminder, “Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” As I wait on the “stirring” from within, I felt moved on the first day of the Season of Creation to meet up with three homeless at The Wharf House on Speedwell Street. I beseeched God to pave the way for this first encounter with the three homeless men. As I walked up to them, I stooped down and said “Sir, I collected some food and want to share with you.” The one on my right retorted, “Ma’am [because of my long hair], you are a food collector.” The third one interjected, “You are a good man.” As I handed over the food, I apologized, “I am sorry that I did not put the food on a plate.” I shook hands with all 3 of them who are quite drunk and left them. As I walked back, the bell struck 9.00pm.

2. Encounters with Jose Philips

I first met Jose Philip on Nov 12, 2019. I have always jogged past him along the back street called Rose Place before dawn, aware of him asleep at a nook located at the garage of the chapel of the Catholic Chaplaincy. I packed three pastries and shared with him. He sat up and complained about how “the authorities threw away my belongings when they came around and this is England!” He added, “I am homeless. I came up from Spain. I am a Catholic and this church here gives me a cup of coffee and I go to mass here.” I turned back to the house and made him toasts, and a jar of coffee with 2 sachets of Alicafe and passed it to him. As I jogged in Christ Meadow, I met David another homeless, sitting on a wooden bench. He said he was rather slow in life and felt that it was great to have the time before dawn to just sit by himself and listened to the radio.

My next encounter with Jose Philips was on December 8, 2019. Lo and behold, he was awake, shivering in the cold. He called out to me. I was caught off guard. I promised to make him some coffee and toasts.  But when I returned with the breakfast, Jose was nowhere to be found. So I left the food and coffee on the ledge and went off jogging. The toasts I made for David, I left them on the bench as he was not there. On my return from the jog, I saw that Jose has taken his breakfast with him.

3. Advent Season

On the Third Sunday of Advent, December 15, 2019, I woke up with a feeling “I am tired of reaching out to the homeless.” I was relieved to find that Jose was not at his usual nook. But to my surprise, David, whom I have not seen in the last few days in the past week, was sitting at the bench in Christ Meadow. Anyhow, I walked up to him: “David, how are you? Are you keeping warm?” David replied: “I am alright. I have another one. It’s raining now.” “Ok, I better run along,” I responded.

On jogging back to the hall, I felt the urge to bring my leather jacket, some toasts and warmed-up  bread-pudding for David. But when I returned to the seat where David was seated, he has left. I regretted, feeling: “I should have told him to wait for me !!” But I realized that David should be left free to do what he wants rather live on my terms. So I just left his toasts but took back with me the leather jacket back. I reflected on my own action: “I am not free enough to give up all that I have brought for David because I did not meet him personally. It is harder for me “the-have-more” to part what I intend to give away.”

So I came back and realized that this is the message of Third Sunday Advent: “conversion from my own complacency so that God can work through me. God is the face of homeless/the poor, the toxified lake, the deforested mountain, the volcanic eruption. The God of alterity is the God of Advent and Christmas who challenges me through the poor, the excluded and rejected in society so that I become all the more motivated to work for the structural transformation of our world with its throwaway culture that is premised on the culture of relativism-how the other benefits me in relation to me. Relativism has left the excluded more marginalized in our global world.”

4. God has a sense of humor

The leather jacket was meant for Jose Philip whom I met on December 19, 2019 in the dark and called out to him: “Good morning Jose Philip! I brought you some toasts. Shall I bring you a cup of coffee?” Jose Philip groaned, “Yes, please !!” Nevertheless, Jose stood up to greet me. I asked him, “Are you warm enough? It’s Winter. Shall I bring you a leather jacket?’ He nodded his head. So I said, “Wait for me please!” I rushed home, took the leather jacket from the cupboard, including a woolen scarf, made a cup of coffee. I walked back, passed him the gifts. Then I asked him, “Is there anything else you need?” I realized the need to equalize the relationship with Jose by asking him what he truly needs. He showed me his radio and told me: “A radio is a good companion to me! Do you any battery like this?” He took out a duracel battery to show me. I replied, “No I do not have any. Can I be on my way for my jog?” “Sure,” was Jose’s reply. “See you. Have a good day Jose,” I bid him farewell. I realized that in an unequal relationship, Jose would never insist on what he wants.

As I jogged along, I realized that Jose has disclosed to me his real need for the duracel batteries. But I was deaf to his real need. So on the way back, I saw that Tesco was lit up. So I jogged past Jose Philip who was sipping his coffee and informed him, “Jose, Tesco is open. Shall we go and get the battery for your radio?” “Yes, I appreciate your kindness to me,” Jose Philip replied. Then I said, “Let me go and get some money and we can go together to Tesco to get your battery.” So I rushed back to my room, took my wallet and come down to meet him.

For the first time, Jose and I walked alongside each other, chatting. The two worlds eclipsed a little. He told me that he usually wakes up and makes his way to the Church of the Greyfriars: “The monks there are kind to me. They are good fellows. They give me a cup of coffee and a sandwich. Then I spend about two hours praying in the Church. You see I am from Spain and I am a Catholic. So I like to spend time in the Church.”

Upon reaching Tesco, we found out that Tesco only opened at 7.00am and we have about 20 minutes to wait outside. We just stood outside the automatic door and chatted. He shared with me about his ill health, about Boris Johnson, how stupid he looks as a leader, how he just mouths that he cares about the poor, but it’s just talk; about how at 9.00am, he goes to the bank to draw some money to buy salami and bread as he, a Spaniard, likes to eat them; about his girlfriend who passes him a sandwich when he goes to the window and knocks, and how they have known each other for 30 years, and she is frail now, with a greyhound as her companion.”

At 7.00am, I went in and bought him a pack of four Duracel batteries and passed them to him and walked back with him. “I need to collect the rest of my stuff,” he told me. “I am glad you have new batteries for your radio to use during and after Christmas !! I will go ahead Jose to take a shower as it is getting cold,” I said. With that, we parted.

5. Christmas Crib

Pope Francis wrote: “The crib is like a living Gospel. While we contemplate the Nativity Scene,

we are invited to put ourselves spiritually on the way, drawn by the humility of Jesus, and God, who made himself human in the boy child Jesus, to encounter each one of us. And we discover that God loves us to such a point as to unite Godself to us so that we too can unite ourselves to God.” (Cf. Apostolic Letter Admirabile Signum, 1)

Jose Philip is a living gospel for me. Jose Philip is the face of God, his homeless body is a part of the body of Christ. Jose Philip’s bed, the cold concrete slabs of bricks on the floor, is a “holy crib”. The Christmas crib in our Churches is made of straw, symbolizing a holy place for God-with-us (Matt 1:23) to rest with the sheep. So is the cold brick-bed of Jose, a holy place, where the homeless rests at night, with the cold winter air and breeze, the sky and the clouds, with the birds, bees in the budding flowers, the plants, and the animals in the fields, the clouds and the crescent moon in the sky.

6. First Day of 2020

I made 4 pieces of toasts for Jose Philip. I slipped his breakfast under a plastic sheet at his “holy crib”. On my way back, I jogged past Jose Philip, sleeping on the ledge of the wall at Rose Place. So I decided to make a cup of coffee and toasts for him and half a slice of cheese from the Master’s Kitchen. I walked back and found him instead at the “holy crib”. After handing him his breakfast, he wished me “Happy New Year!” I was disappointed with myself that I did not shake hands with him when we parted company.

At mid-morning, I decided to meet up with Carrol Power and handed her the surplus breakfast. Then I sat on the cement floor, next to her so that we are “on the same plane”, experiencing our equal status. I requested her if we could take a photo together. And Carol asked me if I would mind if she placed her right hand over my shoulder. I was delighted that she could speak to me so freely, as we shared the same ground in the bosom of Mother Earth. What is most delightful was, as we interact, I came to this interbeing awareness: “She is divine. She is sacred. We are divine. We are sacred.”

7. First Meeting in the New Year

Jose Philip really made my day on January 2, 2020 with what he said. I greeted him at the “holy crib” and asked him if I should serve him coffee and toasts. When I brought him his breakfast, I decided to ask him how he wanted his toasts done next time. Sheepishly he replied, “I like my coffee with milk and sugar but my bread toasted as it was cold in the morning.” Then he said, “The rich do not care. But you care. And I care !! I will sleep here, because this spot belongs to the church,” touched me the most.

8. New Faces in the New Year

Eight days later in the new year, I decided to bring the surplus boiled eggs, fried bread, omelet, tomato and mushrooms and walked to meet Christina, Rachel and Sarah next to Boots on High Street. But I only met a young lady asleep. So I placed the food on her side. As I walked away, I wept, feeling a surge of empathy-sadness, wondering why/what were the circumstances in her life that have landed her in such predicament.

The next day, January 11, 2020, I decided to bring the surplus food to Christina, Rachel and Sarah after dinner but they were not there. But I saw a homeless sitting by the fence on St. Ebbes Street, next to the Church & History Department of Oxford University. I approached him and gave him the food. His name is Nicolai from Romania. He asked me for money and coffee. So I told him I did not bring any money but I could make him the coffee. As I walked away, the mantra, “We are sacred and divine in God” surfaced in my heart.

I came back and made the coffee, some toast for him. He came to London for a year and now in Oxford for the 3^rd day. He could not find work. He has a child and wife in Romania. He needs money to take a bus back to Romania which will take 3 days. He did not want to stay at the Wesley Hostel because they do drugs and consume alcohol which he detests. But he admitted he smokes.

Chuck is a new face whom I first met on January 13, 2020 and shared some breakfast with him. I asked him, “Are you not feeling well?” “Please rest?” A voice inside me reminded me: “You should have asked him what is he sick of and respond to his need.” As I walked away, I recited the mantra: “You are sacred and divine in God!”

The next day, January 14, 2020, I shared the food with Jason Dodd to whom I managed to utter: “You are sacred and divine in God!! Please keep warm and eat something warm!”

Tim, originally from Oxford, is another new face I met on February 1, 2020 with whom I shared the Friday special desert. The same evening, as I walked down St. Aldates, an elderly homeless, Edward George, called out to me, asked me for 7 pounds to spend the night in a shelter. I gave him the mass stipend of 10 pounds.

The most delightful moment was my meeting on February 3, 2020 with Theodora Uppsel Holder and Adrian leyseen (both Dutch) at the Covered Market and passed them the cooked carrot & vegetables, French fries and beef stew. I sat down and chatted with them. They came to one Island where Theodora met Adrian and stayed for 2 years and they have been in Oxford for the last 20 years !! They told me that the Night stay in the shelter costs 7 Pounds but the place is “doing drugs” and “very bad !!” Then I met with a group of youngers led by Bethani (Adrian, Chilini..etc) of the Knights of Malta from St. Bennets’ and they usually come around on Monday night while the Blackfriars group on Tuesday night.

Jose and James Cooper are young lads in their 30s whom I met on February 6, 2020. I passed them some vegetarian pasta, cheese and biscuits. James shared, “I am a bit stupid. I have pain in my left thigh.” I hugged both of them and came home. I met Joss again on February 11, 2020, with his 2 friends. Joss just hugged me when I passed him the fish cakes. He remarked, “I like to give you back the rest of the fish cakes. I do not like to waste food. You can pass it to someone else.” I was touched by his sense of frugality and solidarity. I left the four of them and soon met with Ray Power and his dog, Bruno, and passed the 3 fish cakes to him and the vegetables too.

I met Nancy Webb on February 17, 2020. Out of the 5 boxes of food, she selected the fried potatoes. Seeing her shivering in the cold, I came back to the house and brought her a thick long winter coat, with which she covered herself. When I appreciated her drawings that she displayed next to her, with the promise of buying a piece, I saw tears rolling down her cheeks and she wiped them away. I realized the power of affirmation! When I alerted her that I would be on my way to deliver the rest of the food to the Dutch couple, she retorted “Oh yea, I know them.”

As I walked towards the covered market, I say Ray and his dog Bruno. I passed the 3 boxes of food to Ray. Bruno just rubbed himself against me. Ray said Bruno loves the potato and salmon. I loved the jacket on Bruno and when I patted his neck, Bruno just stretched his neck and let me patted him!! Ray reached out to shake my hand and I bid farewell to him.

9. Reciprocal Relations with Jose in the New Year

On January 13, 2020. Sunday, I gave Jose Philip a fright when I tiptoed up to him to his “holy crib” to ascertain his presence. He woke up. As I walked away, I recited the mantra “We are Sacred and Divine in God.” I came back with his coffee and toast and uttered “You are sacred and divine in God!!” Then I told him “I will go jogging Jose” and left him.

January 22, 2020 was special as Jose gave me a gift from Indonesia and I remarked: “Thank you very much. I am so touched.” Then I asked him the possibility of joining him to go to a shelter called Stepping Stone and Greyfriars. Jose was so welcoming and enthusiastic: “Tell me when I can meet you here!”  Then I said that one day I would like go with him but not today. Then he shared with me about his love for art, Chinese and Arabic words, how he enjoyed the art-drawing at Stepping Stones and how he needed to do something other than smoking and drinking the whole day! Upon reflection, I realized I should have gone with him the day itself instead of putting my writing above him. Then he gave me his black hat on January 27, 2020, when I mentioned to him that he has a lovely hat that befits him. As he could not see with spectacles, I passed 2 new pairs of spectacles to Jose on February 11, 2020, and he accepted them.

10. Ash Wednesday 2020

Reflecting on the religious significance of Ash Wednesday on February 26, 2020 in my life, God showed me how to be more trusting and other-centered. I was at the St. Mungo’s Shelter, run by the New Road Baptist Church after purchasing my train ticket and a homeless called out to me, inquiring about the time of the day. When I told him it was 3.22pm, he came down the stairs and asked for a cup of tea. I led him to buy tea and sandwiches, only to realize that I could go back and made the sandwiches for him. I put some cold dishes in a container, made the toast, and a cup of tea for him, returned and found him. His name of Charles Peter, born and bred in South Kensington, London.

• Signs: Homeless still with us

Since the pandemic in UK, the homeless have disappeared from sight. However, I saw two of them asleep outside the Albion House on Littlegate Street on April 25, 2020. I was so glad to see them again. Since it was 5.00 am in the morning, I did not approach them as they needed their sleep.

The sight of Vasli-Virgil Alintas, a young homeless from Romania, at 5, Cambridge Terrace, delighted me as I approached him with coffee and cake, with social distancing in mind, on April 30, 2020. He was stranded for 3 months in Oxford as the President of Romania declared a national lockdown. He appeals for financial aids to buy his ticket to return to his children and wife in Romania.

                                         Conclusion

The Levinasian ethics of alterity opens me to a face-to-face encounter with the denuded vulnerable other and challenges me to be respons-able to the plight of the homeless. Though Duncan Kelley opines that cities “are often designed as much to keep poverty and homelessness hidden from the gaze of residents and tourists,”[1] I am glad the homeless in Oxford are still with us.

The homeless serves us a grim reminder that our current world order, as Arundhati Roy opines, “offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves” so that we can break with the past and courageously walk through a portal, with little luggage, “ready to imagine another world” and “ready to fight for it.”[2]

I draw inspiration from the unflinching resistance of Pope Francis in unmasking the virulent neo-Malthusianism and how it influences “the way people are selected according to their utility or productivity: the throwaway culture…“from the beginning to the end of life” in the use “of prenatal selection” and the observable absence of “Down’s Syndrome people on the street when the tomograph [scan] detects them, they are binned” and the “culture of euthanasia, either legal or covert, in which the elderly are given medication but only up to a point” and the “homeless continue to be homeless” or “put in quarantine. And the hotels were empty. But the homeless cannot go to a hotel.”[3]

Religious communities, I submit, need to heed Pope Francis, by resisting such utilitarian philosophy by “opening up new horizons, opening windows, opening transcendence toward God and toward people, and in creating new ways of being at home”[4] with those at the margin of society.

[1] Duncan Kelly, Politics And The Anthropocene (Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 2019), 41.

[2] Arundhati Roy, “The Pandemic is a portal,” http://amp.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca?segmentid=acee4131-99c2-09d3-a635-873e61754ec6&__twitter_impression=true, accessed April 15, 2020.

[3] Austen Ivereigh, ‘Pope Francis says pandemic can be a ‘place of conversion’, http://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/17845/pope-francis-says-pandemic-can-be-a-place-of-conversion-

[4] Ibid.