Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - January 7, 2025
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
An episode to ponder in the cold of winter.
The scene is semi-rural central Minnesota (USA). Ruth, a clerical worker at the local university, is driving the 10 miles from home to her work with her college-age daughter sitting beside her. She comes upon a young black man, no hat or gloves on this cold 15 degree morning, standing on the side of the road trying to flag down some help. Near him is a car with the flashers on.
Ruth stops and finds out that the young man has been delivering newspapers to residences; his motor has died, his cell phone is not charged. Several cars have passed him unwilling to stop and he has gone to a number of homes where he has just recently delivered newspapers, but no one answers the door.
He explains all this once Ruth has taken him into the warm car and as he enters he says, "You must be good Christians." Ruth admits that she and her daughter are Christians, descendants of German Catholic immigrants who populated the area in the mid-19th century. Like her recent forebears, she comes from a large farm family of 11 children.
Once in the car, the young man called EJ, Nigerian by birth, phones his Ohio-born wife, the mother of their three children. It will take her about a half-hour to meet him. Ruth must get her daughter to the college by 8 a.m. and all three drive there. Then, she takes EJ back to the site of his dead car and they wait a few minutes for his wife to arrive. Recounting it, Ruth says, "I didn’t think of anything but that somebody in trouble was standing out in the cold. They must have thanked me about 30 times." In the office, coworkers hearing Ruth's story admiringly congratulate her.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
