Deacons, others join with Society of St. Vincent de Paul for a picnic with homeless neighbors

Barbecue and fellowship were served in heaping portions at a July 15 picnic for the homeless held near downtown Omaha.

In partnership with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Omaha, a group of deacons and their wives and other volunteers helped serve more than 175 pounds of chicken, pulled pork and beef brisket – plus an array of homemade salads and desserts – to nearly 250 homeless men and women.

Participants listened and danced to live music and gathered around picnic tables and throughout the grounds of St. Vincent de Paul’s Holy Family Center, 1715 Izard St. They feasted until the food ran out.

“It was a really special event,” said Jill Lynch-Sosa, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The picnic gave everyone a chance to hang out and build relationships with their neighbors, the word she prefers to use for the people she serves.

That would be the word Jesus would prefer, too, said Deacon Bart Zavaletta, a theology teacher at V.J. and Angela Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, who serves at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, also in Omaha. In the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan, the neighbor was the one who showed mercy.

Deacon Zavaletta helped at the picnic, along with his two sons, ages 8 and 10, who handed out watermelon and lemonade.

“As a deacon who lives and moves in a comfortable mid-to-upper-class environment, this experience reminded me personally how I’m called to live all the aspects of my apostolic mission, including servant love for the poor,” he said, “to not forget that I have a duty to seek them out, to go to them.

“They don’t necessarily always have to come to me, or I wait and just stay where I’m at. I need to go,” Deacon Zavaletta said. “I need to go out and be with the poor. That’s something that a lot of Christians forget sometimes, and as deacons we need to lead the way.”

Lynch-Sosa said that it’s important not to be swayed by appearances when interacting with the homeless.

“It’s very easy to see the outward appearance and think whatever stereotype goes along with that image,” she said. “But when you actually sit down and interact and work side by side, you don’t see that outward appearance anymore, you see that person and you interact with them as another human being, as a friend.”

Events like the picnic tear down “those walls that we build up around each other.”

That Tuesday evening, Deacon Zavaletta said, proved to be “a grace-filled and beautiful experience to be able to sit down and converse with the neighbors.”

He said he spoke to a man named Leroy for more than an hour “and was just completely mesmerized” by the man’s peace, gentleness, grace and wisdom. “He was just sharing such beautiful wisdom about life and about faith. I would say that I received more from him than I was able to give him. I was so blessed.”

Leroy told the deacon that “not a day that goes by that I don’t hear someone call me this or that, bad words.” But looking around at the picnic, he said “this is so peaceful.”

The picnic-goers “were simply there to enjoy the food and the company and the peaceful evening,” Deacon Zavaletta said. That peace was “evidence of the Holy Spirit.”

He said he felt God’s presence in other ways, too.

“I had a chance to pray with and bless Leroy,” he said. “And I do believe that it did bless him, but it was my presence there with him that I think he will hold in his mind and memory for a long while. And the same is true for me.”

Many of the neighbors helped plan and set up for the picnic and with the cleanup afterward. They helped make the food, filled ice bags and set up and took down the tables and chairs.

“They stayed right until the very end,” Lynch-Sosa said.

Spending time with the homeless, enjoying their company, laughing and having fun with them is “by far the best part of my job,” she said.

One of the neighbors, talking with her after the picnic, said, “This was great. Food fills you up. But this food, this filled my soul.”