On January 14th, an elderly 76-year-old nun in Buffalo, New York, successfully thwarted an attempted robbery at the Response to Love Center, a faith-based charity that provides assistance to those in poverty. The would-be thieves were attempting to steal copper pipes from the building when Sister Mary Johnice Rzadkiewicz awoke early to pray and heard the disturbance.
The brave nun immediately went outside and confronted the criminals, shouting: “Get out of here. How dare you do this to God’s property — this is his mission!” She then summoned her strength to yank a huge ladder off the building, leaving the thieves stranded on the roof before they ran away in fear. The nun noted that she was “fearless” because her “adrenaline was going,” noting that she could “feel the evil” lingering in the air.
In an attempt to identify and catch these crooks, photos of them were posted on Facebook by Response to Love Center with an appeal for help from the public. Assistant director Mike Gilhooly praised Sister Johnice as a “tough cookie,” while she commented that these two thugs likely acted out of desperation, greed or selfishness rather than coming for aid or solace at their charity door.
The nun has since taken up prayer for these two criminals every day since her act of heroism and even kept the ladder as a reminder of her experience, calling it ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ after Jacob’s biblical dream of a bridge stretching from Heaven to Earth. This event follows another extraordinary case of divine intervention where a thief was prevented from stealing a St. Michael the Archangel statue from a church just last week.
Stealing from God’s people is never a good idea. You may not always experience the justice you deserve in the earthly life, but sometimes you do as was the case with this incident and the other mentioned above involving the statue of St. Michael the Archangel. Regardless, justice will ultimately be meted out.
