Family
Spirituality
Living Faith:
a collection of columns
from Catherine O’Connell-Cahill that appeared in At Home
with our Faith.
Who’s leading whom?
A Jesuit priest named Gary
Smith is also a roofer. Not the kind of roofer you call when your
roof springs a leak, but a roofer nonetheless. He told his story in
the National Catholic Reporter a few months back.
Gary Smith and a group
of his friends became the support system for a friend of theirs named
Wells, who was dying of multiple sclerosis. These friends decided
to care for him, financially and otherwise, during his final three
years of life. They visited him regularly, and each man sent a monthly
check to pay for Wells’ medical needs and home care. Wells called
them "roofers," referring to the men in Luke’s Gospel
who, desperate to get their paralyzed friend noticed by Jesus, tore
the tiles from the roof of Peter’s house and lowered the stretcher
bearing their buddy right under Jesus’ nose.
Here are some words
from the funeral homily delivered by one of the "roofers":
"We were indeed the people from the gospel: packing him on his
litter, down the alleys, across the river, up the stairs, to the very
roof. We pulled off the tiles. We hardly had a choice. He was yanking
on us to do so. It really wasn’t hard. He was pretty light, after
all. He didn’t complain."
What made me want to
tell this story in At Home with our Faith was something that Wells
used to say during his illness: "My vocation, during this part
of my life, is to lead people to God by their taking care of me."
"It worked,"
said the man giving the homily. Our hearts opened. . . .
He led the way to God. Our job was easy. All we did was carry him."
This blew me away.
I am forever hearing about people who consider suicide because they
"don’t want to be a burden" or don’t wish to endure
what the final months of their life might have in store. But here
was a man with the vision to see that by allowing people to take care
of him at the end of his life, he was in fact leading them to God.
Who else in life lets
people take care of them? Why, children, of course. Infants and toddlers
and 9-year-olds. Kids who need to cry on your shoulder or be driven
to baseball practice. Kids who need you to make macaroni and cheese
for the gazillionth time or to teach them how to drive a car.
Wait, we’re
leading them to God, aren’t we? (Isn’t that the point
of this newsletter?) Of course we do lead our kids to God, mostly
by our example. But the story of the roofers reminds me that caring
for our kids puts us on a spiritual path to God, too.
Think of your day today,
or your past week. What have you done to care for your kids? What
spiritual lessons have you learned?
You may have found
the patience to let your 5-year-old struggle with tying his shoes
even though you’re in a hurry, because you know that’s the
only way he’ll learn. You may have found the strength and endurance
to comfort a sick child or a fussy infant in the wee small hours of
the morning. You may have found forgiveness in your heart for a teenager
who made you furious. You may have let your small child show you again
the wonders of the natural world and the virtues of walking slowly
enough to notice bugs and leaves (or currently icicles and snow formations
in my neck of the woods).
Just a few more reasons
to thank God for our daughters and our sons. COC
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