In the Name of the Father

“In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, Amen,” Eugene repeated along with the rest of the St. Ignatius congregation, moving is right hand from his forehead, chest, left shoulder, right shoulder.

“Let us go in peace, to love and serve the Lord,” said Father Mark. “Amen.”

“Amen,” Eugene repeated along with the congregation, lightly bowing his head in deference to the Lord. Unlike most members of the church who filed out of the pews in steady waves right when the mass ended, Eugene always stayed a little bit longer to continue his prayers – prayers for himself, prayers for his son, prayers for his neighbors, prayers for the poor to whom he would be distributing canned goods and clothing at the St. Ignatius monthly food drive after mass.

His prayer was interrupted by the buzz in his pocket. He retrieved his phone and saw the first part of a text from Lucas. “Dad, Lizzie can’t find any of her books for English class. And Michael’s history textbooks are missing too. I know it was you. And Gwen said that half her closet –“ He turned off his phone. He’d get back to his son later. He exited the pews to meet Father Mark and the rest of the charity outreach group. “Hello, Father.”

“Hello, Eugene, I just want to thank you again for your efforts for this charity drive. As always, you brought more boxes of canned goods and clothes than anyone! And that says a lot, given the generosity of our congregation, in donating goods and your time.” Father Luke clasped his hands in gratitude towards rest of the charity outreach members surrounding him. “But twenty boxes! You seem to outdo yourself every time.” The others murmured with a mixture of awe and envy.

“No thanks necessary, Father. ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

“indeed. And as in Corinthians 9:11, ‘You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.’”

“Amen,” Eugene said, warming inside.

As Eugene and the others distributed good outside the church for the rest of the afternoon, his glow grew further. “May God be with you,” he’d say to the hungry and haggard as he put cans of tuna, corned beef, carrots, and corn in their outstretched hands. “God is good,” he’d say to those who he handed new sweaters, pants, or shoes from the boxes of clothing that he brought. The looks of happiness and gratitude in the faces of these needy individuals warmed him all over, feeling God’s blessing as he helped feed their bodies and their souls.

“The numbers of people attending our drive seems to be growing,” Eugene observed.

“Yes, there are so many in need of God’s charity. In fact, a local shelter has invited St. Ignatius to serve mass there once a week and asked if we could join them in distributing rations to the homeless.”

“I can help with that, Father. I can get more canned goods as well.”

“Really? You already do so much, Eugene.”

“I’d be happy to, Father.”

“Bless you, my son.”

Eugene entered his car, made the sign of the cross, and turned on his ignition. He took his standard route home, first making a quick stop at a nearby Food Emporium.  After filling his shopping cart with canned goods, he handed the cashier a credit card.

“Declined, sir.”

“What? That can’t be.”

“I’m sorry, but it isn’t going through. Do you have another card?”

“Try this one.” 

The cashier swiped the second card through the machine. “This one is declined as well.”

“What? How can they both be declined.”

“I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to contact your credit card company. Can you pay with cash, sir?”

Eugene looked at his freyed wallet again. Only a couple of dollars remained, not nearly enough to pay for everything in his overflowing cart.  He shook his head.

“If you can get cash or another card, sir, you can put your cart over there and we can hold your cart until the end of the day.” The cashier pointed to the corner by Customer Service.

“Yes, I can do that. Bless you,” Eugene smiled at the cashier and wheeled his cart towards the customer service corner.

Eugene continued heading home, singing a hymm in his head. As he neared the public library, Eugene was surprised to see the back of a female figure in front of the entrance of the building. He stopped the car in front of the building right as the woman was turning to face the road.

"Felicia!" He yelled as he rolled down his windshield. "What are you doing here on a Sunday?"

"Eugene! I realized last night that I left my phone on the desk. You and I were so busy yesterday with the tutoring program that I left late and forgot it by the computer. Thank goodness the cleaning crew didn't take it."

"God is good."

“Mmm, hmm,” Felicia acknowledged. “Anyway, thank you again for your help yesterday. It seems like every year, we get more and more kids attending the tutoring sessions. It’s wonderful that we can help them with their classes and show them the learning resources of the library, but our staff alone can’t handle this many students, and we can’t hire more people due to the budget cuts. So thank goodness for volunteers like you.”

“No thanks necessary. ‘A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed,’” Eugene glowed.

Felicia nodded. “And thank you also for donating all those new textbooks! For a city like ours, this library’s textbook collection is pitiful. Anyway, see you next week!” Felicia waved.

“See you,” Eugene waved back at her as he rolled up his window. He signed the cross again, and stepped on the gas.

Upon entering his house, Eugene was surprised to see that he was not alone but greeted by Lucas, who sat at his kitchen table with his arms folded across his heaving chest. A stack of unopened envelopes lay on the table in front of him.

“Luke! What are you doing here? What a blessing it is to see you, son,” Eugene walked over to embrace Lucas whose arms remained folded. “Where’s Gwen? And my favorite grand kids? Are they upstairs?”

“They’re at home. But maybe I should have brought them so they could search your house to see if you still have some of their things that you stole from them.”

“Stole?”

“Don’t play games with me, Dad. I’m tired of this. And Gwen and the kids are tired of this. They don’t want to see you until you stop this business of taking things from our family to give away to that church of yours and god knows whomever else.”

“Don’t speak about St. Ignatius that way. We are doing God’s work, helping those in need. “

“I have no problem with that, I think that it’s great to help the poor. My problem is you taking things that belong to me and my family to do so.”

“‘Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord…’”

“Dad, you can’t take stuff from one person and give it to another! It doesn’t work that way!” Lucas slapped his hand on the table, his forehead tightening.

“’Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back…’”

“Dad, stop it!” Lucas rose. “Look, I’m not going to bail you out yet again.”

“’And do not forget to do good and to share with others– ‘”

“Did you think that I wouldn’t find out that you had been opening credit cards in my name???” Lucas scooped up the envelopes on the table.

“’ –for with such sacrifices God is pleased.’”

“It was bad enough when you had charged things to my credit card! But now this??? It would be one thing if you were buying things for yourself, but I know you’re not even doing that since you have hardly anything left in this house.”

“’Give, and it will be given to you…’”

 “And what are you buying – more canned goods to give to other people? More clothes to donate to the church?”

“’Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant – ‘“

“Do you realize that you’ve ruined my credit rating?”

“’ – or to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God…’”

“We may not be able to buy that new house that we were looking at because of you.”

“’ – who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment…’”

“DAD!!! Enough! Don’t you even care? What about your own family??? What about yourself???”

“’Those who give to the poor will lack nothing–’”

“Clearly you don’t.” Lucas tossed the envelopes back on the table. “I can’t do this anymore,” He turned away.

“’ –but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses,’” Eugene declared as his Lucas slammed the front door behind him. He watched his son speed off from around the corner. He closed his eyes, folded his hands in prayer. “In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirt, Amen.”