Make It Personal

I attended a Zoom interactive webinar a few weeks ago, and it got me thinking.  Its title was The Preferential Options for the Poor.  Mike Matteurzzi hosted the event through the ministry he created after he had turned 50 and the upward trajectory of his success story as a lawyer and businessman fell apart. Mike’s pathway to the ministry he created, Contemporary Spirituality, took him from a silent retreat at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, the day after his divorce was finalized, then to Richard Rohr’s Living School and then to Ron Rohlheiser’s Spirituality of the Wisdom Years Program.

What got me to thinking during and after the webinar was how I personally relate to charity, introspectively considering my level of commitment to really making a difference in a world so heavily populated with marginalized people. And it got me to thinking about my friend Michael Brecke.

Several years ago, Michael retired from a 40-year run as a Lutheran pastor. But that did not leave a vacuum for long. In his own words: “Retirement to me is not the end of anything. It’s a vocational transition to something else.” Something else became The Listening Post.

Michael learned much about relating to people during the years following his ordination after obtaining a Doctorate from the Divinity School at Yale University.  The thing he honors the most is his skill at listening. “I think one of the most common needs shared by human beings is the need to be heard,” Michael told me at a three-weekend retreat we both attended last fall. He has coupled that belief onto his affinity for homeless people.  It began like this.

He and three companions were traveling by car through the riverfront area on the northern edge of downtown Kansas City on a cold weekend morning.  Their purpose was to distribute food, clothing, and blankets to anyone they could find who had a need, and in this area, they knew that would happen. Sure enough, they spotted a man on a triangle of land on Wyandotte Ave and Fifth Street. Michael exited the car with arms full. He noticed right away that the man had a huge stye in one of his eyes that clearly had gone untreated. He spoke to the man gently and offered him any of the items he had. They visited for a short while, and Michael proposed a ride to an emergency room where he could get treatment for his eye. The man declined that offer but accepted a blanket, some socks, a coat, and something to eat.

Michael paused the narrative and took a long breath, and said to me, “Then something happened.”  The man’s posture changed. He stood straight-backed, and with the infected eye half closed, starred directly at Michael’s face. “It’s just like Matthew 15:32. This is what we are all called to do, to care for one another, to love one another.  Some people have a lot, some don’t. But we all can share what we have with others.”  In the telling of this, Michael’s voice quivered, and I could see that his eyes were rimmed red and moist.

Matthew 15:32 is the Gospel passage where Jesus told his disciples he would feed thousands out of a supply of five loaves and two fishes.  Of course, as a minister, Michael understood the context immediately, and yes, he was surprised that this man, with no apparent resources, living in survival mode on the streets of Kansas City, would speak such words.

Humbled, Michael offered the man a handshake. Instead, the man opened his arms and offered Michael a bighearted embrace, which he accepted and wept openly on his way back to the car. For Michael, this moment was liminal, transforming. Michael did not expect that morning to be exceptional. He’d been engaged in this many times. But this encounter put Michael’s hand firmly on the rudder that would give his new ministry a bearing. Hence: The Listening Post.

Michael is comfortable in the discomfort of keeping the company of the homeless. He is not afraid to breathe the air they do, smell them, embrace them if they will let him, and he listens. Sometimes, listening leads to giving, like access to pro bono legal aid or medical attention through a network of giving professionals he developed or perhaps money or necessities. Most often, though, he gives them an experience of being treated with dignity and being heard.  For Michael, what he receives in return is a gift that he keeps on giving. “It's joy,” Michael says, smiling broadly. I get back so much more than I give.”

This all goes to say that it’s got me to thinking about charity. In the collective, humanity has done much harm to humanity through indifference, cruelty, and exclusion. I ask myself is making cash donations enough?  It feels distant, safe, and antiseptic.

I asked Michael once what he would tell someone who asked him how to make a difference. 

“Make it personal,” he said.