Thursday, September 24, 2009

Fruits of Righteousness?

Today is our community day: Juan and our volunteers handle the bookstore so we can have time to pray together, have lunch together and in general have some community time. I also took advantage of the opportunity to go grocery shopping (things were getting pretty interesting in the fridge!). How providential it was! As we were checking out in the big-box club store, one of the employees asked us if we could use some bagels and dinner rolls that had hit their expiration date. I never say "no" to Divine Providence--and it turned out that we were so near the Franciscan Outreach center that we could just zip over and share the wealth of bread with the poor they serve and still be near my favorite produce store (Stanley's, for you Chicagoans) and get some veggies there, too.
I didn't pick any peppers at Stanley's because I had gotten some lovely ones at the farmer's market on Tuesday, thinking that I would just cut them into chunks or strips and freeze them. Coming back from shopping, I put a dozen eggs in a pot with a few onion skins (the eggs get a kind of yellow-brown dye job from the onions, so we can they are hard boiled); cooked some of the mixed greens to keep ready for wraps, and then picked up the most beautiful of the peppers I had gotten at the farmer's market (firm, brightly colored, symetrical), and sliced into it, only to find moldy seeds and strips of black slime. That's where I got the Scripture lesson. You know, the one about "whitened sepulchres" that are nice on the outside, but inside full of corruption? Come to think about it, even in the egg carton (which seemed perfectly intact, though it was sealed in plastic), one of the eggs was broken.
Hmm. Is there a lesson for me in this?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There would certainly be a lesson for me, Sister.

Janelle said...

I've been having the same problem. All my bell peppers have been fine, but the nectarines and the strawberries were harboring secret mold. I might switch to frozen ones. It was sad wasting $3.99 on inedible fruit.

Anonymous said...

Janelle, I had the same experience at Whole foods. When I returned home with a four dollar carton of pineapple squares and what I thought were beautiful strawberries, all were inedible. For once I saved my receipt and they will be returned. Fool me twice, shame on me