A Blessing in Disguise

November 13, 2005

Hannibal Lecter did something approaching this, you may remember.
It was in the latest of the series and the incident took place while he was pursuing and being pursued by Clarice, the lithe FBI agent intent on hunting him down. The scene is in Washington D.C.’s Union Station and the two are communicating using mobile phones. All of a sudden, Hannibal is there on the merry-go-round whilst Clarice is standing right next to it. At this moment, the film slows down just ever so slightly and we see his right arm outstretched and his fingers moving in sequence as they brush the air next to Clarice’s hair, blown off her shoulder by the draught of the carousel. Almost, but not quite, he makes contact with her. It lasts just for a second, while the wooden horses rotate around and around. His movement reveals his desire to connect with her, even if only for that second. For Hannibal, that is enough. She, however, remains oblivious to this exchange but there is just a hint of her becoming aware of something near to her…Dr Lecter’s intentions are, however, evil. His entire range of intelligence and education is patiently and lethally focussed on penetrating the most vulnerable aspects of his intended victims thereby creating the most precise opportunity for their suffering and death. His actions are the darker side of the touch we need but his movement in this scene is, nevertheless, instructive.

A blessing resembles that gesture. It is something which we can all do as we roam the roads and pavements of our towns and cities. We rush by one another nowadays and seldom see what is happening. But things do happen. There’s the old lady who looks like someone’s mum shuffling along the street, carrying her plastic bag, seeming weather-beaten and lost. Perhaps life has defeated her, made her wander. What can we do? Then there’s the couple arguing, more than a lover’s tiff this time. Once again, can we help? How about the milling masses on there way to somewhere else, just like us? It only takes a moment. A silent prayer, an almost undetectable movement of the hand, but there it is – a blessing in disguise. Filled with a desire to connect, to help, to heal, we can say and gesture, even if only to ourselves, the wish we have for the widow, the stranger and the orphan to be under the tender care and mercy of God. Please help them, we might say, and God bless. Just then and for a moment, we might commune with God and with our neighbour. No-one will see, so we are not embarrassed; no-one will know except us. But there, in that discreet and anonymous gesture, our blessing and prayer for the good of the other will surely not be lost in the heart and mind of God in whom we all live and move and have our being.

Fr James Campbell SJ, Farm Street SVP