{"id":5593,"date":"2015-10-18T12:42:45","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T17:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=5593"},"modified":"2016-01-07T13:09:02","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T18:09:02","slug":"october-18-2015-who-do-you-hang-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/october-18-2015-who-do-you-hang-with\/","title":{"rendered":"October 18, 2015, Who Do You Hang With?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seth Moland-Kovash, Palatine, IL<\/p>\n

\u200b<\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you had the opportunity to have lunch with any living person on Earth, who would it be?<\/p>\n

Who Do You Hang With?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a highly-publicized visit (to understate the case) Pope Francis recently completed a visit to the United States. He met with the President, he addressed a joint session of Congress (the first Pope in history to do this), he held a gathering of families in Philadelphia, he addressed the United Nations, and he met with countless church and national leaders. He had a very tight schedule. Following his historic address to Congress, he had been invited to lunch with Congressional leaders. He turned down that invitation to eat at a Catholic Charities\u2019 center that serves the homeless in Washington, DC instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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There were reports that, originally, the organization had wanted to invite major donors to the luncheon to meet the Pope. This is not a bad idea. It\u2019s something groups do a lot \u2013 thank people who have given generously over the years. Instead, a few such dignitaries were there, but most of the crowd were the homeless who eat at this center on a regular basis. And the Pope met with them, sat with them, and ate with them<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n