That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he gave them the slip and was on his way. (Luke 4: 28 – 30)

Simon Walked down the street, dumbfounded.

“We don’t feel that your contributions are beneficial to our organisation …” He had just got off the phone. They didn’t even meet him in person; just a phone call.

“It’s clear that we don’t agree on the vision for this event …” He had been so excited to work at this World Youth Day.

“For all these reasons we have decided to terminate your contract, effective next Friday”. They were so set in their ways, so reluctant to change, so afraid of an outsider’s point of view.

Twenty-five years ago, he had been a young volunteer working for the organisation of World Youth Day in Czestochowa, Poland. Now, living in the United States, he had been thrilled to have been invited to work in the Operations Department of WYD 2016 in Krakow. He would be the only person in the organisation who actually had already worked in planning a World Youth Day. None of that mattered now. He had been fired.

“Do you have any questions about any of this?” They asked at the end of the phone call. He had thought to protest, to make his case, but instead, he stayed silent. “No,” was all he could respond. Now he walked down the street in a city that seemed so foreign, feeling betrayed. He was angry, disappointed, sad and confused, all at the same time. “God,” he prayed, “I thought this was your will. This was clearly your will”.

As he turned the corner, Simon heard a voice: “Spare some change?” He saw the old man sitting against a mailbox. The man smiled, “We call could use some change”. Simon reached into his pocket and smiled back. “Yes, indeed. We can all use a little change,” he responded as he dropped a few gold coins in the man’s cup. He nodded to the man, turned away and walked on, without looking back.