“Pick-Pocketers, Thugs, and an ATM Angel ” by Rachael Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
My sister was homeless in New York City for about 12 hours once. Might not sound that rough considering the number of homeless people who live for years and years homeless, but it was one of the most traumatizing moments for my Michigan family, 800 miles away.
Here’s the story: my sister had recently graduated from a film academy in the Mid-West and scored a sweet 4-month internship in New York City working with a production company. But they wanted her to start ASAP, so she rushed to find living arrangements, to pack her bags and fly out for her adventure. After taking public transit with several suitcases, then schlepping her bags on foot for 28 blocks, she finally made it up the stoop to the shoebox-sized apartment in expensive – but trendy – Soho. Paying extravagant rent while being paid absolutely nothing for an internship was going to be rough, but she had calculated how to make it work – if only she acquired a few part time jobs and didn’t eat much for 4 months.
Then, my sister met with the landlady and unfortunately realized there had been a serious misunderstanding about the cost. The already-extravagant rent was the bi-weekly rate – not the monthly rate. Twice as much as she was expecting… Welcome to New York City!
After the door slammed, she schlepped her bags back down the stoop, completely crestfallen, embarrassed and unsure of what to do next. She was in New York City for the first time, completely alone with not enough money to make it into a house, and not enough street cred or tattoos to make it in the streets. For a few hours, she wandered aimlessly, dragging her suitcases behind her trying to figure out her next move. Then the sun started to set and panic set in. She called our parents. She called me. Panic set in for us, too. Where could she live for the next four months? And more importantly, where could she go right now to be safe and spend the night? My mother called me and sobbed into the phone that her baby was homeless in NYC, that she was going to be eaten alive by the callused, money-hungry pick-pocketers and killed by thugs.
In the midst of all of the confusion and yes – a bit of terror – there was a certain moment that restored my sister’s hope and made her feel like everything was going to be alright. She stopped at a bank to withdraw some money, and in her preoccupation with her homeless situation, she forgot to grab the last $50 from the ATM slot before rushing back outside. An hour later, she realized her mistake, burst into tears and retraced her steps to the bustling Manhattan bank to see if the $50 was still there. Obviously, it was not still there in the ATM slot. But she went to the window to very hopelessly ask about it, and lo and behold! The bank teller handed her the $50. She told my sister that someone had found the bill in the ATM, and instead of taking it (which 99.9% of people would probably have done, thinking the person who left it was obviously a sucker or someone too wealthy to notice a mere $50 missing) he brought it to the front desk in case the person was to come back looking for it. My sister was stunned. I was stunned. We were all stunned that the person who happened to reach the ATM after my sister had used it, was an honest, trustworthy person who did the right thing in a situation where many people would have thought it was “no big deal” to just pocket the cash.
In the midst of this whole story, this nameless, faceless person’s action is what I want to focus in on, because it’s exactly what the Gospel today is about – being trustworthy in small matters so that you can be trustworthy in great matters. No one would have known the difference if that man had pocked the bill he found, and he would have had $50 extra to spend that day. But he returned it. I would imagine that this man would also be honest in situations with a lot more money was at stake because he had formed his character to do so. Jesus says, “If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters…you cannot serve both God and mammon [basically a fancy word for money].” (LK 16:13).
This is very practical advice for all of us – next time you check out at a store and you realize they forgot to charge you for an item – I would challenge you to go back to the cashier and square it away. Or if you find a valuable lost item, a wallet – or heck – even a hat – I’d challenge you to bring it in so that it can be found again, because we don’t want to train ourselves to be the dishonest person Jesus is talking about in the Gospel “…the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.”
Luckily, my sister was not eaten alive by callused pick-pocketers or killed by thugs. She hopped on a train and met up with some friends of mine in New Jersey who were looking for a roommate, and all was well (though what she saved on rent she made up for in train fare…) But the memory that stuck with her about her first hours in NYC was not the mean landlady, not the panic she experienced as the sun went down – but the kindness of the nameless person who returned her money when he didn’t have to. We’ve named this nameless person the “ATM Angel.”