Lonely. Longing. Pushed aside. Unseen. Unnoticed. Used up. Dried out. Broken down. Wounded. Thirsty. Abandoned. Puffy eyes and scraped knees. I’ve been there. So empty.
One day in Prague, after I got waaay too much food for lunch, I prayed this little prayer. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to finish it by myself so I whispered to the Lord quietly: “Give me somebody to give the rest of this meal to. Let me be your hands today.” I looked up to see two hands reaching out for me the way my soul was reaching out to the Lord. Desperate. This woman looked at me like she has done this so many times she knew she was going to be turned away. I told her I didn’t have any change but that she could have the rest of my meal. Her eyes lit up and she reached out even further for my plate. My eyes left her eyes and fell upon her bandaged up and wounded hands. Bloody and beaten down. She cradled my plate over to the side of the road where she was sitting. I watched her try to cut up her food with the few fingers she had to spare and I couldn’t handle it. I grabbed a fork and a knife and sat next to her on the side of the road and began to cut up her food for her. In this moment I felt that I could finally breathe again. I received mercy by showing mercy. I had nothing to give from my own frail, human, shallow heart, but God in his abundance used my hands, took over my gaze and placed himself beside this woman on the side of the road in the middle of Prague. In that moment I was met with love even though I was the one attempting to love. I was introduced to the hardest beatitude to encounter: Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. I was redeemed, healed, satisfied, inspired, made new, loved. St. Teresa of Avila reminded me on this trip of a radical mission she calls us to as Christ’s beloved and it goes like this:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Thank you, Jesus, for meeting us on the side of the road with mercy.
Everybody Loves Bry 