THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
Did I ever tell you . . . On the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1st) a few years ago I asked St. Joseph to give me a sign. Not necessarily to grant, through his intercession, what I had been praying for, but just a sign that he had heard my prayers, that he was with me, that he hadn't abandoned me. As I left for work that morning, I felt embarrassed about my request. And as I drove to In The Spirit Gifts, where I was working, I prayed, "I'm sorry, St. Joseph. You don't have to do that. I shouldn't have asked you for a sign. I know you've heard, haven't abandoned, and are with me.
The month of May is a very busy season at the store as First Communions near. In the midst of a store full of shoppers that morning, in came a man. He was not a regular customer - I had never seen him before and never saw him after. He stood staring at me and engaged me in brief moments of conversation as I helped other customers. What I was immediately struck with, however, was that this stranger was a faith-filled man, who seemed to know his theology.
Somehow the busy store emptied out and I was alone with this man - just him, just me. He never told me why he was there . . . never told me what he wanted. But in the midst of our conversation, having nothing at all to do with anything we were talking about, he announced to me, "I'm married to a virgin." I ignored what he said, but remember thinking to myself, "What a strange thing to say! Why would this man reveal to a total stranger that his wife was a virgin when he married her?" As if he read my thoughts, he added, "My wife and I love each other very much, but we've decided to live our married life as virgins."
Soon after, as mysteriously as he came into the store, he left, never buying anything, never even browsing at the merchandise. Minutes after he left, alone in the store, as I tried to make sense of this strange encounter, I was filled with wonder! What other man, I thought, had married a virgin? What other couple had decided to live their married love virginally? Suddenly I was filled with awe, and joy, and peace. Although I told St. Joseph that I wasn't looking for it, anticipating it or expecting it, I realized I had received my sign.
