'become like children' By Anthony

This last Tuesday we continued diving into our lessons on Deus Caritas Est and love. We all hear homilies on love and know that they will know we are Christians by our love (John 13), but what this means in modern America is not so clear.

We are often referred to as a Christian nation, yet we are the most militarized country in the world. So much for “Blessed is the peacemaker” (Matthew 5).

USA Today reports that a higher percent of Americans are in poverty now than fifty years ago, with the number continually rising. I guess we forgot about the second half of Matthew 25.

These questions and ideas continually trouble me, but on Tuesday I was induced by a startling peace.

It seems this summer, engrossed in community and removed my ordinary life, that love is all around – even in modern America. One shining example of it is the City of Mary, a Franciscan Friary near Flint. The three religious brothers who work, pray, and serve there and the five biological siblings who reside there assisting them in their work all display selfless love every day. While they are all physically serving others (a key pillar in Franciscan hospitality) amount a litany of programs and objectives. Following their vows of poverty the Franciscans live simply, including growing most of their own food supply. Another love that is often ignored or forgotten is given a corner stone at the City of Mary – vocation.

Typically the idea of vocation sparks images of seminarians, but as one Friar put it, “we are all called to be saints; your vocation is the path God has willed for you to reach your calling.” Love is very much sacrifice, so what better way to live out love than to fully empty yourself and embrace the vocation God has prepared for you?

During fix ups we work with a contractor named Tom. Tom always starts off each day with us with a wonderful story that intersects more with our lives than I feel he is aware. This week he told the story of a farmer he saw at a farmers market. The man had a wide variety of produce he was selling. As Tom watched two children ran excitedly to the man and he picked them both up, showing hem the produce. Not only were the children excited because they were seeing their father but also because they had helped pick the goods he was selling. He smiled with immense happiness as he shared the fruit of his work with his children. Tom saw this as being similar to our interaction with God via prayer. Like how the farmer did not need his children to help pick the vegetables, God does not need our help to complete his tasks, but he reacts with joy if we join his work through our prayer. I feel that the same is true of our vocations. If we forget ourselves and walk fully the path God has laid before us then not only will God, our father, react with happiness, but we will have the same joy as the farmer’s children had in the work they shared with their father.

“unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”

-Matthew 18:3