It Was a Good Day

The men’s early morning Bible Study at Panera’s got into depth, trying to understand Peter’s instructions on how to grow in holiness.  Peter said it starts with faith, and then is supplemented with virtue, then knowledge (2Pt:5-6) …. And there we got stuck.  Virtue --- faith, hope and charity have to be worked on, to become natural in our hearts.  These have to be supplemented with knowledge …. But there were still more steps in the path Peter laid out that we didn’t get to this week.  Eventually we will find that the steps will all get down to faith in action: love.  But, as we were finding, growing in Christ-like love is something to be worked at --- and studied.

Mass followed the Bible Study for me, and I met Geri, and we planned to meet and discuss a community project on loving our neighbor.  Then I went home to have breakfast, but Maddie called from Meals on Wheels: “Tom, you are my last resort; I have no one else to call.  If you can’t deliver meals today, I’ll have to call all the people and say they’ll have to do without, and I know for some this is their only meal.”  And so, I drove to pick up and deliver the 15 meals.  It was a delivery route I had never done before, and it took me 15 minutes just to identify the streets on a map, and plan a delivery route.  Did I say “Plan”?  Hah!  Construction, accidents, and just plain bad data on the delivery instruction sheet had me taking the most inefficient routes possible, as I went from one end of the township to the other, to places that in my 40+ years living here I did not know existed.  It took me over 2 hours, and 50 miles.  But it was worth it.

I met some frail and lonely people, delighted at the hot food I brought, and the visit.  One woman saw the crucifix around my neck and asked where I went to church.  She recently turned in her driver’s license due to worsening eyesight, and needed a ride to Sunday mass.  I told her I’d be delighted to arrange that with her local parish.  She beamed, and I later did as I promised her.  The last person on the route lived in an old farmhouse, now surrounded by new construction.  She was watching for my arrival --- even though I must have been over an hour late versus the normal delivery person --- and she came out a side door to greet me; the house’s front steps were rotted and unusable.  I gave her the meals for her and her husband, and the extra food I was instructed to provide her for the weekend.  Before accepting the food, however, she hugged me.  I was too overwhelmed to think, but on the way back I resolved to get her signed up with the grocery-providing ministry in the township, even if I had to drive groceries to her myself each week.

When I finally got home at two o’clock, I had my breakfast.  Then I went to the chapel to give thanks for this day, and to replace the vigil candle, as I do each Friday. 

It was a good day; I gave thanks.

When I arrived home again, I saw that the live trap outside my garage door had sprung, and a small gopher was trapped.  One less to be digging under my driveway.  I was tired, but as I put him into my car I said: “Time for a ride to your new home, little fella.”  And as I was slowly backing out of the driveway, my neighbor’s car drove into my path.  Crash!  No damage appeared on my car, but hers was dented along the whole side.  Oh, well.  Yes, today was a good day, but it was a normal one also.  No day on this earth is perfect.  But I give thanks for them all.

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The next night, at adoration, I read some pages from the book I Thirst --- 40 Days with Mother Teresa.  The Day 16 meditation focuses on Mary at the foot of the cross.  Mother Teresa’s reflection on the scene says: “So you see in what way you too can take your stand at the foot of the Cross, with Mary, our Mother, and satiate the thirst of Jesus.  Let us offer everything to Jesus --- every sorrow, humiliation, discomfort.”

Later the book author (Joseph Longford) comments: “Now she is at the place of crucifixion, ahead of everyone else.  She looks for the disciples of Jesus, His picked men … Finally, John arrives.  He had at first run away like the others, but he overcomes his weakness and makes his way back to Our Lady through the jeering crowd along the Via Dolorosa.”

“The jeering crowd”?  We usually see depicted, as in the movie The Passion, the weeping friends of Jesus being nearby as He went to His death, but in truth they were probably in the minority, and were mocked and jeered at, as Jesus was.  His death was not among a crowd of His friends.  The few who came were jeered; most stayed away; they were not wanted.

All these thoughts here, my “good day” yesterday, and John’s experience of so long ago, give me great understanding of Mother Teresa’s words, and what she herself experienced in her life, not a life filled with great joy for the work she was doing, but much suffering because of what she was doing.  “Let us offer everything to Jesus --- every sorrow, humiliation, discomfort.”  Those things make for good days.

He went without comfort so you might have it.  He postponed
joy so you might share in it.  He willingly chose isolation so you
might never be alone in your hurt and sorrow.
-- Joni Eareckson Tada