When she had completed her 25th year, she said she had felt burnt
out. She was busy, she was tired, she was working hard. But it
seemed year after year was just flowing one year into another. There were
lots of kids in CCD, but few at Mass. The Parish School was getting
smaller and fears that it would close were becoming more real. The parish
itself seemed “stuck”. So she had gone to this conference sponsored by
“Renewal Ministries.” The goal of Renewal Ministries is to help
Catholics discover or recover an appreciation of the love that Jesus Christ has
for them individually. With the goal that once they’ve met Jesus or come to
know him more intimately, more personally – the response is people want to grow
in holiness themselves.
After this conference, this particular religious ed professional
said she had an earth-shattering realization. She went up to one of the
presenters whom she had been listening to all weekend, and said that after 25
years of service she didn’t believe that she had ever brought a single person
into relationship with Jesus Christ.
Imagine that? There’s a part of us that wants to dismiss
that saying she’s being hyper-critical of herself. But she was brutally
honest saying the kids looked cute at their First Communion; the young men and
women behaved appropriately at their Confirmations. But for her, when she heard
the Gospel presented to her anew. When she heard the story afresh of how
Jesus Christ has this personal, intimate love for her, that were she the only person to have ever lived in the whole world, he
would still accept the Passion, the Cross, the Death for her – that’s how much God loves her
– she realized that she and all of those with her in her parish had lost sight
of what was essential in the faith. In the process they had taken all
these other beautiful, important things of our faith and in a sense made them
empty.
She went back to her parish and with her Pastor and her Bishop’s
approval, they simply asked over and over “Is Jesus Christ the Lord of my Life?”
“Is He the Lord of this Classroom?” “This parish group?” “This school?”
If He wasn’t, then they made Him such, or they got rid of it. Within 5
years the parish had been transformed. The school went from near closing
to having a waiting list. The Parish was thriving in every way
imaginable.
When we find the “treasure” – When we find the “pearl of great
price”: – When we truly believe what we say we believe and realize that
nothing else compares to it… nothing else matters, even remotely in importance,
then we start to see, experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and
in the lives of all those around us. That one woman felt convicted in her
heart that Jesus wasn’t Lord of her life or her parish, so she made him
it. She might have doubted she brought people to Christ before, but ever
since, Jesus had changed her and many others lives.
