Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent (March 10, 2009)
We have to be very careful to remain humble in anything we do. When we have been doing something for a long time, it is very easy to think that nobody can do it better than us. We become possessive of our tasks. This can happen at work, at home… but we have to be extra careful when we are serving the Lord. If we help out in our parishes, in the Emmaus retreats, or in any other ministry of the Church, we need to always remember whom we are serving and why we are doing it.
When I was a teenager, a long, long time ago, I was very involved with “Encuentros Juveniles” (Youth Encounters). At one point, I was asked to take over the responsibility of the newspaper. Since I have always enjoyed writing, I was thrilled with the assignment and I jumped in with both feet. The newspaper became my baby. We were a staff of five, but somewhere along the way, I was doing that newspaper all by myself. The dining table at my house, to my mother’s horror, became a permanent workshop. The newspaper became my passion, but in the process, I forgot whom I was truly serving. When it came time to pass the baton to the next person, I had a very hard time letting go. Once I did, I learned a very big lesson in humility.
It is very easy to take ownership of an assignment, especially when we are praised for a job well done. We can wrongly assume that if we let go of our responsibility, someone else will mess up what we have worked so hard to make perfect. When we serve the Lord, He is the one that hands out the assignments. We have to be ready to serve, without expecting recompense, but we also have to be ready to step back when He wants us to move on to something else. This is very hard to do, because we become comfortable within a group, we get to know the persons serving with us, we make friends and the shoe fits just right. There is nothing more humbling than when we join a new task for the first time, especially when we used to be in charge of something else. Now, we need to start from the bottom and we have to allow somebody else to teach us the way.
Our blessed Mother was the perfect model of humility. She was given the greatest task of all, yet she never allowed it to go to her head. She continued living the same life she always led, a very simple life, and she served the Lord without any expectations for reward. She also taught us to let go. How hard it had to be for her to let go of her Son. Yet she knew that He was not for her to keep. Yes, He was her Baby, but He had come to serve all of humanity and she had to release Him. Will we be able to do the same when God asks us to move on to a new task?
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent (February 27, 2018)
When I did the 48 Steps to Easter nine years ago, I was very involved with the Emmaus retreats at Belen. I had been serving for a few years so the shoe was already fitting me very comfortably. My Emmaus sisters had become more than friends, they were family. Little did I know, that God was going to ask me to move on to a new task, a very difficult one.
My son, Rafi, would be diagnosed with a very serious illness shortly after Easter. I always felt that God had inspired me to write the 48 Steps to Easter because He was preparing me to carry a very heavy cross. Now, as I read them again, I have no doubt that the journey on that Lent gave me the strength to withstand the hurricane that was coming our way.
Difficult times come into our lives when we least expect them. They just show up in our doorstep unannounced. That’s when we need to turn to God. And by allowing Him to lead us through the tornadoes in our life, we also have to be ready to answer His call when He needs our help.
If I had been asked back then, where I would like to serve God, the furthest answer from my mind would have been to help out with the mentally challenged. I could never, in my wildest dreams, have anticipated the turn that my life would take. But that is exactly where God needed me.
I humbly accepted the challenge, and for the past nine years, I have joined forces with a group of parents to serve an organization that helps adults with a serious mental illness lead more meaningful and productive lives.
I don’t know if next month or next year, God will need my services elsewhere. But I know that I will humbly answer Him, “I am your handmaiden. Lead me where You need me.”
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