Peace! Sr. Jaime professed her first vows on September 10, 2015. Our friend Fr. Rob Schultz, Pastor of St. Beatrice Parish in Schiller Park, IL, wrote an article for their local news magazine, People and Places. Here is the transcript of Fr. Rob’s article, which mentions Sr. Jaime. Thanks Fr. Rob!
COMMITMENT IS NOT A DIRTY WORD, by Fr. Rob Schultz
If you’re like me, you sometimes look around and ask, “What has the world come to?” You may have your own list of things that would cause you to ask a question like that. One such thing that prompted me to ask that question was a news story last month about a website (I don’t want to use their name and give them any free publicity). This website made the news because it had been hacked and its members’ personal information was compromised. But that’s not why I bring it up here. What I want to focus on is what kind of website it is. Apparently this site offers married people a discreet way to meet other married people and have an affair. In fact, the tagline of the site is: “Life is short. Have an affair.” And in the name of the website, in place of the letter “O” is an image of a wedding ring. And that’s when I asked myself, “What has the world come to?”
Now, you might say, “C’mon, Father, that’s the world today. People ‘get together’ with each other through social media all the time.” But while there may be truth to that (e.g., Facebook is increasingly listed as a cause for divorce), the primary purpose of social media is not to elicit affairs and break up marriages. But that seems to be precisely what this website is all about – it was created specifically to enable people to cheat on their spouses. And so again I ask, “What has the world come to?”
And yet, I also think that we should not really be surprised at something like this, especially when we increasingly see popular media portraying sex as simply a one-night stand, as something recreational, as something with no strings attached. The whole notion of commitment is absent from the popular culture’s view of sex. In fact, you could say that “commitment” has become a dirty word.
But as with everything I write here, my point is not to dwell on the negative, because as a person of faith I believe that the light is always stronger (and much more attractive) than the darkness. So, where can we see light in the notion of commitment?
How about a certain Mass that takes place at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral every year. It is a Mass celebrated by the Archbishop to honor and bless all couples celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and who were married within the Chicago Archdiocese. Every year the Cathedral is packed for this Mass, so much so that the couples are not allowed to invite other family members to join them. And every year the Archdiocesan newspaper publishes quotes from some of these couples regarding their opinion on how to make it to 50 years of marriage. Some of the quotes from this year’s couples include:
“You’ll have your ups and downs, but love and your faith in each other will keep you going. Sometimes you have to grin and bear it, more or less. Say, ‘I’m sorry.’”
“Neither one of us considered divorce, because we made a commitment ‘for better or for worse.’”
“Saying I’m sorry goes a long way, even if you feel you’re in the right. If it’s hard to say it out loud, put it in writing. It always helps to seal it with a kiss and a hug.”
“You have to have commitment to do everything in life. When you have faith, you can call on God to help.”
There’s that word again, “commitment,” a word that popular culture seems to either not understand or simply wants nothing to do with it.
Another way that the light of commitment shines in the darkness is through those who give their lives to God, whether through ordination or consecrated life (also known as religious life, i.e., nuns, sisters, and brothers). In fact, Pope Francis declared that a Year of Consecrated Life be observed from Nov. 30, 2014 to Feb. 2, 2016 to celebrate and draw attention to those who embrace a life of poverty, chastity and obedience in order to serve God and others.
One of those people is Sr. Jaime, a friend of mine from a prayer group to which I belong. On Sep. 10, 2015 Sr. Jaime professed her first vows with the religious community of the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago (she is pictured below at the First Vows Mass; she is the fourth one from the left). This community lives and works at Mission Our Lady of the Angels on Chicago’s west side, in one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. By taking her first vows, Sr. Jaime publicly committed to spending one year living and working with the Franciscans to serve the poor, and if God calls her she will eventually take her final vows with the community. In other words, she will commit the rest of her life to serving God as a Franciscan sister. And incidentally, I believe that she will take her final vows, because when I spoke to her before the Mass, even though she was nervous, she talked about being filled with joy, and you could see that joy on her face.
I contend that that kind of joy comes from commitment, from a willingness to commit to something outside of yourself, something larger than your own needs and desires. That can happen in marriage; that can happen in a life serving God; that can happen in many other ways, but the key is that it requires commitment.
Commitment is not meant to be a dirty word. It is meant to be a joyful word.