August 27, 2023 (Feast of St. Dominic)

by Fr. Bob Glynn, S.J.

[This text is an automatically generated transcript. Some edits have been made.]

About two weeks ago, two weeks one day ago, it was a Saturday, and I had just finished saying Mass for the sisters at the convent in Atherton. And I was going to head home and then I remembered that I have... many here know that I am the snack shopper for my community. This is an a very important job, and I needed to buy some snacks. You may also remember my last ill-fated trip to Safeway in Menlo Park, but I thought okay, I'm going to chance it again because Father John wants those Tim's salt free potato chips and the only place we can consistently get them is the Safeway in Menlo Park. That hellhole and that place. So, the good thing this time was I was not dressed as father. And they did not have my headphones with me. I will not go into the unhappy event that happened the previous time when I had the headphones on the clerics. Others have heard that you could hear it from them. But I thought okay, no headphones, I won't get distracted. No clerics. No nutcases will go looking for me.

So I walked into the store. And I caught out to the corner of my eye, one of the employees of Safeway, who was accosting yet another employee of Safeway. And apparently there were no jobs to do and that Safeway and it telling him about she was she was about 30, telling him how her mother was going to take her to Disneyland and I thought, oh boy, this is the kind of person who usually finds me. So I thought, now move quickly to the other end of the store, to the drink section. Because she is down here. So I scooted along merrily looking for all intents and purposes, a normal human being. Alright, I was going along I had my bags I thought Tim's potato chips Tim's unsalted. I had directed myself I did not have a balloon, the thing that caused me the problem the last time at the checkout, so I got the Tim's and I was pulling out the Tim's who was standing next to me, but the Disneyland girl. I thought geez louise, how does this happen? And so she says, Do you need any help? I thought this store is jammed with people. I clearly have the Tim's potato chips in my hand. Why is this woman here?

I said no. No, thank you. I'm doing fine. She said I can really be of help. Yes, I know a hangnail is of help to there are all sorts of things that are helpful. No, no, I'm just fine. Thank you. So I gotten the Tim's I thought good. We have dodged a bullet here. The Tim's were in the basket, the trolley rolling the trolley along and I thought, Oh, you know I should buy some of that sparkling water they like so I rounded the band. You're still looking for something. I forgot she's here again. I said yes, I said but I know where it is. She said you're sure you don't know where it is. I said, Yes. I had been in this store many times. But I didn't want of course the lead on that I had been the one who had accidentally stolen the balloon from the storage. So I did not give it any more evidence than I needed against me. So I said, No, no, I'm fine.

So then, of course at this point, I gotten slightly rattled, so I couldn't remember what else I was looking for. So then I did stand there looking dazed for a moment. It was only a moment that I thought, okay, if I just keep walking, I'll remember what it was. So then I got down to this end. And she said, I can see I thought was she How did she get up here? Said I can see that you don't know what you're looking for. I said, You're right. So now two of us don't know what I'm looking for. We're in good shape. And she said now think hard. So I thought okay, I'm buying one other thing and leaving the store I said I'm looking for lentils she said I will show you where they are you when so off we go and truthfully I would not have found the lentils because I didn't know where they were. But I don't think I really needed lentils. I think I was just shocked into this. So I got the lentils and she said you see I knew where they were and I said I never doubted you for a moment. And then she said, isn't that great? She said and I know the store like the back of my head and I thought oh god and then she disappeared.

It was merciful. I made it to checkout. I set off no alarms. I bought the lentils I didn't need along with the others of Tim's potato chips and everything. I went out of the store and I thought gosh, I I'm in a fairly good mood because many of these encounters make me tense and it doesn't take a lot to make me tense. She was kind of bizarro though, because she kept showing up.

So I got home. And now I'll lead you I'm going to give you a little surprise here. I decided to pray. Okay, it was out of out of character that I decided to pray and I thought you know, Lord, I'm going to pray about this encounter with this odd woman because I'm not sure so I started in our usual Hello God. count myself down. Next they just have one question at this point. Why? Why am I a magnet for every strange person there is? Can you tell me the reason? DICE had knowing of course God would not tell me the reason because he had no good answer for this one. He said, God said because you need it. And they thought oh, like I need a hole in my head. I need this. And I said what why Why'd why need this? He said well, because the fact that you don't know that you need it is one of the reasons that you need it. I think God has gotten a smart mouth now. And finally, in this, I came to realize that I didn't need it.

Now that seems very bizarre. But what I realized was that I was in the store kind of killing time. Yeah, I had to get the Tim's. And when I was really doing was father that I am incognito. I was avoiding dealing with anyone who might be problematic. Why because that might throw my day off. You know, this brilliantly scheduled a that has all these things in it. And that in fact, when I found at Safeway was someone who kept finding me and knew that I needed something, even though I wasn't particularly clear, I needed anything. And who kept just appearing? No, I don't think there was anything spooky about it. But she did just kind of keep appearing with this sort of endless happiness. Sort of this Disney lion delight that I wanted to spy on. I didn't say that was a bit much for me. But it kind of was not put off at all. By me saying no, I don't need help. No worries, okay, no, you can go away but kept appearing with this sense that I am here for you. Even if you don't want me and the ventral Yes, I didn't need her kinda.

But I did feel somehow in this very positive place after this encounter. Often as Catholics, we have a funny sense of how we preach the gospel. We know that Evangelical Protestants, torture people, right? Yes, they find people and until you announced that Jesus is your personal favorite savior. You're going to be tormented Catholics we say no. I just preach it with my life. Right. That is a very easy answer to not doing anything. Because my life is often about my wandering around doing the things that I want to do in an efficient manner and getting them done and saying Good for you, Bob, you've done it again. You've made it through another day. When the reality is that all along the way I have this chance not to be nice. The woman in the store was not nice. The woman in the store wanted to lead me. Okay. Being a Proclaimer of the gospel is also being a recipient of the Gospel throughout the day. The good news is that Jesus Christ is looking into my heart and trying to open me at every moment and giving me opportunities like this crazy woman who wants to guide me around safe way.

My job here is twofold. One is to pay attention to where the gospel that is God's activity of love is being proclaimed to me a Proclaimer of the gospel, so that I can respond in a similar way of openness to whatever odd opportunities there are in that my life then feel some sort of delight in the silliness and the craziness of just going through whatever these experiences are stumbling and struggling to remember why I'm even there at times. So the good news is proclaimed in this open heart as well. We have very little of that in our society. Often we are simply trying to escape each other to get to something that we don't know what we're looking for. And then that escape, the good news escapes us as well.