19 July 2020
Fr. Tom Krieg was one of my associates at Newman.
Tom was and is a rare character.
In many ways he was just plain “holy,”
He was also a bit odd but when then hasn’t a truly holy person been odd.
He lives simply–never a fashion plate.
He lives without consuming a lot of the world’s goods.
He has simple pleasures.
One of his simple pleasures was key lime pie.
He had found a grocery store in the Twin Cities
which made a passably good key lime pie and would often detour
to pick up a whole pie–or if it was lent–just a single slice.
As I said, he was no fashion plate,
On day in late lent for a late Easter he was in the Twin Cities–it was
Early evening just when the days were getting longer,
Tom zipped into the Lund’s store in Highland and picked up just a single
Piece of the key lime pie.
He begged a plastic fork and because he just couldn’t wait
any longer for a taste, he went right outside and sat down on the curb–
and started eating the pie.
One old lady passed him, and said to her husband–
“The street people are starting to move in here. Isn’t that awful?”
Another man passed him and just shook his head sadly.
And then, as Tom tells the story, “Another kindly old lady came by,
all she said was, ‘I’m sorry,’ and handed me a five dollar bill.”
“It was too hard to explain,” he said, “So I kept the five dollars resolving
to give it to the next homeless person I saw.
I think I might be better at picking them out than that lady.”
He might, but then again who knows?
The overarching point, especially if you take into account this weekend’s gospel
is that some decisions, some choices we best leave up to God–
Especially when it comes to judging a person’s station in this life or the next.
Tom didn’t like being taken for a street person but it reminded him that human choices and judgments are so often flawed.
Question of the week: Which judgment have you made recently which would better be left up to God?