Edges Magazine Issue 41 - Whom do you see when you are looking at me

EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 41

April 2005

Elaine Kennedy is part of
the T.H.O.M.A.S. Team

Whom do you see
when you are looking at me

Over the years that I was the drop-in manager, I learned a great deal about alcoholism and the misery of those who suffered from alcohol addiction. The most startling thing I discovered was that the people who were the most aggressive when drunk, were the most mild and gentle folk when not having had alcohol for a few weeks. It made me wonder if perhaps they had a lack of that natural aggression most of us have, which helps us in a positive way when we are up against life. Maybe alcohol filled that gap.

Our regular alcoholic clients were Blackburn people for the most part. They knew each other well and had a lot of love for one another. They could of course be very quarrelsome until several cups of tea and hot soup had done their work! It very soon became obvious to me that life for our alcoholic clients was a huge struggle. Often they were homeless, lived in squats and so on.

The hardest thing for them was other people’s attitudes. I find it hard to accept that in this day and age people still find it hard to accept illness which is not immediately obvious. Many of us have not understood that mental illness is physical illness! The chemical reactions etc. in the brain are as explainable as our blood supply yet we would not dream of treating someone who has cancer or heart disease the way we treat or think of people we see weaving a staggered path down a street. Addiction is an illness.

Just recently there has been talk of isolating genes which could be clues to addictive natures and inherited problems, but why do we always need scientific proof before we accept people as just that – people, the same as the rest of us but possibly with an addiction which is more destructive and more visible than our own. When we use derogatory terms to describe alcoholic people, when we talk about them as if they were guilty or selfish, or creatures less than ourselves we are turning our backs on the basic teaching of Christ. We are also showing our ignorance of what makes us humans tick, collectively and as individuals.

Right at the beginning of the drop-in eleven years ago, Fr. Jim taught us an invaluable and life-altering truth – that each and every human being has the same amount of Christ within them. He told us that when people are difficult and their brokenness is visible; we should look into their eyes and ignore everything else about them and feel Christ saying to you ‘whom do you see when you are looking at me?’ Of course that person can do the same to you and who would they see?

Life is a struggle, different struggles for different individuals. We must try never to de-value the importance of other people’s struggles. Henry Newman wrote

‘ ..they come for a moment of warmth in the vastness of their devastation’.

Such are the beautiful human beings who still regularly come to our drop-in. Holding all our pain in the palm of His hand is that very person we will see if we only know where to look for Him