By: Joseph J. Mazzella

I saw Jesus the other day.  The funny thing was that He didn’t look anything like the pictures. He or I should say. She was dressed in a faded summer dress that had clearly been through a washing machine a hundred different times.  Her shoes were the thick, black orthopedic type. Her spine was bent from osteoporosis.  Her fingers were worn, calloused and had been battered by arthritis.  Her gray hair was thin and wispy.  Her glasses had frames much too large and slid down her tiny nose.  She was eighty years old if she was a day.  In truth, she looked like my Nana would have if Nana had only been 80 lbs lighter. She was bending down in an aisle at the grocery store slowly trying to move a heavy bag of flour from the bottom shelf to her cart.  I stopped pushing my own cart and bent down to help her.  After I put the flour in her buggy she smiled at me with her slightly crooked, slightly stained teeth.  I looked into her eyes and saw such light shining from them.  It was as if all of Heaven was glowing through them.

We talked for awhile and I learned that she was stocking up on flour to bake homemade cookies for her children and grandchildren who were coming home to visit her.  She didn’t seem concerned at all about her age and failing health.  All she was thinking about was sharing her love, her cookies, and her joy with those children and grandchildren who were on their way.  She thanked me again for my little act of kindness with her light filled eyes and I smiled in return.  As she walked away I could only think of the words: “In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these brethren ye have done it unto me.”

Every act of kindness is powerful.  Every act of kindness is precious.  Every act of kindness is a gift to God.  May we all fill our lives with such gifts.  May we all love each other always.