[Magdalen] Please pray for Daniel

[Ginga Wilder]

When Jesus came to church

Ash Wednesday, 2015.  Jesus came to church.

He was already there when I arrived.  Several people asked me to go speak
with him.  He was sitting in the front pew, the one without anything in
front to lean on.

A young man, around the age of my sons.  Handsome with thinning, black
curly hair.  His name was Daniel.  When I shook Daniel’s hand in greeting,
I noticed that he was feverish.  His nose was running and his eyes were
bleary.  He wreaked of alcohol.  He called me ‘Mama’ and asked if he could
stay here for church, near the altar.  Of course.

Can we take you to a doctor or medical clinic or hospital?  Oh, no, Mama, I
don’t want to go to the doctor, the hospital.  He cried.  Just let me sit
here by the altar.  Sure, I said.  He had been on the streets for several
weeks.  His mother had died and his wife had left him.  He asked for a ride
to a friend’s house where he could stay.  He did not ask for money, just to
stay at the altar for a while and to catch a ride.

I went to the back of the church and sat with a friend.  Immediately, I
remembered these words, “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your
neighbor as yourself.”  After a few minutes, I told my friend that I
thought I was to go sit with Daniel on that front pew with no support in
front.  He was still weeping.  When the priest began to read the liturgy,
Daniel, assisted by alcohol, fell asleep.  I watched him through the
service, paying little attention to the priest.

I beheld Daniel.  It was then that I noticed how jaundiced he was but that
actually did not register until later, after the service.   All I could do
was watch him.  I wondered if he might awake and be sick, or become loud or
violent, but I did not think that would happen.  He slept until the end of
the service.  As the congregation left in silence, another parishioner, a
man, and I questioned Daniel.  His nose began to bleed.  I found tissues
for him.  No, he did NOT want to go to a doctor.

I just need a ride to my friend’s house but first, may I pray at the
altar?  Daniel knelt at the altar, weeping and praying quietly.  He was a
Baptist, he said later.  I was compelled to kneel with him and to pray for
him.  He stayed there as long as he needed.  We asked a final time if we
could take him to a doctor.  No.  Just a ride to my friend’s…he will take
me in.  So, the other parishioner took Daniel to his friend’s house about
15 miles away.  He learned more about Daniel while the rode together.  We
know Daniel’s family, his parents are dead.

Our priest said to me as he was leaving the church building, that was
Jesus, the young man who came to church.  We have added Daniel to our
prayer list.

I wonder if we might have taken him for medical care.  I know he is sick.
We did take him to a warm house where his friend lived.

Please pray for Daniel.

Seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself.