creativity of charity

He was a well clad, polite gentleman. He came into my office at the end of my duty on Saturday. He said that he’d locked his car keys in the car and that he had to go back to get the other set. And that he had some paint mixing facility and he would give the money back. Well, perhaps not on Saturday but surely on Monday. He’ll give back those 10 PLN that he needs. And he asked what he could give me as a collateral. Because he could gladly give me anything.

I’m talking to him, smiling to him and to myself. I’m telling him that I don’t need any collateral and that many people came here. Some didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket, some to buy medicines (the pharmacy is close at hand), some to buy bread in the nearby discount shop… And I smile again. And I’m giving him the 10 PLN because I remember a certain nun who is a streetworker. She says that we should watch out and not let  ourselves be abused. It is clear. But she also said something that stuck in my memory: that in spite of all these things we should not kill those impulses of the heart.

It is so difficult today. If I suspect that someone’s lying then perhaps it’s better not to give. But I do not identify completely with the indifference and calculating that somebody’s cheating and lying. I want to see all the people who come to me. How should I help them? How can I preserve this creativity of charity that John Paul II called for so urgently?

How do you manage to do it?

Michał