News & Notes: April 27, 2010

April 27, 2010

Dear Parents,

God’s peace!

While attending a recent spirituality seminar I was touched by a story told by Fr. Michaels Himes, a professor of theology at Boston College. He spoke of his mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s and of his evening visits with her in a nearby nursing home . As time passed, he noticed that she recognized him less and less. On some visits she thought he was her husband, or a friend, or simply someone with whom she found herself in conversation. On a particular evening, Fr. Himes sat in the presence of his mother and asked her, “Do you know who I am?” Her eyes searched his face and she smiled, “I don’t know who you are, but I know I loved you.”

The power of love… to pull us back from any experience…any fear…any suffering. In this case, it was not the power of being loved, but rather the power of loving that drew someone from darkness into the light. Fr. Himes love for his mother brought him into her presence most evenings. He no doubt had other things he could have done with this time…after all…evening after evening it seemed as if his visits were futile, for his own mother didn’t recognize him… or so it seemed. Neither Fr. Himes nor his mother were focused on being loved…but rather on loving.

Where is my focus? Do I look outward to see what it is I can be doing for another? Perhaps there seems little I can do for another in the face of pain, disappointment or despair… perhaps my presence in prayer, my “being-with” is the greatest gift I can share.

There is a powerful scene from the film, Marvin’s Room, where two sisters stand in the kitchen of the sister who is dying of cancer. Bad news is delivered to the sister regarding her cancer and as she hangs up the phone, she turns and knocks dozens of pill containers to the floor spilling medications everywhere. As both she and her sister bend to pick them up, she sighs and shares with her sister, “Oh, I have been so blessed to have so much love in my life.” Her sister responds, “Yes, dad and others love you so much…” “Oh no,” her sister responds, “It is I who have been lucky to have loved them.”

So often our focus is on “what’s in it for me?” I have found in my own life, that when I feel most “down” or “out of sorts” it is because my focus in large part is on whether I am loved/accepted, rather than how much I love another. Paul’s well known reflection on love calls us to be for others… patient, kind, not jealous, not boastful… Paul defines love as powerful because we give it to others… We may well forget those who loved us…but we shall never forget those we have loved.

Let us reflect this week on those we love… on those we are blessed to have in our lives…

In prayer,

Sr. Maureen