Moved to do and think GOoD

As usual I attended the noon mass and today was special since it is the feast of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I was feeling generous so I gave twice my normal church offering, the mass proceeded and after communion as I went back to my pew there was a beggar seated in front of me. He was just seated there with a plastic cup on his hand and folded cartons on his side. There are a lot of beggars outside the church and it is very seldom that they go inside and if they do would often just linger at the place near the door but he seated himself near the altar and was in front of me… I felt that I was called to give him something big so I did.

After the mass I got a bill from my pocket and handed it to him. He received it and said thanks and I just nodded as I stood to leave the church. I was already facing backwards when he poked me with something he got from his folded cartons. He was handing me a folded umbrella. It was a nice lacey white folded umbrella but it was not mine so I told him so and would not take it but the girl on the other side of the pew said that the umbrella belonged to the woman in red and she was looking for it. Then I remembered that there was really a woman in red seated in front of me where the man now sat. So I took the umbrella thinking of leaving it with the office. When I was near the door I saw the woman and was already approaching her when I heard another woman she was talking with shout to the beggar telling him that the woman was looking for the umbrella. I handed the umbrella to the woman and told her that the man gave it to me since she left it. And she asked me “binigay nya sa iyo?” (he gave it to you?) and when I said yes, she said “Dapat pala siya pasalamatan” (I should thank him then).

As I walked towards the office I was thinking about the events. I am not really sure what happened to the umbrella since I was not around when the other woman left her place nor when the man got seated… it will be hard to judge but I had a feeling from the woman on the other pew’s comment and from the actuation of the woman who lost the umbrella that she felt that the man had it with him so that she was asking someone who knows him to talk to him and that when I told him that he returned it to me that she was somehow embarrassed of her thought and wanted to make up for it… I may be wrong in the way I analyze things and as I said it is wrong to judge but I just realized that sometimes you are moved to do good to a stranger and the person who accepts the act of kindness is also moved to do good also and pass if forward and somehow that brought a positive feeling for me.