Dignity Is Non-Negotiable
Friday, January 2, 2026
Carlos Rodríguez, founder of The Happy Givers nonprofit based in Puerto Rico, shares how he was challenged to be salt and light for an elderly man:
Don Héctor was at the hospital. He had pneumonia and it was terrible… While he was at the hospital, a combination of my fear and my pride led me to not going to visit Don Héctor for a week as he was nearing the end of his life.
Don Héctor was an invitation that I was ignoring, so after a week of this internal struggle—of not being salt, of not being light—I challenged myself with some stern internal pastoring, some loving correction. I felt the invitation of the Spirit, not as accusation, not as condemnation, but as a frustration that became an invitation.
I went to see Don Héctor at the hospital. He was so happy to see us, and he immediately began to share the reality of being an elderly person in a hospital in Puerto Rico where we’re lacking doctors and nurses. The main thing he was frustrated with was the fact that he hadn’t had access to a shower for that whole week, and he took great pride in his appearance. I had this moment where his frustration became my invitation. I thought, “Okay, well, it’s time to give him a shower.” I was not honest with Don Héctor that day. I lied to him, and I said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m a pro at this. That’s part of what we do at the nonprofit.”
I took off his clothes, asked the nurse to show me what to do, and led him to a shower that was available. In what was quite possibly the most beautiful, the most awkward, and the holiest moment of my last year, I gave Don Héctor a shower. From the shame, it moved to a connection that was so meaningful to me. That in his most vulnerable moment, I was able to honor him….
There’s nothing like being salt and light. As Father Richard has said many times, “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the good.” And giving Don Héctor a shower and spending time with him was the good….
We keep finding God in those showers. We keep finding God in these [things] that remind us of our childhood and our brokenness, but that also invite us into generational healing and transformation. There are so many good ethics and teachings and books, and there are so many good people speaking into microphones, but there’s nothing like just being present with the ones who need presence.
And so, for Don Héctor, who passed away a couple of weeks after that shower, and for every elderly person that we serve, and for every person in your community who is marginalized, who has been abandoned, who has been rejected, the invitation is to be salt and light. Salt, which both gives flavor and preserves, and light, which always shines brightest in the darkness.
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John Chaffee 5 On Friday
1.
“To follow Jesus is to be a wholemaker, essentially to love the world into new being and life.”
– Ilia Delio, Franciscan Theologian
Several years ago, I underwent a theological shift, seeing Jesus as a “whole-maker.”
Yes, Jesus secures our forgiveness on one level, but that happens along the way to wholeness.
In essence, my theological framework shifted from forgiveness to renewal, reconciliation, and restoration. That which is broken can be made whole again; THAT became the focus.
This was a significant shift because it allowed me to begin noticing how particular interpretations of Christianity seek to fracture the world into parts, rather than seeing it as one seamless whole that God loves. It allowed me to finally be able to name and critique how well-intentioned Christians are hurting the world by constantly falling into tribalism.
If any of us are going to follow Jesus, it must include being about the same goals as Christ, who sought to make the world whole again.
2.
“Some elders visited Abba Poeman and said to him, ‘What do you want us to do? If we see brothers who are nodding off during synaxis, do we nudge them to keep them watchful during the night vigil?’
He said to him, ‘For my part, if I see a brother nodding off, I put his head in my lap and let him rest.'”
This is from the book Becoming Fire. It is a daily reading devotional-type book that compiles stories of the early desert mothers and fathers of the Church. So far, it has been an enriching read.
What I enjoy about this story is that you might expect Abba Poeman to tell the elders to keep the other monks awake during service, but instead, he encourages them toward mercy.
3.
“Each organized religion comes with its own images of god full-blown. They may inspire awe, love, fear, guilt, or doubt. They may carry potent and life-restoring energies for a believer, or they may remain lifeless and inert for a skeptic.”
– Connie Zweig, Retired Psychotherapist
I remember hearing someone say that the image of God we carry in our heads can either terrify or comfort us. That image is fascinating because it can both inspire us and judge us… It can give us something to live up to, and at the same time, it can be something we feel condemns us for not living up to.
And this is where Christianity is groundbreaking: Our image of God does not condemn us for not living up to it; it forgives and reconciles us.
I don’t know how to communicate this any other way. It is truly ground-breaking. This God is far less concerned with judgment and condemnation than he is with restoration.
4.
“The monk is (at least ideally) a man who has responded to an authentic call of God to a life of freedom and detachment, a ‘desert life’ outside normal social structures.”
– Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk
It likely comes as no surprise to you that I have a part of my soul that feels rather monastic. As an Enneagram 5, I am already prone to withdrawing in social situations and preferring the solace of solitude.
However, as a graduate of Eastern University, I have also been greatly influenced by Shane Claiborne and The Simple Way. They are based in North Philly and seek to do “urban monasticism.” Rather than seclude themselves from the rest of society, they seek to be monks in the center of a city.
Jim Finley, a former Trappist monk under Merton, has posited it this way: “Is there a way that I can maintain the internal posture of the monastery while living outside of its walls?”
I love that question.
I may not be a monk, but I can organize my life in a way that lends itself toward soulful reflection and a particular attentiveness to the subtlety of divine encounter.
5.
“The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order.”
– Gustavo Gutierrez, Peruvian Priest
This could also go well with the first quote from today.
Somewhere along the way, I started to see Christianity as a rebellious religion. It has no affinity for or allegiance to any status quo. No matter who is in power, it has a spiritual responsibility to speak truth to power and to push back against all the dehumanizing ways that we treat one another.
