That time of year

Christmas, with the end of the tax year on its heels, is prime season for appeals from charities and agencies seeking contributions for those "less fortunate."  That phrase has always grated on my sense of fairness, with its labeling of people based on life's circumstances and implied judgement that some folks are less blessed. After a visit yesterday to Villa Maria, I realized how easily "less fortunate" is translated into "less valuable." 

As Christians we affirm our belief that every human being is a child of God, that each person is to be valued and respected simply by virtue of being created by God, yet in so many ways we tell people that they don't matter. Sister Helen is determined that every one who enters the doors of Villa Maria will be treated with the utmost respect and care. The women who call Villa Maria their home for a few days or weeks or months are there because they have no home of their own and few resources.  Few have had experiences of being valued and loved rather than used and abused. 

But the message transmitted in every detail of the building decoration and furnishings says that important people live here. Interior decorators chose colors. A garland of flowers is painted above each room's doorway. Every room is named for a woman declared a saint. 

As Sister Helen conducts a tour and tells stories about who donated what and how she searched and bargained for just the right furnishings, she makes clear she was not about to accept just any donation. This was not going to be a place for the cast offs of others. She was not going to accept just whatever anyone wanted to give away. The residents were not going to be given the message one more time that they had to be satisfied with what is old, used, damaged, discarded. Instead, Sister Helen insists that each woman deserves to live in surroundings that are beautiful as well as clean and safe. The goal of Villa Maria is to help each woman recognize and value the beauty and worth that they carry within, in order to make their way in a world that is too often ugly and unloving.

Villa Maria is a challenge to our use of language to judge and devalue and divide.