– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade
We, the members of the People Helping People Association, were ready to start our weekly meeting. Ana, our Coordinator, had a very full and well organized agenda that starts with prayer. Then I usually conduct a short reflection about the spirituality of People Helping People where I try to emphasize that the excluded, the unloved, the unattractive, the marginalized are supposed to be our favorites, having as our model, Jesus the Good Shepherd.
We were already a few minutes late to start the meeting when Dr. José Luís and Abel entered the room accompanied by Adrien (not his real name). This man is known by all the people who walk through the city of Funchal. He is dirty and smelly with long, messy hair and a long, messy beard. He is always seated on the sidewalks, exposing his scars which, according to some witnesses, he scratches in order to make them bleed thereby attracting compassion and money to feed his addictions. He is a typical homeless person.
I have known Adrien for a few years. I have been abused and cheated by him. Now instead of starting the meeting I was furious that Dr. José Luís and Abel had decided to ruin our beautiful agenda to deal with such an unexpected surprise. Of course all the attentions concentrated on Adrien and everybody forgot about the agenda. Everybody was kind and helpful except me. We had an agenda and Adrien was not on the Agenda.
All the attentions concentrated in planning on how to feed Adrien, how to find decent clothes for him, how and where to buy medicine for his epilepsy, how to find a decent place where he could spend the night as a human being. Rita remembered that she had, somewhere, a chocolate bar and immediately took it and gave it to Adrien. He started eating his chocolate bar, and because of his bad teeth, he was involuntarily spitting crumbs all over the table which some of the attendants were trying to keep clean without making him feel uncomfortable.
The meeting was closed with a prayer and the agenda was still on the paper. Carmina and Dr. José Luís took the responsibility of finishing the job on how to help Adrien that night. Carmina and José Luís indicated a place to meet him while they would go around finishing what they considered their job. They invited me to go along with them. Of course I had no choice. I said «yes». However, I thought that this would be the time for me to talk and express my point of view saying:
«I don’t mind bringing the homeless and the poor to some of our meetings but I think that this should be planned in advance and a special agenda should be prepared for that kind of meeting. I don’t agree with what happened tonight».
When I finished expressing my concern, Carmina very kindly, told me: «Father, this is what makes the difference between us (People Helping People) and the other official institutions. We don’t have time tables, hours, days, or nights. What we have is People who are suffering and need help».
That’s when I remembered the first time we met Sir Ronald (Ronnie) at the Reid’s Palace Hotel and he told us: «Your lack of organization is your strength. You don’t close at 5:30 PM».
After Carmina’s kind words I remembered the moving hymn that Professors Cátia and Helena sing once in a while in Portuguese, after Communion at the English Mass, that always brings tears to my eyes: «I Found God by Surprise».
Yes! On that cold Wednesday night «I FOUND GOD BY SURPRISE» and I almost missed Him. I am ashamed of the Pharisee and the hypocrite who live inside of me. But I wish that I would be the only Christian who carries a hypocrite inside him.
I want to ask forgiveness from Adrien, Carmina, Dr. José Luís and all the group present at the meeting who could see my silence and lack of enthusiasm for something that is so crucial in People Helping People. Mother Teresa says: “When you start by judging you have no time to love”. I FOUND GOD BY SURPRISE AND I ALMOST MISSED HIM. GOD IS A DAILY SURPRISE.
Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade
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