I’ve always loved the Transfiguration. Christ chooses this unique moment to show His close friends a taste of His heavenly glory. He blesses them with an unmerited gift by showing them a glimpse of the world to come. Peter, James, and John are awestruck. Peter, in his attempt to thank God and welcome these heavenly guests, clumsily suggests that they could build tents for them. On the strictly literal level, this is simultaneously a beautiful and awkward situation. More about this later…
This past Saturday, as I sat in the front row of the church, ready to give my first parish talk, I noticed with amusement the sign on the side of that pew—“Disabled.” How appropriate, that is exactly how I felt. I have tried to put so much effort into raising my support for the last year and feel like something just was not working. I have always liked to have measurable results and success when I work hard at anything. Why in the world did God call me to do something where I’ll never have measurable results of my actions and hard work? As a missionary, ultimately it is all God’s work, and I may never know how He has secretly used me to touch someone’s heart. With developing my ministry support team, I seemed to be the exception to the statistics predicting that if I have over 200 contacts I am almost guaranteed to be fully-funded since the average monthly gift is $50/mo. Would this parish talk be the same way? I wanted to trust God 100% to provide for my needs in His own time and I told Him that in prayer, but it was easier said than done.
At this particular Church, I did a parish talk at each of their five English Sunday Masses. At every Mass, the people’s generosity increased. For the next two or three months, their one-time donations alone will provide the difference between my monthly costs according to my budget and the amount that my monthly ministry partners have generously committed to giving. In addition, some of the parishioners may be willing to help me monthly as well, which will be extremely helpful since one-time donations don’t last forever.
After the Masses, people came up to me with all sorts of stories. One woman had fallen away from the Church in college and only recently come back to the Faith. Another had lost her children to Evangelical Protestant groups. Many others knew people who had lacked the Catholic community needed to foster an authentic Christian life on campus. They gave what they could. One man was out of a job, but still generously gave something towards my ministry.
I was there at Church to ask for help and to celebrate the Transfiguration, but God knew I also needed to be there to receive His help and have my heart transfigured by the overwhelming generosity of the priests and faithful people of the parish. I was touched by each and every person who came up to help me and, like Peter, can only clumsily communicate my gratitude for this gift from God and His people. If you are a member of that parish and are reading this—thank you so much. You will all be in my prayers during this next year. You have given me so much courage and assurance through your support and prayers. Please pray for me, that God will be able to use this tool for His greater honor and glory and to reach out to students and rescue them from a life of quiet desperation.
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2 comments:
Kel, that's awesome that you see God providing for you in this way! What a lesson in abandonment this whole thing is.
What you said about how you may never know how you touched someone's heart reminded me of Legion of Mary work. Our handbook also points out that "symbolic action" in missionary work - those times when we can't see the immediate fruit or nothing seems to be going right - the fact that we put forth the effort is so pleasing to Our Lord and gives us a unique opportunity to unite ourselves with Christ, in all the times things did not seem to be going right for Him (weariness, rejection, crucifixtion, etc.)
Keep up the good work! See you soon!!
Beautiful reflection Michele! I've often mentally compared what I'm doing to the Legion work I've seen my friends do over the years, esp. in the sense that you can't allow fear to prevent you from just talking to people and sharing God's love with them. He's teaching me trust a lot this summer!
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