"Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." -Matthew 25:40
The other night I was at adoration and my old youth minister from high school, Ike, came in and prayed at the same time I was. Just before I was about to leave, Ike gathered up his things and left the chapel, I finished up my prayer and went outside to see if I could still catch him before he went home. As I walk out of the chapel, I see him walking towards the garbage can just a few feet away. Unaware of what was going on, and just thinking that Ike was throwing out a piece of garbage, I smiled and said, "What's up Ike?" He gave me this incredibly serious look, which I've only seen on his face once before in my life. I turn around and standing beside the door to get into the adoration chapel, there's a skinny blonde woman, probably no older than 25 standing there, shivering, wearing a Patriots jersey, jeans, flip-flops and she also had a cast on her right hand. She looked dazed, confused and a little scared.
It was then that I looked back and saw that Ike had just put out a cigarette butt, which I knew instantly had to be this woman's cigarette since Ike is vehemently opposed to "cancer sticks." So, we both walk over towards this girl, and she asks us, "What are you guys doing here?" Ike responds, "We've just been here to pray, that's all." She looked around her and continued, "Can you guys pray..." she muttered the rest of her sentence, and Ike responded, "Well, we just finished praying actually, is there anything that we can do for you?" She looked down at her white flip-flops and a tear fell from her face, her body continued to shake. Ike and I looked at each other, we both walked closer towards her. Ike asked again, "Is there anything that we can do for you?" She wiped another tear from her face, sniffled and said to us, "Can you please pray with me? Just... please pray with me, please?"
Without any hesitation Ike placed his hand on her shoulder, I set my books down on the ground and followed his lead. Ike asked this girl, "What's your name?" She continued to shake and was just able to stutter out, "J-J--Julie." Ike put his other hand on his chest and said, "Well Julie, I'm Ike and this is John and we're just going to put our hands on you and just pray over you, is that alright?"
"Y-ye-yes."
"Heavenly Father, we just praise Your Holy name, all glory and honor is for You and You alone God..." Ike began to pray, as I whispered softly to myself, "Lord, send Your spirit out upon her, be with her Jesus." We continued to pray over our sister for the next few minutes, and as the prayer continued on, the more she began to quiver. She started shaking so much that I had to grip her shoulder to keep her from falling over. Ike concluded the prayer with a "Hail Mary" and we both looked up into Julie's face. A slight smile cracked across her countenance, and she continued to shiver. There was a few moments of silence, Ike could see the shivering was overtaking Julie, he had a jacket on so without thinking he unzipped his jacket and helped Julie put it on. Ike continued to talk to her:
"You looked cold Julie."
"Yeah"
"You're more than welcome to the jacket Julie."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, where are you from Julie?"
"Colorado."
"How long have you been in Arizona?"
"Umm... I don't know, twenty-two minus three?"
Ike looked up to me but I was completely lost for words, I had never had an experience like this before. Ike continued on, "Well Julie, there's a chapel here and I don't know what faith you're from..." "Catholic," Julie answered without hesitation. "Oh, then yeah, our Lord is present here in the Eucharist all the time and you can go in and visit with Him if you want to, it's warm and comfortable, you can just rest in the presence of God," Ike finished. She nodded a little bit and Ike asked, "Would you like to go inside?"
"Yes, please."
Ike punched in the code to unlock the chapel and explained to Julie how to get in. He opened the door for Julie and walked in behind her, he signaled to me to wait for a couple minutes for him to come back. I watched as he walked in with Julie and sat beside her in front of our Lord. All that I could think to myself was the verse from Matthew 25,
"Come you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." -Matthew 25: 34-36
Ike did that, he took the jacket right off of his back and gave it to Julie without any concern for himself. I was amazed by just how profound this experience was unfolding before my eyes.
A few minutes later, Ike returned with Julie. Julie lit a cigarette and asked us questions about what we were doing there and even what was in Ike's pocket. The whole entire time, Ike continued to talk to her and tried to comfort her while I stood there, dumbfounded and speechless. Julie bent down with her cigarette in hand, looked down at the ground and I could just see the drops of tears fall onto the ground and leave little puddles. She looked up at the two of us and said, "This is going to sound horrible, but I just wanted some speed." Ike looked her in the eyes and said, "Yet you ended up here at a chapel instead?" She looked around and asked, "Chapel? Where is there a chapel?" Ike and I explained to her that where she had just walked out of was the chapel. She finished her cigarette and asked Ike to put it out for her, which he did. He asked her, "Do you want to go back inside?" She nodded and said, "Yes, I do." So Ike unlocked the chapel again and walked in behind her, again I stood dumbfounded and wondering what exactly was I supposed to do? Ike looked at me, understanding my confusion and said, "Mr. Hyland, it was good to see you again, you are more than welcome to stay and pray with us, or if you need to go, feel free to go." I knew my mother was going to start getting worried, being that it was almost two in the morning. I explained to Ike that I needed to go and asked him if he wanted me to call someone. He smiled and said, "Who are you going to call man? I just thought she could stay here, she's not totally with us dude, she's on something. I'll stay with her, don't worry about it. Have a good night."
With that I walked back to my car and began to simply reflect on all that had just happened over the past twenty minutes of my life. Despite the fact that I really didn't do anything at all I know that Ike's witness to Julie was enough to touch me and call me back towards why it is that I want to be a youth minister. I want to help people, however God can use me. Whether it be in a youth office talking to a teen, or outside of a chapel talking to a confused woman looking for a ray of hope. I was blown away by all that Ike had done and was truly, truly humbled by the experience. Thank God for all He does, and how He reaches out to us, even in the strangest of fashions.
