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As published by the Diocese of Fort Worth
March 19,
2004—North Texas Catholic
Seeing Christ in the homeless
Story by Karen Rangel
Photos by Jesus Rangel
You don’t love them, but you are supposed to. You don’t want to
look. You turn the other way. What will it take for us to see the
homeless as God sees them? — perhaps, a group of teens and a man
with a vision.
“God loves everyone equally,” says John Holbrook, a private
investigator and photographer. “Anyone can have a halo with one pure
thought.”
During a homeless awareness weekend March 6-7 at Good Shepherd
Church in Colleyville, Holbrook, along with teenagers from the
church, tried to bring this message home. Holbrook spends his spare
time getting to know those living on the streets. He learns about
their lives and tells their stories through his pictures. The teens
have been feeding and clothing the homeless for the past five years
by working with the Bread of Life ministries. Holbrook and the teens
joined forces to give a vision of a world rarely seen.
 During
the Saturday evening Mass, teens set up a shanty town of cardboard
boxes while Holbrook lined the sidewalk with his pictures. The
parishioners had not been told what to expect. As they left the
church, members had to walk by the pictures of homeless men and
women to get to the parking lot. Some turned their heads and focused
on the children setting up the boxes. Some stared at the pictures,
unable to turn away.
“They are awesome, so Spirit-filled; they make me Spirit-filled,”
says Kay Gibson, parishioner at Good Shepherd. “This is truly a
vision of Christ. I hope we don’t just do this today. I hope it
lasts.”
There were feelings of apprehension. The pictures are real and raw.
There is nothing hidden. All Holbrook sees is love.
“I do this because I know God exists,” he says. “My job is to look
for the beauty. This is what I’m meant to do.”
 The
photos are not staged. When he prints the photos, he uses the
darkroom technique of dodging to add light, giving the effect of a
halo. He calls his images “Saints of God.” After taking one of his
very first pictures of a man he calls St. Michael, Holbrook was
trying to lighten the picture when he accidentally lightened it too
much, giving “St. Michael” a halo.
Holbrook does not earn any money from these photos. “I never really
want to be famous. It will corrupt or poison it. My reward will be
from God,” he says. “When you have pride, you become blinded to
beauty. My reward will be humility.”
As he walks by the pictures, he tells their stories. “St. Michael”
prays every night, thanking God for his shoes. If he doesn’t have
shoes that night, he thanks God for his feet. Agnes, who now has a
home, suffers from schizophrenia, but she refuses to be victimized
by the voices in her head. There was a cut in the MHMR budget, and
many mentally challenged end up on the streets. This one is Mama
Rose, for whom Holbrook’s daughter is named. She has been raped 12
times and hit by a car four times. Many are on the street because of
drug abuse.
 “They
are homeless not because they are lazy,” Holbrook says. “They have a
mental illness or drug addiction.” The drug addiction, he says, is
common among them, used to anesthetize themselves from a traumatic
experience in their lives.
Holbrook has great empathy for the homeless, but he warns not to
give money to those waiting on the street corner. He recommends
giving money to trustworthy organizations that help the homeless.
Giving money from your car enables the homeless and can be
dangerous.
Why does he continue to interview them and take their pictures?
Because he has an intense love for them.
“It was a calling from God. I know I’m on the right frequency. It
makes people angry sometimes,” Holbrook says. “If they are angry and
upset, it is more of an indicator that I am doing the right thing.”
The teens, through their years of serving the homeless at the ‘slab’
— the outdoor site in downtown Fort Worth where Bread of Life
distributes food and clothing to the homeless — have learned a lot
about God’s love. When they are asked what is the one thing they do
that brings them closer to God, most say that it’s their experience
at the slab.
 “They
are somebody, and they need you,” said Brett McGaffigan, 15, a
member of Good Shepherd. “You don’t do it for you. You do it for
them.”
In the background one could hear the teens talking to each other.
“You’re going to be cold. Why don’t you be like me and sleep on the
floor? You can come to my box if you get cold. I have an extra
blanket.” Already they were joining forces to make it through this
night.
Good Shepherd parishioner Suzanne Fitzgerald started the project
helping feed and clothe the homeless five years ago. She wanted to
get her own children involved in serving the community. She started
volunteering with the teens from the church at the Bread of Life
Ministries.
“The kids are great. They take orders for the clothing. The first
thing they have to do is ask the person’s name and tell them their
name, so they are talking to the people,” Fitzgerald says. “They all
want to serve breakfast, but that is the easy part.”
The entire weekend was devoted to homeless awareness from the
liturgical music to the homily. Deacon Rick Griego called on the
parishioners to examine their own lives after hearing the Gospel of
the Transfiguration.
“We are all called to be transfigured throughout our lives and [to
be] imitators of Jesus. Good Shepherd’s children show the real
essence of the Eucharist,” Deacon Griego says. “All persons have
value to God.”
 Deacon
Greigo talked of the social sins such as a lack of education or lack
of a job that keep people on the streets. He challenged the
community to look at themselves.
“In what ways are you tossing and turning? In what way is your life
a transforming event as you journey toward the cross?”
The goal of the night out in front of Good Shepherd was to give the
kids a taste of what it is like to spend the night on the streets.
There was no food, no refrigerator, no television, and no restrooms.
“I didn’t realize what people have to go through,” Christina Feber
says. “We take things for granted.”
Cherryll Davis, director of Bread of Life ministries, sees that the
teens make a difference.
“From my heart, what I see is that the kids bring energy and life. I
think it really helps the [homeless] people that come here to see
the exuberance and [understand] that they are important enough that
the church is getting the youth involved,” Davis says. “We get to
see life changed. It’s about love and seeing that love work in
people’s lives.”
Copyright (c) 2004 North Texas Catholic. The NTC news report may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed,
including but not limited to such means as framing or any other
digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without
the prior written authority of North Texas Catholic.
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