August 7, 2009
The Second Half
Much to offer
BY DEACON JIM AND ANN CAVERA
At the end of July a young woman came to the parish seeking a little money for food to last until she would be eligible to return to the food pantry this month. At age 26, she had taken on the care of her 15- and nine-year-old sisters after their mother died a year ago. She also had two sons of her own and they were less than five years old. With support provided by her ex-husband and a part-time job, things were tight, but they had been making it until the pizza parlor where she had been working had closed six months earlier. Unable to find another job, she hadn’t been able to make ends meet since then.
Fortunately, our parish is able to offer a little help in cases such as hers. As she waited in our office, a deeper hunger emerged. “I miss my mother so much,” she said. I knew what she meant. My own mother died nine years ago. Even though I am 40 years older than the young woman who sat in our office, I still think of my mother every day.
A few people are so much a part of our lives, they define us. Often, it is a parent, but that isn’t always the case. It may be an older brother, sister, aunt or uncle, a teacher who took time to make us feel important, or a friend who stuck by us regardless of how awful things were. Something about their presence made us feel differently about who we were. Their presence caused us to become something more than we might have been. We long for their company many years after they have gone.
Have you ever known someone who bore adversity with unusual grace, or had the ability to see humor in the strangest situations? Maybe the person we long to see had a deep faith that let us see the unlimited possibilities in God’s love. The defining trait that made them unforgettable might have been courage in the face of illness or overwhelming physical or emotional obstacles. Sometimes we may not be able to remember much about what such a person actually said or did during the time we were together. It is the power of their presence that remains in our memory as a source of strength many years later.
Now and then someone bears that kind of light not to just a few people, but to a nation, or the world as well. Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II were icons for faith, love, patience, perseverance and forgiveness because they actually became what they believed. The memory of their presence in our world continues to be as strong as the words they spoke.
The young woman in our office was a powerful presence in our lives last week. She wasn’t some abstract idea of pain and poverty. She waited in our church office as one of the millions of mothers who can’t feed hungry children. She bore poverty and hunger and still she persevered. Children must be fed. Work must be found and she carried her load with grace. How each of us responds to the presence of the poor continues to define who we become in Christ.
Deacon Jim and Ann Cavera are former residents of Evansville; their award-winning column is a regular feature of the Message. Contact them at www.catholicseniorspirit.com.