It's Not For the Usher To Ask

Many churches today have a food pantry that never had a pantry before. I attend a church like that. Some folks are well-fixed, others poor, most betwixt. Some had money before but not enough now to pay the mortgage and then buy food so the pantry helps them the same way it helps clients it has helped for years. Some folks in the pews quietly support the pantry with checks and canned goods enabling the nouveau poor to stand in line with the forever poor on Mondays. A neighborhood baker slips into the church Sunday mornings just prior to the end of service and quietly stacks his trays of unsold bread in the dark foyer. He says nothing and disappears. No one seems to know who he is but the hungry love his bread and word of its excellence has reached the woman who leaves church early and always grabs two loaves of French baguettes and is out in the parking lot long before anyone else and drives off in a red Mercedes. Perhaps she’s on unemployment, low on food stamps or is still making payments on the car. It’s not for the usher to ask. I simply hold the door. Donal Mahoney