For three years during the 1990s, I was assigned to the Chicago Cenacle, which is on Fullerton Parkway not far from Clark Street. For most of that time, there was a beggar whose self-designated post was just outside the Walgreens on Clark Street. He was an elderly African-American — or at least he seemed elderly to me, but that could have been the result of a hard life. He may have been no more than fifty years old. I encountered him fairly often. He always smiled and said, “God bless you,” whether he received large bills or small change (and from me he never received more than small change), or indeed whether he was given anything at all.
There was always something just slightly mysterious about his presence – a mystery which I felt obliged to respect. One day, after a week or two of absence, he was back. I told him I had missed seeing him there.
“I got picked up,” he explained.
For what? I wondered – but did not feel free to inquire.
Another day I did ask him where he was from.
“Mississippi,” he replied.
“I thought you must be from the South.”
“Yes,” he said, “I’ll always have the accent.”
I didn’t tell him — though I realize now that I should have — that it was not his accent that made me suppose he was from the South, but his courtesy. For he was indeed supremely courteous. Even with his begging cup, there was a gentility about him, and a natural hospitality.
Then suddenly he was no longer there. I had no idea what happened to him. Had he found a better spot to beg? Did he have a job? Had he come into an inheritance?
But I did see him one more time before I moved away from Chicago. He was with a group of men walking along Fullerton Parkway, near the Cenacle. When he saw me, he stopped.
“Sister!”
You would have thought we were long-lost friends. (I can’t imagine what his companions thought of this unlikely association.) He was not asking for money, simply greeting me with pleasure. And this was typical of him, for his welcome and his obvious delight in seeing you were unrelated to what you could do for him. In this he was not only a model of disinterested kindness, but he was also a sign of the welcome of God and of God’s delight in us, which is not dependent on our worthiness.
Welcome one another, therefore,
just as Christ has welcomed you,
for the glory of God.
(Romans 15:7)