Thoughts Along the Way

     You can't forget Ralph.  Ralph's battered face and blood-spattered filthy shirt are shocking to one's sensibilities.  His lack of hygiene makes getting close to Ralph a real challenge.  And when I ask if he would like a bottle of water, he tells me he'd prefer a beer.  I believe he was being very truthful!  "No beer, Ralph.  Just water,"  I tell him.  "Okay," he says...taking the offered bottle and the sandwich. 

    

     In the safe, sanitary Chicago suburbs, someone who looks like Ralph would be taken to the hospital.  Yet here in the city center, I believe that Ralph is only one of many who have been beaten for who knows why?  Ralph's face and Ralph's concern and Ralph's condition kept replaying themselves to me, over and over as I go about the rest of my work. 

    

    And now I ask:  was he not Christ to me?  Did he not bless me with that touch on the shoulder and the sincere thank you?  Was my heart not strangely warmed????

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