The Parable of Krispy Kreme Donuts

The following is an excerpt from the sermon I gave yesterday:

     Last week Chris and I attended a Saturday Night Mass at the Church of St. Charles Borromeo for the baptism of a baby on Chris’s side of the family.

The priest gave a wonderful homily in which he told the true story of a man named Chris Rosati. So I couldn't resist doing some research on the story to see what else I could find out about him.

     Chris Rosati is a 42 year old man with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It’s estimated that he has about a year to live including the time that his health will be gradually deteriorating throughout that year. He lives with his wife and two children in North Carolina and is a marketing vice president, and for all intents and purposes is in the prime of his life.

     Now the ordinary point of view I suppose would be to spend that year getting ready to die, whatever that means. And I have to confess that that would probably be the way I personally would look at it. I’d be thinking to myself, “Well, I might as well resign myself to my fate and just make the most of the time I have left…spend time doing the things I like to do most for as long as I can…prepare myself for the inevitable long days of discomfort ahead.”

     And you know what? Nobody could fault anybody for that! Under the ordinary, quite reasonable outlook on life, that would be more than understandable. A person who would take that approach would not be guilty of anything to be ashamed of or should have to answer to anyone for that.    That, however, is not what Chris Rosati has chosen. Oh yes, he knows his undeniable fate—he’s not deluding himself.

     When he found out that he had ALS, he applied online for a job with Krispy Kreme Donuts that he knew he wouldn’t get. But what he had in mind was a kind of Robin Hood thing. His fantasy was that he would steal one of their delivery trucks in a rampage of, as someone put it: stealing cholesterol from the rich and giving it to the poor.

     Of course all of this was thought of with a sense of humor. The Plan: He would follow a Krispy Kreme delivery man around and take his truck when he wasn’t looking and take to the road giving away donuts to everyone he met. 

     When Krispy Kreme heard about it on Facebook, they didn’t threaten to prosecute him. Instead they gave him a bus full of donuts and so, for an entire day, Chris, his family and friends took to the road, joyfully delivering donuts to city parks, cancer wards and children’s hospitals. “We’re glad to make some people smile,” he said.

     In these supposed final days and months of his life, he said that it has made him incredibly sensitive to the important sights and sounds all around him. For instance, nothing in the world thrills him more than the pitter-patter sound of his childrens' feet coming down the hallway. 

The main point of the sermon was that, in the ordinariness of life, we tend to overlook the fact that there dwells inside everyone of us an extraordinary spirit. It is the source of true passion, goodness, appreciation and purpose. We just don't always realize that it's there. Yet it's one and the same spirit that has been awakened within Chris Rosati. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have it awakened within us without the need for some dramatically painful circumstances?

[Sources include: Msgr. Gregory E. S. Malovetz and CBS Evening News]