PASTOR’S PEN

Time for caring, sharing



 

 

I want to wish all the readers of the South Jetty a very happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for, and we at St. Joseph’sCatholic Church do so by inviting our people to come to church at 9 a.m. Thanksgaving morning to give thanks. We do something extra at that time. We take up an offering to buy baskets of food to allow the members of the local VFW to pass out to the less well to do of our community for Christmas.

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Matthew 25:35

The great story of sharing, hospitality, duty and honor, which are part of the American spirit especially at this time of year, reminds me of the story of the young Marine.

An old man collapsed on a down- town Brooklyn street corner. An ambulance rushed him to Kings County Hospital.

From a blurred envelope in the man’s wallet, nurses deciphered the name and address of a Marine, who appeared to be his son. They put through an emergency call to North Carolina, where the son was stationed.

When the Marine arrived, the nurse said to the old man inside the oxygen tent, “Your son’s here.” With that the man who was heavily sedated, reached out his hand feebly. The Marine took it and held it tenderly for the next four hours.

Occasionally the nurse suggested that the young man take a break and walk around for a while. But he refused.

About dawn the old man died. After he passed away, the Marine said to the nurse, “Who was that man?”

The nurse said, “Wasn’t that your father?”

“No,” said the Marine, “but I saw he needed a son, so I stayed.”

Monsignor Rory Deane is parish priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church.



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