The road to Emmaus

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- On the cold night of Jan. 31, 1954, a woman froze to death on the streets of Paris, clutching in her hands the eviction notice dated one day before. It was a forgettable tragedy, one in a million of the small tragedies that pass daily. But the next day, a 41-year-old priest barged into the studios of Radio Luxembourg to issue a plea that such tragedies should not be forgotten, that we can and must do more. "Friends, help!" he cried across the airwaves, and in that moment, the legend of Abbé Pierre began. His career built affordable housing, raised the poor out of poverty, and brought change to a frozen French government. \nBorn to wealth but renouncing it all, sworn to serve God through saving the poor, Pierre was France's conscience for years, reluctantly accepting media celebrity to spread his simple message: "Serve first those who suffer most." \n I've found the popularity of Abbé Pierre confusing in a country moving ever further from religion. Possessing a voice that was unpredictable, prophetic and undeniably religious, Abbé Pierre strangely found a place in the hearts of the French. The French adulation with Pierre seemed to draw forth from his reminder of how much good one determined Frenchman can do, but also how little the countless others in France were doing. Nothing like strength of character and a massive guilt trip to appeal to the French. \nIn an age of religious strife the world over and increasing indifference toward religion in France, Pierre seemed almost anachronistic, but that's precisely what made him so important. Others could only see religion as a wedge to separate groups of people, as another sticking point in an endless war. Yet, here was a man who was just trying to take people in from the cold on a freezing February night. \nPierre called his organization the Ragpickers of Emmaus, after a story in the Gospel of Luke. Luke tells how Jesus, after his resurrection, was met by two disciples who couldn't recognize him on the road to Emmaus, a decent hike from Jerusalem. As night fell, they invited the stranger, the resurrected Christ, under their roof to dine with them and stay the night, where he revealed himself to them. Being homeless isn't a sign of social deviancy or incompetence, just a sign of not having a home, whether the homeless person in question is an anonymous Parisian woman or the son of God. \nAs a fairly unreligious guy, I'm struck by the wealth of feeling the supposedly atheist French feel for this man. As a country that finds its religion on social fault lines, maybe America would also do well to remember what the point of religion on Earth is in the first place. It doesn't matter to which sect, church or creed you belong. The message of the Pierre is incontestable, "Serve first those who suffer most." We lend our hand to those who need it and God will take care of the rest, if he or she is there