She was homeless. She’d been evicted from her low-income housing for being more than two weeks late to pay $338 in rent. The landlords told the news that she’d violated lease in several ways before they threw her out for not being able to pay $338 in rent. They weren’t specific about what she did. Perhaps she was on drugs. Perhaps she struggled with her mental health. Perhaps she was a nuisance.
I don’t know anything about that woman, except that she died in a parking garage, ripping off her clothes because the hypothermia was burning her skin.
I don’t know if anyone will miss her, or if anyone will be relieved that she’s gone.
I don’t know that she was carried to Paradise by angels, after the burning stopped, but I pray that she was and I commend her soul to the Mercy of God.
I know that a woman froze to death today, for lack of $338 in rent.
A miracle was present in our midst– a human person. A creature made in the image of God, walking the earth in flesh. A creature that was made to be the Bride of Christ– a dwelling for Christ Himself. Whatsoever we did to her, we did to Christ; whatsoever we neglected to do, we were neglecting Christ. There is no measure for the value of that human person. No lengths we could have gone to, to save her life, would have been too far. Christ died to ransom her. Her life’s value was infinite.
And she froze to death, alone.
Christ our King walked among us in human flesh, we knew Him not, and He froze to death, alone.
Our whole nation is culpable for that death.
When the Son of Man returns, we will all ask, “Lord, when did we see You?” and He will point to her.
May God have mercy on us now.
The poor are always among us, and that is a mercy shown to us, because where we serve the poor, we are serving Christ. We can go out right now and beg Christ’s forgiveness for murdering Him. We can show our contrition by caring for Him now. This is a mercy we don’t deserve, shown to us by Christ.
Go and do.
(image via Pixabay)
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