Sitting by the window of her convent, Sister Katie opened a letter from home one evening. Inside the letter from her parents was a $100 bill as a gift. Sister Katie smiled at the gesture, and she read the letter by her window. Sister Katie noticed a shabbily-dressed stranger leaning against the lamppost on the street corner below. Quickly, she wrote on a piece of paper, “Don’t despair,” signed Sister Katie. She wrapped the $100 bill in it, got the man’s attention, and tossed the note and money out the window to him. The stranger picked up the note and the $100 bill, and with a puzzled expression and a tip of his hat, went off down the street. The next day, Sister Katie was told there was a man at the convent door insisting that he had to see her. Sister Katie went down and found the same stranger, now waiting at the door. Without a word, he handed her a huge wad of $100 bills. “What’s this?” asked a very startled Sister Katie. “That’s the $10,000 you have coming, sister,” replied the stranger. “Don’t Despair paid 100 to one “in the sixth race at Arlington Park this afternoon.” I like that one, you know that? Here’s a wonderful line, funny but also thought-provoking. When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing. When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing. No matter our age or status or position, by our baptism, we are called to serve one another, especially the poor, the homeless, the oppressed. In today’s Gospel, did the rich man deliberately hurt the poor man? No. Did he force the guy to leave, or have him arrested, or say mean things to him? Absolutely not. So what was his sin? Very simply, it was the sin of doing nothing at all. Complacency and apathy. He was completely disinterested in the needs of someone right in front of him. His attitude was probably not like ours sometimes. It’s not my problem. His inaction with a pure failure to love. Lou Holtz, the former great football coach, University of Notre Dame once said this, “Good moral, does not come from someone patting your on the head. Good moral, comes from believing, that what you’re doing is worth while and knowing that you do it well.”