Kicked to the Curb - Homeless vs. Coffee Shop

While on a business trip in California, I witnessed firsthand the problem of homelessness.  I arrived after a six-hour flight to the city of Los Angeles and took an Uber from the airport to the hotel in Santa Monica.  The curious tourist in me was taking in all of the sights on the drive, familiar store brands, banks, and other companies with familiar names.  I was trying also to spot differences, different cultural influences, and so much more in that brief ride.  Before long though, a sad reality struck me. What I noticed not too far out of the Los Angeles airport was the large number of homeless lining the streets in gray tattered blankets.  Sometimes you could make out the person’s body, sometimes only a lumpy blanket.  Even in Santa Monica, there were many homeless in the streets.  At night, walking along the Santa Monica beach and pier, every few hundred yards was another homeless person. 

My work took me to Hollywood during the day.  While commuting from Santa Monica to Hollywood, I didn’t notice the volume of homeless that I had witnessed at night.  Instead, I noticed many storefronts, gated or closed, seemingly out of business.  It was there that I expected to see more homeless, but it wasn’t so.  

 

After a few days of work meetings, I had some time to work from my hotel and explore the local sites.  One day I walked from my hotel to the Third Street Promenade shops.  After doing a bit of shopping, I found what I thought was a quaint coffee shop (The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf), only to later find out it was part of a much larger chain.  While sitting at the outdoor table sipping my iced mocha latte and eating a pastry, a homeless man came and asked me for spare change.  I told him that I was not carrying cash, but that I would be happy to buy him something to eat and drink inside.  He appeared to be very grateful.  He told me that he would like a chai tea.  I invited him into the store so that he could choose what he wanted to eat.  He seemed very appreciative, and even cracked a bit of a smile.  

 

When we entered the store, the counter clerk looked at my new acquaintance with horror.  She said to him, “you can’t be in here.  You have to get out of the store.”  I said to her that I just wanted to buy him something to eat and drink, and she said, “I don’t know.  I’m going to have to get my manager.”  The manager came out and told the man that he wasn’t allowed in the store.  I reiterated to her that I just wanted to buy him something to eat.  She appeared annoyed with me and said, “you can do what you want, but he has to wait outside.”  I asked him what he wanted to eat.  He chose a chocolate muffin.  I told him I would deliver his food to him outside.  He just smiled, appearing to be a little embarrassed, and headed outside.   

 

I was aware that this man was not clean.  I was aware that this man’s smell wasn’t pleasant.  I was aware that this man wasn’t dressed in the same way that the other clients were.  But I was aware that this man was a man, a human being made in the image and likeness of God and deserved the dignity that comes with that humanity.  

 

I’m not going to pretend that I understand why he was banned from the store.  There may have been a negative interaction in the past.  Immediately I assumed that he wasn’t welcome because he was homeless.  I reminded myself to assume the positive intent of the store staff, and to refrain from judging their actions.  I needed to remind myself that they too were beautifully and wonderfully made, and deserving of love and mercy.  It was easy, without knowing the whole history, to judge the coffee shop staff for what I assumed was judgement of the homeless man.  In that moment, I realized that I might have been trying to show love to the homeless man, but not to the coffee shop team.  I immediately thought of a Bible passage that I had seen while in the Reagan Library that Ronald Reagan’s mother had noted in her family Bible, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  1 John 4:7-8

 

Immediately, I remembered something that I had read in the Catholic Catechism.  “The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: ‘There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.’” (CCC, 605). 

 

Thinking about these things, I smiled at the barista brewing the chai latte.  I was kind to the cashier who first rejected this man.  I thanked them for their help, and wished them a nice day.  I took the chai and muffin out to the man, who smiled, thanked me and said, “God bless you, Sir.  God bless you!”  I thanked him for his blessing, offered my own, and wished him a nice day before making my way back to the hotel.  

What did I learn about this?  I learned that it was very easy for me to judge other people’s reactions to situations, without knowing why they feel the way they do.  I learned that my love is very limited.  I want to pick and choose who I am going to love.  Christ’s love is not limited.  He loves all of us and invites all of us to love Him in return.   

 

As I walked back to the hotel, my imaginative brain was conjuring one-hundred-and-one scenarios about what must have happened with this man and the coffee shop.  But it was then that I thought of another lesson.  When the man was literally kicked to the curb, he didn’t open his mouth.  He didn’t fight back.  He didn’t try to defend himself.  He just smiled at the cashier and walked out of the store.  By all accounts, it was a very peaceful eviction.  All I could think of was God’s love for us, made real to others in our love to them.  I just kept thinking to myself, this is what it means to love one another…without exception. 

Love one another.