Saving Souls

Father Bob Gilroy Society of Jesus

There was an essay in the Globe and Mail newspaper last week by Ann Diehl that struck a chord for Maundy Thursday. Diehl reflected on her childhood and her Roman Catholic upbringing. It was actually her dad who was the focus of the essay. He would attend worship from time to time with the rest of the family but it was obvious that he wasn't comfortable. She worried that he hadn't been baptized in any church and that the state of his soul was in peril.

Then one night near the end of Lent her concerns were dispelled. Her father was in the basement at his workbench while the rest of the family dutifully said the rosary upstairs. The front door flew open letting in a stormy blast, along with a man with scruffy hair and dirty clothes. Her mother screamed and led the children out the back door into the snow. Meanwhile her father bounded up the stairs to respond to the cries of distress. A few minutes later he encouraged them to come back into the house.

They found their dad in the foyer talking gently to the intruder. While the man, who was older, sat on the front stairs the father took off his shoes and began rubbing his gnarled and discoloured toes to bring back circulation. One child was sent to retrieve some heavy socks and another to get dad's fishing coat. Mom called the police but the father assured the officers who arrived that the man had done nothing wrong.

Ann Diehl offers that as a ten-year-old she didn't make the connection with Jesus washing his disciples' feet, but she no longer worried about the state of her father's soul. He died recently at age 94.

If you are at a Maundy Thursday service tonight, think about this story.