Italy Through Christ's Eyes

The homeless food run outings organized by the Sant'Egidio community are quickly approaching an end for the fall semester students at the Catholic University of America (CUA) Rome center. For the past four months, the students have been meeting other American and Italian students as well as the Italian homeless population. The memories made during the service outings have shaped the students' experience of Italian life abroad indispensably. One student expressed that "There is nothing that I will miss more about Rome than the people at these homeless food runs." Moreover, the students unfailingly ask themselves how they have been so fortunate as to find this group of terrific people.

What makes this service project so impacting is that interaction with people who have been humbled (that is--the volunteers give of themselves to the poor, and the homeless persons have no luxuries) and are therefore more open to giving of themselves to others genuinely and without reserve. Truly, the CUA students have encountered God in the people that they serve, for Jesus says that "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). Because of their inclination to be genuine, the best way of getting to know a foreign country is by coming to know its poor.

The volunteers not only recognized Jesus in the poor population, but they identified with Him. Every Thursday, there were familiar faces at the homeless food runs, enabling a real bond to form. The students were able to more vividly sympathize with the struggle of the homeless people who were worried about a member of their sick family member, about an imminent and necessary trip to a different country, for their medical conditions, for their worries about their life goals. Likewise, the students found support from the homeless people, for the majority are learned. Speaking in different languages, they discuss politics, the state of life in other countries, or even something simple such as the struggles of school.

The identification of the students with the homeless have been invaluable for their CUAbroad experience. One gets to know the city of Rome through the eyes of true Italians not only by visiting museums, ancient ruins, or eating Italian food but especially by meeting the humble Italians that spend their time near these places and who themselves eat the food. The experience abroad is transformed by identifying with sharers of Christ's poverty.