Not every interaction with a street person is or need be some one-way transaction. And it is not always the case that such persons are more in need than those that they seek financial help from. After all, is the loan applicant in a bank necessarily more ineffective, less intelligent, or morally inferior to the person on the other side of the desk?

Back in the late 6th century lived Servulus, today’s saint. Here’s how Butler describes Servulus’s life situation:

Servulus was a beggar, and had been afflicted with the palsy from his infancy; so that he was never able to stand, sit upright, lift his hand to his mouth, or turn himself from one side to another. His mother and brother carried him into the porch of St. Clement’s church at Rome, where he lived on the alms of those that passed by.

This certainly doesn’t sound like your usual set-up for a saint-in-the-making! But here’s the thing about Servulus, as Butler continues to narrate:

Whatever he could spare from his own subsistence he distributed among other needy persons. The sufferings and humiliation of his condition were a means of which he made the most excellent use for the sanctification of his own soul, by the constant exercise of humility, patience, meekness, resignation, and penance.

What is more, Servulus would encourage the people who passed by him to focus on God and God’s goodness. After a relatively short and painless life, Servulus died.

When I think about homeless people that I have encountered on the street, I recall with great clarity times when I’ve seen them share whatever they had with one another–a quarter, a cigarette, a swig from a bottle, even a hug. I’ve also been told by street people that I did not even give any money to, “God bless you.” And, goodness knows, so many, many, many of these people have learned (whether by their choice or not) a level of patience, meekness, and resignation that I personally hope and pray never to need to know.

I’ve no idea how the Church came to recognize and canonize Servulus, but I’m glad it did. And I am pulled up short in the recognition of how many saints that I could be learning from and sharing with (who will in turn share with others) that I pass by–often quickly and without so much as establishing eye contact.

Just as Tony Kushner recognized that persons living with AIDS can at one and the same time be Angels in America, so, too, may we recognize this of our homeless population!

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren (and sisters), ye have done it unto me.” – The Gospel According to Matthew 25:40, KJV.