"The Pineapple Water"

by: friar Rich Rome, OFM Conv.

“I can’t believe that you all are here.”  While our tour of the town was scheduled, it was not intricately planned.  We were just stopping casually at places of interest that our local guides thought we would be of benefit.  As we were walking along a street in the old part of Siler City, where many immigrant families first settle, we stopped by some of the houses.  We were eight: five friars plus our three locals.  Our third stop began by encountering the lady of the house in the driveway, who was shocked that we had come by.  “My father is inside and he is dying.”

We offered to pray with her, and she was happy to have us do so.  She ushered us into the house and started introducing us to her husband, her daughter and two sons.  We prayed with the whole family, all of us still in shock at this turn of providence.  After the prayers, we remained with the family and spoke with them.  As the family were introducing us all to the family dog, the blender suddenly fired up in the kitchen.  Moments later, the lady of the house came back into the living room with a tray and 12 large Styrofoam cups.  We weren't sure what the official name of the drink was, so we just called it Pineapple Water.

It was a gesture of hospitality I had never encountered before.  Under the circumstances, in the culture that I come from, we might have been invited in to pray, but there would be no obligation for them to provide anything for us.  Quite to the contrary, we should have brought something.  But there were different rules here.  If anything, the Pineapple Water made sacred this moment of God’s Providence that brought us all together.  Fourteen people from all over the world, brought to this small house, in this small town, at this precise moment, for this precise moment.  While beginning as perfect strangers, the prayers and Pineapple Water bridged our common humanity and our common mission as Christians to look after each other, both spiritual and bodily.