Healing Of The Heart

by Fr. Francis Mary Roaldi, CFR

Some of you may remember a small patient profile we had last year featuring Noé. I want to write a little follow up for you.

Noé is a young man who was shot and paralyzed from the chest down, with whom the friars have been working for a number of years. He was operated on in San Benito to allow him to sit, and now, also through San Benito's help and your generosity, he is going for physical therapy and learning a trade.

While all of these are certainly signs of progress and success in Noé's life, there was something in particular that happened last week that I thought was beautiful. We were packing the food that we hand out to about 120 poor families in our neighborhood. It is a big operation and usually 20 or so people help us. I arrived a little after the start of the packing and to my surprise Noé was there. He was seated in his wheelchair, helping to move the small bags of food from one side of the room to the other, all the while with his characteristic smile.

It was a hopeful sign for me for a couple of reasons. One is that Noé had been confined to the bed in his house for years. Not able to sit he almost never went out and saw few people. He was incapacitated not only physically, but socially, and after a period of years it seemed he was embarrassed or frightened to re-enter the world. But there he was, out of the house and coming into the world again, in what must have been a true act of courage for him. The other reason I thought it was beautiful was that he was giving. We have the experience with many of those whom we assist that after they receive they only want more and do not wish to give to others. It is a sad fact. It is, however, something which Noé does not display. Of all the things he could have chosen to do after various years of relative isolation in his house he chose to help. What a wonderful sign of the way that a man's body has been helped and healed, but also, mysteriously, his heart.

This seems to be a small but wonderful example of the mission of San Benito. Helping poor individuals, not only receive physical healing, but that of the heart. And, as is true many times, Noé is for me an example and a challenge. The challenge to give - however limited I am - to give and to offer, realizing that this is the simple call of God to each and every one of us. In the end it is the only important thing: to love in the small ways I can. May God grant us the grace to do so, and to do so with the joy I see in the life of Noé.