PAGE 14 AUGUST 12, 2000 ARKANSAS CATHOLIC
BISHOP'S COLUMN
.J
he day my father, had he lived, would
have been 98 years old --June 1,
2000 --- we had to close the deal on
selling our family home. My sister Rosemary
and I, the oldest siblings in our family of eight,
found ourselves sharing memories of this
home that our Dad bought nearly 60 years
ago, feeling a bit depressed even as we knew
we had no choice but to sell.
It happens to a lot of families. A parent
dies, and the remaining parent, aging, needs
full-rime care. The major asset, the family
home, must be sold to pay for medical care
and a nursing home• Our mom, nearly 92,
The Bottom Une
Antoinette Bosco
unable to care for
herself, is well cared
for in a home liter-
ally a block from
our family house.
She says she's
happy we found a
buyer.
On the surface,
all is well. But deep-
er down, in the
heart, all is not so
blissffd. Rosemary
and I keep remem-
bering how excited
Dad was the day we moved into our two-fami-
ly dty house, across the street from Lincoln
Park in Albany, N.E
Almost in tmison we said, "Do you remem-
ber how his eyes were shining, and how he
walked from room to room, so excited that he
had finally achieved his dream of having
very own house for his family?"
We were budding teenagers, not old
enough, perhaps, to really understand what
owning a house meant to someone who had
come to America from Italy atage 16 without
a penny, all alone.
We shared a room when we were kids, but
Rosemary and I have shared so much more. I
think the expression "soul sisters" was created
to describe our rehtionship.
This house was our father's dream, and he
always wanted to share tho6e dreams with us. I
ne morning last week I had the
privilege of celebrating Mass for
the Missionaries of Charity and a
large group of children who were com-
pleting a month-long "camp" run by the
sisters and volunteers at Abba House. We
were joined by members of the CXM.
from Christ the King, who had been help-
ing that week. The children had been
learning about Jesus, working on all kinds
of crafts, and having great fun. After Mass
and a snack, they were off to the zoo.
Through the years I have had many
contacts with the Missionaries of Charity,
and I am always struck by their powerfully
simple wimess of faith and reminded to
keep my witness equally simple.
Mother Teresa first visited Memphis in
1988 at the request of then-Bishop Daniel
Buechlein, who had asked that she open a
house there. The bishop and I took her to
the inner dty to visit several potential sites
-- he and I in the front seats of my Mazda
323, Mother Teresa and her companion in
the back. We listened attentively to their
conversation. Mother said, "We will open a
house in Memphis, then one in Moscow,
then one in Beijing, and then another in
Rome..." After the list had continued for a
while, the other sister interrupted, "And
where do you expect to get the sisters for
these missions, Mother?" "God will send us
the sisters," was the response. That was that.
At each site, Mother sized up the situa-
tion in her own way, then pulled a mirac-
ulous medal from a sack and pushed it
into the dirt of the dosest flower bed. She
said a prayer asking the Blessed Mother to
help her make the right choice.
She eventually chose a large old home
owned by a parish in the inner city;, but
there are several other places where,
unbeknownst to the neighbors, she plant-
ed a seed of prayer to know God's will.
Here in Litde Rock the Missionaries of
Charity care for homeless women and then"
children. They also teach catechism and
Bible school, visit their neighbors and clean
their homes if they can't do it themselves,
and pray. Do you
know what they
really do? They
empty them-
selves. In the lan-
guage of the
Bible, that means
they give them-
selves without
expecting any-
thing in return.
In the letter
Bishop J. Peter Sartain to the Philippi-
ans (2:5-8), St.
Paul invites all Christians to follow the
example of Christ:
...who, though he was in the form of
God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness...
Though he was God, Christ became
incarnate to show us that the perfect
expression of human and divine life is to
put ourselves completely at the service of
one another, thinking of others' needs
before our own. We are to have the same
relationship of love with one another that
we have with Christ.
Mother Teresa was a striking example
of this kind of self-emptying. But you
mothers and fathers do the same, you
grandmothers and grandfathers, you sons
and daughters, you aunts and uncles, you
friends and neighbors, we priests, sisters,
brothers and deacons. No matter who we
are, the call of Christ is the same: to empty
ourselves, to give ourselves, to give up self-
ishness and think of others.
Mother Teresa reminded us how to do
that: one person at a time. Her ministry
began years ago when she took one dying
man off the streets of Calcutta and cared
for him in his last hours. One person at a
time her sisters play with little children,
clean the houses of the poor, bathe the
elderly, and clean the sores of lepers. One
person at a time they give of themselves,
empty themselves, and love others as
Christ Jesus.
Mother Teresa did not eradicate pover-
ty. She did not negotiate treaties for wodd
peace (though she held her own with the
world's most powerful leaders!). She did
not find a cure for AIDS. But she taught us
how to empty ourselves, one person at a
time, and thus bring Christ's healing to oth-
ers. Cathofic SodM Teaching reminds us
that we are also to work for changes in sys-
tems that perpetuate poverty and injustice,
and it is for that reason that our diocese
offers a variety of programs aimed at long-
term change. Those programs, and the way
of Mother Teresa, are complimentary.
Aren't there people we could love a lit-
de more cheerfully, to whom we could talk
for just a moment longer, to whom we
could give a word of encouragement? Isn't
there someone we need to call, just to see
how she's doing, just to ask how we can
help? Isn't there an errand we could run
for an elderly neighbor, a note we could
write to someone who just lost a loved one?
We empty ourselves one person at a time.
No doubt Mother Teresa also planted
seeds of prayer in the fower beds of Little
Rock. Her sisters continue to plant those
seeds through their work. We all plant the
seed of Christ Jesus whenever we empty
ourselves and serve,just as he did.
"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls to the ground and
dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; butif
it dies, it produces much fruit... Whoever
serves me must follow me, and where I
am, there also will my servant be" (John
12:24, 26).
_J
summer ,n my
think the one that affected us most was his love
ofmusic. He recognized Rosenaary's great tag 1-AThat is it about these days ofrailings draped with beach towels drying in August the unofficial iced tea month.
ent for music and right away found a teacher August that makes you want to the late day sun. course, to some it's simply "tea" for whO.°
for her, who to this day remains her friend. • • breathe them in and hold themAugust is hanging flower baskets overflow earth would ever consider drinking it win,
Rosemary shared her gift with me, teaching just a moment longer? More mature than ing with cascading ivy. It is family ,v' cations for out benefit of ice? And is it my imaginad°
me the joy of opera, symphonies, concertos. June, more robust than July, for me, the those who save the best for hst. It s summer or does that sole can of cold beveragee
And as we thought of Dad s birthday and the sights, sounds and smells of August have night curbside choice seem even colder yet in the hazy la i
pending dosing on the house, we felt the always been the crownjewel of the summer chats for neighbor- of a late August afternoon
happy~sad paradox we all encounter at times trilogy, hood kids still too Speaking of temps, while the sight
in our life: remembering how happy we made Being born in January, August birthdays young to drive, yet miniature September calendar tucked
Dad with our music in our house, ahousethat have always seemed enviably better than old enough to stay on the comer ofthe August page suhtlyl
would now belong to others, those celebrated in the colder, tundra cli- out until the street- of crisp mornings to come, any thoughtS
It took several months to find a buyer. But mates that characterize the first of the year. lights come on. cooler days ahead are all hut banished as
the man buying it is a father, tie wants the My 36-year-old cousin's August birthday is August is open- August sun swells in the sky to strut its_s
house for his son, who will be attending a something I covet to this very da) toe sandals, brown sweltering stuff. Then, just when you tlai ..i
pharmacy college about a half mile away. They Gardens, for those who unlike myself freckled faces, and you can t possibly stand one more was
have told our family that they love the house aren't soil and water-challenged, produce at little girls in sun conditioned August moment, brief, bleSSW
and plan to do some major, beautifying work Miracle-Gro rates during August. From azal- dresses. It is shirt- relief drifts in on an easy evemn breeZe..
-- " air
on it. When we heard this, Rosemary and l felt eas to zinnias, color abounds making August MlU" Ce|lant u$ less boys mowing .... Andyes, I know for manv of us thej ;_ r#u
r lawns It s the
our depression somewhat subsided. Could it a bee fest at its best. And the only thing bet- Ihe;ese Roh . of the school bell m just around the co
bejmt a coincidence that it is another father ter than biting into a big, fat, vine-ripened splash of driveway bringing with it a whole new slew of sclaet '
buying this house that our Dad so loved? tomato ever so lightly dusted with a shimmer swimming pools and wails of wet footprints ules and commitments, but that doesn't. . !
We think Dad had a hand in this. We think of salt? Biting into it a second time. making swift tracks toward the siren song of minute change the gifts Au,gus. t has to '
he had something to do with seeing to it that Swimming too is at its finest this month, the ice cream truck. Call me loopy, but there siust some
his house would notbe washedin anyway, that Be it of the chlorinated, garden-hosed, civiUy August is the blessing of attending week- special: almost golden, aboutt.his time
it would be occupied by people who care for engineered, or spring4ed variety, lazily float- day Mass, lingering afterward to visit for a few year. It s as ifwe rejnst now beginning to
it, as he did. hag in some August H20 (preferably in a minutes. It's taking a walk in the early our summer stride; just now beginning |
It's the end of an era when the family blackinner tube) isthe %aycoolest." evening to the steady beat of the cicada winddown, toslowdown ever so sligh%i |,
home is no longer there. But that's life, a August is drive-by lemonade standsdrums. It is heading out on the lake for a we but allow it Slow, deep, breath in. :i |
journo/, where we're ah ys moving on, but ma ..ed by three-foot-tall, vendor. It is spectacular sunset ow. slow, breath out..Augmt--you are awesO :
can,.our _with m. ..... ......... .vegetal . _eroponurt .. It !s If someone ham. t done ! vote Thenne .P, hr_um - from.. _ .......
