Life is a Drama

Monica and Carlo spoke first of the difficult pregnancy and birth of their son Mateo who lived only 2 hours...

Monica and Carlo spoke first of the difficult pregnancy and birth of their son Mateo who lived only 2 hours. Monica spoke of how the doctors kept pushing her to terminate. What would be the use of giving birth to a child who would live such a difficult life if he would survive at all? They spoke of their longing to see, hold, love, and baptize their son. They clung to this need. So, dear little Mateo lived and was loved and embraced by the whole family so simply, with pain, but with a glowing tenderness. What use was this? In Italy a friend of theirs told this story to another friend who had never baptized her son and after hearing this was moved to tears and could not believe such tenderness existed and so, decided to baptize her child, or rather, was moved to baptize her child.

Maria then spoke of the difficult decision to take in three young sisters as foster children. She was honest and open about her trials and difficulties yet what was evident was her dependence on her friends to help keep her heart alive, begging, and loving, notwithstanding weakness, but inside the weakness, including the weakness. And one could see in this weary face a light shining so human, tender, and full of joy. She spoke of the fact that she could have come to the vacation by herself. Her husband was working at home and offered to keep the children so that she could enjoy the
vacation. Her heart rebelled and informed her that to not bring the children would be to depr

ive them of the same place, the same people, and the same history that brought her back to life many years ago -- that resurrected her! And it was amazing to watch her with these three young ones in tow in these days.

These two witnesses set the tone of the East coast vacation that took place over the July 4th weekend, when our nation celebrates its birth as freedom rings and explodes throughout the land! Against the backdrop of the recent Supreme Court decision, unrest in the Middle East, 200 people from NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, and CT travelled north to Stratton Mountain in Vermont. Why?

Why would families young and old travel and sacrifice their time and energy to vacation in this way?

One might get a clue to an answer to this question first in the people that gave of themselves so freely throughout this “sacred time” spent together to help with all of many details needed to guide such a large group of adults and children. Like the witnesses above, these people were moved by a love and passion to pitch in. There was Michele who spent the evenings after dinner playing with over 75 kids outside. They ran with abandon and shouted with glee for the fun they had as their parents got a break and were left to speak with friends after dinner. There were the young families, who gave their precious time to lead and organize the details of this gathering, preparing creative and fun games, scouting out beautiful hikes, and administering the daily routine with the management of the Black Bear Resort, where we stayed.

Rich, who lead this vacation for the first time, started out by saying he was well aware of his shortcomings for this task and that his yes to do this was a risk. Through the days he grew in confidence and led with his heartfelt desire and intelligence and was a sign to us all of one captured by the height width and breadth of the One among us.

But the children! What a sign in and of themselves. So many adults desired to stay with these children, not to help with organization but because they felt that all the children belonged to them; they wanted to love them and educate them to the same embrace that they experienced. Lisa and Naomi led a moment of prayer for the children in the morning and many more adults followed and pitched in throughout the day. For this reason the kids were happy to play together under the eyes of not only their parents but a stronger more secure wall of comfort, a people! So much so that Naomi mentioned that there were no child meltdowns!

The rest of us played games prepared for adults with the same joyful abandon. The games were super-creative this year; you would think that the Philadelphia community took two weeks off from work to prepare them! Their work was a balm to the many of us who have been through much: the financial crisis, illness, and the general struggle in life, who easily joined in playing silly games together, letting go, giving in.

Giving in to what? Chris the leader of the New York community and leader of the music for the vacation said that he found it a bit chaotic when things that were planned and then were changed suddenly due to circumstances such as the inevitable unpredictable weather. But I watched in amazement as he conceded to switch singing inside to go out to the people outside since they were enjoying themselves in the cool summer breeze and unwilling to move. There we sang with abandon as Chris “gave in”, suggesting all the songs we sang in our youth; i.e. Beatles, Monkeys, Credence and so on. Normally he would not enjoy this, but he too was swept up in the enthusiasm. We were singing like our first encounter. That is what we were giving in to. The joy of being One in Him, children running around and adults singing,

There were also moments that were culturally engaging. Chico, a reporter spoke about his reportage on the Middle East crisis and the existence of ISIS. But he spoke from a perspective we would not read in the papers. He went deeper into the type of mentality that animates the Middle East where religion and life is one thing not like here in the west. Afterwards a group of 20 people spontaneously gathered around him and to speak about the situation—til midnight, giving us much food for thought.

Angelo explained a bit about the DVD of Fr. Giussani’s life Il Pensiero, il Dicorsi, la Fede. Rich expressed his wonder and happiness in seeing his 6 year old son watch the whole thing, drawn by Fr. Giussani’s passion. Fr Giussani is an amazing storyteller. He brings the stories in the Gospel to vivid life and Rich’s son could pick up on this energy as we all did. I guess something like the children being drawn to Jesus.

Anujeet and Fr. Jose’, the leader of Communion and Liberation in the USA, initiated a discussion of work. This is kind of amazing; a group of hard working people would go on vacation and then sit engaged in such a discussion concerning work! The Christian concept of work as merit and not as desire for success highlighted the way all were working and living the vacation, as those who did the smallest task to the more prestigious work did so with the awareness of working for the kingdom and lived a fulfillment visible in the grace of their action.

Fr. Rich and Fr. Jose’ and all the priests gave lessons and homilies starting from their own experience and not ‘guiding us from above’, so to speak. Fr Rich spoke about his friendship with a seminarian that seemed a bit rebellious, which gave him cause for concern. Yet, what was more compelling was his change to become open to this young man’s journey with God and not to impose his ideas of how he should become a priest. In this way he could discover Christ at work and be freer in front of this friendship.

There was a kind of chaos one might expect from a large, possibly disparate group, but rules were not imposed to give order to it. Through the embrace and witness of those who were moved to sacrifice time and energy, the young faces like Silvia, Kevin, Stella, Tim, to name a few…it was easy to give in to His embrace through their simple offering.

The two witnesses, mentioned at the beginning, spoke of trial and tribulation but also of a hope bursting from inside of an unconquerable heart. The life we live does not preclude difficulty does not preclude being brought to our knees as one of us spoke of her upcoming surgery for breast cancer.
Fr Jose helped us by underlining that all of this life comes from His Presence, from the presence of Jesus who overcomes death. Nothing else explains this ability to fight for one’s pure desire for life, a life even in peril. Being brought to our knees is not a punishment but part of the journey to understand that life is given by Another. To experience this does not need our effort but our ‘yes’, like the 'yes' of Mary and Peter. This ‘yes’ leads to an experience of an explosion of our own life and of a people.
We experienced this the night before in watching the amazing July 4th fireworks explode in the heavens, and we experienced it in these days watching the amazing explosion of life unfold before us in these simple days together.

It has been impossible in these last few days of returning to the jungle of NYC, and to the chaos of the world, to not live with that experience resonating in my heart; to not feel the embrace in the midst of it all, to not experience the solid life of friendship and fraternity. Perhaps this is what the whole weary world waits for, this life, and this embrace!

His embrace!