Wednesday Suppers

The following article was featured in Jesus a Historical Portrait, St. Anthony Messenger Press, January 2007. It was a bulletin insert from a Church in the East Bay.

“In His Footsteps

If it’s Wednesday, there’s no need to wonder where Ron Pacheco is. He’s at his parish, Most Holy Redeemer, located in San Francisco’s Castor District, helping to get ready for the Wednesday Supper that will be served to about 100 guests later that day. Ron and the other volunteers put heart and soul into their preparations each week.

There are no ordinary guests. More often than not, they are homeless and hungry. They may well have drug and/or alcohol problems. Their health is precarious. They look disheveled They have a smell about them. They cannot hold jobs. They don’t always behave in ways that society appreciates. “They know `what it is like to be misunderstood, ostracized, rejected, disliked – even hated,” Ron told Jesus: A Historical Portrait.

But when the doors open at 4:30, they are welcomed as children of God, as the very kind people Jesus shared meals with. All guests are invited to sit at round tables, where food is brought to them. Volunteers often join them in conversation, catching up, on their lives and assessing their needs. Friendships are formed. After dinner, the guests can receive clothing, get a haircut, visit with a doctor or nurse. Once a month, all are invited to stay and watch a movie.

“Food brings us together, but we’re about relationships. One night a week, our guests get a good meal, a safe place, a social setting. They can leave the worries of the outside world behind them,” said Ron 63, a retired human resources manager.

Just as Jesus always welcomed the marginalized, Ron said, his parish extends a welcome to Wednesday night guests at other times, including Sunday Mass, at the coffee hour afterwards, at the parish picnic. He calls the erasing of lines between parishioners and guests one of the many“miracles” the parish has experienced since the dinners began several years ago. “The needy who come to the parish aren’t ‘those’ people; they’re our people.”- Judy Ball”

(Judy Ball. Jesus: A Historical Portrait. St. Anthony Messenger Press. www.americancatholic.org. Q0107, January 2007.)

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