Christ in the Heart of Bread for the City SSI Clients

These past couple weeks have been full of SSI/SSDI work. As soon as Mr. R’s hearing concluded, my mind switched to two cases that are scheduled to for hearing on March 11th. Together with my boss and the clients, I have been doing the same as for Mr. R – finalizing my understanding of the medical records, writing a brief for the judge, submitting all pertinent evidence, explaining the process to my clients, and making sure everything else is ready.

In the process, I have met with my boss, Vytas, to comprehensively make sure I am ready to represent these clients. During our case review on Monday, Vytas made a comment about a movie his daughter and he had watched the previous weekend. One of the characters in the movie was clearly crippled – an image we can conjure in our minds: a man in a walker… an woman limping across the street with large thick glasses… the images are all too familiar here in my neighborhood and at Bread for the City. Yet Vytas explained a twist in the story – it was later revealed that this disabled character was actually an important powerful Greek god, in the disguise of a disabled person. Perhaps initial encounters and judgments don’t offer a full understanding. How differently might others have treated this disabled person if he appeared as a Greek god?

I was struck by this story because of its parallel to what my Catholic faith calls me to see – Christ in the heart of the poor. Reflecting on a commonly discussed passage from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus asks us to turn to the poor, the “least brothers of mine” and to serve them – to give them food and drink, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the ill and imprisoned (Matthew 25: 33-46).

I have been thinking about this moment with Vytas since Monday and have been drawn back to this passage. While I have been praying for my SSI clients and their hearings, especially as they draw near, I often forget to slow down and reflect on the work I am doing. It has been a couple of days since that meeting, and I continue to return to that meeting with Vytas. Working for a place like Bread for the City provides daily experiences for me to experience Christ – perhaps if I slow down and look more closely into the heart of each client of Bread for the City, Jesus will become more present in the conversations I have each day.