My community recently reflected on the passage from Acts 3:1-10. In this passage, Peter and John encounter a beggar asking for alms. Yet, rather than listen to the beggar’s plea to simply have his stomach filled for the day, they turn their gaze to the deeper cry of the man – the cry for what Christ can give to him. 

This story became incarnate for us through a woman named Pria. Whenever we see her, we always try to smile at her and have a conversation, but she only asks us for money. We felt like Peter and John, trying to say, “Look at us! You ask for food, but we want to give you more—we want to give you a presence, the Presence of God.” One day when we were out on visits, we saw Pria walking home and we decided to try to follow her to her house. By the grace of God, this time she did not ask us for money. When she finally understood that we just wanted to be with her, her entire disposition shifted, like the man in the Gospel. She was not miraculously cured of her physical ailments, but her entire face lit up with joy and she lovingly hit us like the Indian women do to express their affection. She was so proud that we wanted to come to her house, and she made sure to tell everyone we passed on the way that we were going to visit her.

Whether we are with an old beggar woman from the streets or the children of our neighborhood, it is all an opportunity to be present to our friends, to know their hearts more deeply, and to be able to say to them, ‘Look at us! What you ask for we cannot give, but let us give you something more. Let us give Christ to you!’