Compassion= Love in Motion! (& Always God's Time)

Cut to a sunny Thanksgiving Day in NYC's Lower East Side. My best friend April was visiting from Chicago, as we failingly strove to make it to the Macy's Day parade. Something you must know about us is that we've been friends since age 10, and have a knack of being suuuper slow together. We run on "April + Sara" time, which is timeless and always means "late for a very important date".

Finally, we made it OUT THE DOOR, filled with lofty goals of laying eyes on some sweet floats and possibly some brief live Broadway performances. (Main selling point for me, truth be told...)

We hussled up Second Ave. Then I heard him. A man's despairing voice to my right uttering "Mom + dad, I love you and miss you every day. I know you are watching over me, but right now I just want to step in front of a bus."...

My heart dropped down the twisting proverbial rabbit hole into my stomach and I couldn't walk any further. Suddenly, I knew he was the most important destination.  I told April what I had just heard and she asked what I thought we should do. I hesitated to approach him for fear of upsetting him by sticking our noses in his personal business. April, the brave evangelist that she is (though she might disagree) approached him gently saying "Excuse me sir, are you OK?" This young man of 28, Angelo, vulnerably and kindly explained to us that 6 months prior, his parents had been killed in a car accident. His mom and dad also owned the family business and home in Manhattan, which were all soon lost, leaving him alone and homeless, with nothing.

As I observe with the beautiful women who come to our community, Maryhouse, for meals, clothes, and showers, housing is a very serious problem in NYC. It is becoming nearly impossible to secure stable affordable housing. Without this basic need of safe and secure shelter, how can anyone even begin to take all the necessary steps to land employment, heath insurance, and medicine? Especially when they are alone, and with nothing.

Angelo walked and talked with us for quite a while. He had a beautiful, passionate heart & brilliant comic timing! We grew to learn of his INCREDIBLE faith in God, tried through more than fire!

As we parted ways, we held hands in prayer near NYU and asked for God's miraculous emotional + physical healing for Angelo. He wept, and it reminded me very much of a similar anointing my church in Chicago gave me for emotional healing just a few months prior. In some way, I praised God for my painful experiences over the past few years, so that I could empathetically understand even a portion of Angelo's emotional wounding. He thanked God for April's and my friendship, the fact that she would come all the way to NYC to visit me and The Catholic Worker, and that I welcomed her. 

Angelo told us that the true definition of COMPASSION is: Love in Motion.

He made our Thanksgiving sacred and blessed. He gave us the gift of his presence, of openness. He worked as a conduit of God's love. It was HE who welcomed us. 

This sweet and somewhat challenging interaction reminded me of St.Vincent de Paul's wisdom...

“You will find out that Charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the kettle of soup and the full basket. But you will keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give soup and bread. This the rich can do. You are the servant of the poor, always smiling and good-humored. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting master you will see. And the uglier and the dirtier they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give to them.”

True to form, April + I made it to the tail end of the parade, just in time to see Santa on his sleigh ride by and huge Macy's balloons that said "Believe"...

I believe that this time, April + Sara time was God's time.