The Pearl Street Mall is just three blocks from church so I like to go to the mall every now and then. It's one of the more delightful of aspects of living in this beautiful town. Lately I have been noticing a man who looks to be near 30 years of age walking up and down the mall carrying a wooden cross. He doesn't say anything; he just silently carries a three foot cross over his shoulder, up and down the mall, daytime and in the evening time.
So, I was sitting on a bench with a friend in the lovely warm weather we had earlier this week. (Sitting on a bench on the Pearl Street Mall is a wonderful people-watching thing to do.) In the middle of a great conversation, I noticed the man carrying the cross, so I shouted, "Hello, you carrying the cross." So he came over and we visited, all three of us. During Lent some of our parishioners had been spat on while carrying a cross and doing the Stations of the Cross along the mall, so I asked him what kind of reaction he's been getting from people.
Andrew, that's his name, said that he's gotten a lot of reactions, from, "Atta way, man," to "Get lost," to shouts of, "Hypocrite!" As for why he's carrying the cross, he pointed to beautiful young people walking by and said, "For them." It seems he's greatly concerned that young people do not know God or what they are doing to move in wrong directions.
Andrew told us that one time a young woman stopped him and told him, "I've just had an abortion! Oh, do you think the baby will go to heaven? And do you think God will ever forgive me?" He said to her, "The baby has done nothing wrong so the baby will certainly be in heaven. And as for you, are you sorry for what you have done and have you asked Jesus to forgive you?" "Oh, yes!" "Then He will indeed forgive you." At this the woman fell at his feet and wept and wept.
That's when someone came by and shouted, "Hypocrites!"