I just watched the movie The Soloist.  Robert Downey, Jr. plays Steve Lopez, a newspaper columnist who is looking for his next story and so becomes intrigued by Jamie Foxx’s character, Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless, mentally ill, brilliant artist.  This true story explores the very meaning and subsequent consequence of friendship.

Yet, the skeptic in me questions the ethics behind helping one person within a faulty system versus helping more by changing the system that promotes a culture of poverty.
Lopez. activates all of his connections to be able to assist with Ayer’s ability to live off of the streets.  I just wonder… if more of our homeless had a Robert Downey, Jr. where they would all be...

This Sunday’s reading in the Acts of the Apostles introduces the gifted orator of our faith to the first Christian communities.  Saul arrived in Jerusalem to only to find that the disciples didn’t trust him. So, Barnabas vouches for Saul, and Saul becomes Paul, and we get a ton of letters of his that offer direction to many Christian communities.

We all have an opportunity to be either Barnabas or Lopez or Saul or Ayers.  We can either be the one whose privilege is used to benefit others… in Barnabas’s case, the disciples trusted him, and he took a chance to present them with Saul… in Lopez’s case, he used his access to people and resources to share the story of a Juilliard drop-out whose battle with mental illness led him to the safety and freedom of the streets.  Through Lopez’s column, Ayers received a new cello, a new apartment, some food, an instructor, and at least 2 tickets to the symphony.

Or perhaps, we may have the honor of being ushered into a conversation or a job, but in the end, it is our brilliance that keeps people believing.

Either way, the Good News this week reminds us that we could be either person depending on the situation.  In fact, we are told that God puts a ton of faith in us and is there to help us realize ourselves in conversation with God’s will for us.  We just have to show up and be the gifted sons and daughters that we are called to be.  Then, not only can God vouch for us, but we can begin to vouch for God.