Quiet and Small

Father had just begun his homily this morning on the two great commandments when I head the all too familiar splash of vomit on tile.  I glanced around to be sure it wasn’t one of mine, when I saw the little girl at the end of our pew was bent over with her head between her knees… heaving.

As the priest continued speaking about loving others as we love ourselves, it was played out in real time at the end of the pew.  The elderly woman in front of her began pulling napkins from her handbag, the mother next to her dug out baby wipes, and the father from two rows back came forward with wipes of his own.  These strangers mopped the muck from the floor and sent their own children to retrieve paper towels and trash bags as the mother wiped off the little girl’s face and boots.

It was a silent ballet of mopping and cleaning, never even drawing the notice of those even a few seats away.  Calmly on went the Mass as these Hands of Mercy took care of the strangers in their midst. It didn’t take long before the girl was whisked from Mass by her father and her shaken mother stood alone gulping for breath.

She squeezed the hand of the woman next to her and said, just loudly enough for me to hear, “I don’t know how to thank you all enough.  She’s not sick…it’s just…our son died this weekend..”  Hands which had offered wipes and napkins a moment before began to rummage for tissues.  “Please pray for him,” she said. “Please pray for Alex.”  The heads around her bowed and strangers’ lips mouthed prayers for the dead.  As the priest proceeded on with Mass, the people around this lone woman moved unobtrusively to care for her.

The commandment to “love our neighbors as ourselves” often sounds like a daunting task.  Where would we even begin to do something so huge?  This morning I saw it lived out in real time.  It wasn’t flashy or big.  It was quiet and small.  This great love began with kindness to a small child and ended with one stranger holding another’s hand.  All it asked was empathy and generosity and the occasional baby wipe.

***Please say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Alex.  For the comfort of his parents and for the little girl who loves him.