Hidden Neighborhoods

One Republican said they thought they had the votes in their district and then all of a sudden all these blacks showed up.  They did not even know they existed in that district. Why would they know?  It is common for many of us to hang out with people like ourselves more or less.  The poorer people live in neighborhoods we don't even know exist because we never have to pass through them.  In Boulder, Colorado I might get a call to go and anoint someone at an address I never heard of.  I drive out to it and find a whole neighborhood of poor people, immigrants, people of color, who I did not even know lived there.  Years ago, as a new priest, I lived in Houston.  I thought I knew who lived in the parish.  That is until we began a Spanish mass, and then all these undocumented Mexicans began to show up.  These people lived right under my nose and I did not even know it.  One of the blessings of my priesthood is that it gets me out of my too small world that most of us live in.