Prompt Romans 10:9 - “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
A Hidden Voice - by WEGoss2
A jogger saw him ashen and stiff on the
cold sidewalk and called 9-1-1.
***
It was early morning and the police were
there with the body. Just a dead homeless man, he had probably frozen to death.
The police were there just to make sure it wasn’t something more.
They searched his body for identification
but they found nothing with his name. They did find bundles of neatly folded
pieces of paper. The strips looked like they were torn from loose leaf notebook
paper. They looked like they had been made by a child; the edges of the folded
sheets wetted by saliva and then torn along the folds to make strips.
They were in all of his pockets. Stacks bundles
together with rubber bands or string were found in the cardboard box where he
slept. There they found the rest of his stuff: a worn St.
Joseph
On each creased, carefully folded strip of
paper was a phrase scribbled in pencil. Each piece had the same words. No one
at the scene could make out exactly what it said. One thought was it was a line
or a verse from something. The writing was light, shaky-sloppy and looked like
it had been written against the sidewalk. The crime scene technician bagged and
marked it all as evidence.
As the detective was walking away, he
found one that had been missed and picked it up. He placed it in an envelope
and pushed it into his pocket. It was stray piece of paper among many but it
might be the one that change everything.
***
The police officers who patrolled the area
said they saw him often. No one was sure of his name. They called him
the paper boy. Every day he was on the street handing out his pieces of paper,
always smiling and singing. It was his gimmick. It sounded like he was singing
some kind of “church music.” Sometimes people would give him loose change; but
most turned their heads and hurry on by. It they took the paper they would soon
drop it to the ground or in the trash cans.
***
“That was Paul,” was what they told him at the mission. “He was mostly a deaf mute. Hard to understand him but we did get that his first name was Paul. To us, he was Paul Doe # 47. He started showing
up a couple of years ago; but, we haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks.”
“He would come to eat, pick up some canned
food, and maybe some clothes. He liked to stay for the worship service. Every Sunday and Wednesday we have a worship service with the homeless, singing
and preaching. It’s all a person has to do to get some food. Before he’d leave, he
would give us a paper cup full of change.”
“He was also always handing out these little
pieces of paper. We tried to decipher what they said, but
mostly they’d just end up on the floor and we’d sweep them up.”
***
The detective stood outside the doors of
Holy Rosary Parish. He had come here because of a name stamped on the
inside cover of the Bible, “Fr. Luke O’Pry, Holy Rosary.” He was disappointed to learn that Father Luke had passed away earlier in the
year. There was another priest who knew the deceased man.
“Yes,” Father Mark said, “I knew him. His name was Paul. At least that’s what I was
told by Fr. Luke. I don’t remember Father ever telling me his last name.”
“He has a story like most people who live
on the streets. Life tripped him up. He never had a family that I am aware;
but, once he did have a job and a nice apartment.”
“At one time, he was an atheist activist that
fought against prayer in schools and public events. One day, this man who made
his living speaking against God, woke up and couldn’t speak. He was not able to
work and became depressed. Then he became addicted to the pills the doctors gave him. He lost all he had and went out to the street.”
“After about a year and a half of living
on the street, he began showing up for adoration. He wasn’t just coming inside
the building but actually worshiped and prayed. Before he left, he would
always fill the poor box with loose change. We’ve tried many times to get him
help, a place to stay; but he always sent back to the streets.”
“Father Luke told me that was because Paul
now spoke with and for God. He could only listen to God speaking to him on the
streets.”
The detective listened and shook his head
side to side. Fishing in his pocket for the envelope, he then asked, “All that
he had on him were these strips of paper. They all have the same thing written
on them.” He found the one he had stuffed in his pocket. “Do you know what they
are?”
The young priest, open the piece of paper
and smiled, “I believe Father Luke was right about Paul and God.”
“Why do you say that Father?”
The young priest smiled, “Detective, this
is a verse from the Bible from the letter to the Romans.”
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is
Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved.”
"Thank you Father, I guess this is
just a homeless man who froze to death."
Father Mark smiled. “Detective, the Book
of Romans was written by the apostle Paul. He was struck blind for persecuting
Christ and the Church. God restored Paul’s sight and he spent the rest of his
life living on what the Lord provided; preaching and spreading the Gospel to
all who would listen. Paul died spreading the good news.”
“I think that this was our Paul’s story
too. Except, the voice he got back was one that only let him speak with God. It
was a voice you or I couldn’t understand. But if you listened close, his voice
sounded like choirs of angels. He spread the Gospel to everyone who would take
this simple note.”
“No Detective, he was more than just a
homeless man who froze to death. Paul spread the Gospel one slip of paper at a
time. Now his body has died and Paul has gone home. For some, Paul and these little
pieces of paper changed everything.” 
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