O.M.G...you’re a nun!
First stage of the return to Ottawa is completed and I am
sitting here in the Porter lounge waiting for my connection to Montreal. I have
to be honest, when I board a flight, I am always weary who is going to end up
sitting beside me. I’m a bit of a nervous flyer especially for take-off and
landing and believe me, there are many decades of the Rosary said during the
flight. So I took my seat and hoped for the best. Shortly afterwards, a very
official looking business man, probably in his late thirties, sat down beside
me and introduced himself as Julian. He took out his magazine, some financial
magazine with a headline reading ‘Become rich and retire’, catching my eye. That
was about the height of the niceties until I took off my coat, to which I got
the reaction (loud reaction!): “O.M.G, you’re a nun!”. He obviously saw my
cross. Half the passengers on the plane turned around. Yes, he did actually
say, ‘O.M.G’.
Throughout the flight, the presence of my flight companion
did give me food for thought. What is it that makes us happy? Is it all really
about working hard throughout life so as to have lots of money to retire in
luxury? Here was a young guy obviously focused in life but was he happy? In the
same vein, I thought how people must think that religious life is so bizarre.
First of all, we don’t get to retire! (at least in our Congregation, there will
always be need for people to pray before the Eucharist and intercede for the
world!). The concept of being rich is understood purely in a spiritual sense for the
riches we aspire towards are out of this world (literally!) More than likely I
will go to the grave penniless because anything I own belongs to the Congregation. Some
people feel sorry for us because of our vow of poverty. Often I hear it said: “It
must be terrible to not be able to buy X, Y, Z”. The poverty we live in
religious life is a poverty which ensures we entrust ourselves to the God of
Providence. We don’t lack anything but we are always asked to be rendered
accountable for all that we have and that includes our time, gifts and talents.
It is about stewardship in all things. There is a phrase in our Rule of Life
referring to poverty which reads: “We live simply so that others may simply
live”. To live simply is very freeing because the greatest benefit is that you
can appreciate the little things in life which are more than often the big
things in life.
About half-way into the flight, my flight companion turned to
me and began a conversation. At least this time he spoke a little bit quieter! “So
tell me about this nun-stuff”, he said. “Are you a real nun?” Guessing this
wasn’t the time for semantics, I tried to explain a little about religious life
and the ‘nunhood’(his words, not mine!). Apparently I was the first ‘real live
nun under 90’ he had met (again, his words...and probably exaggerated at
that!). As the conversation went along, I sensed a deep hunger for truth and
meaning together with disillusionment with the structures and ministers
of the Church. During this Year of Faith, I continue to think about the mustard
seed which is present in every person which can be watered with even just a few
drops of water of dialogue, encouragement, listening and good will of another.
We have many opportunities to welcome grace in its many forms, many of them
hidden. Today, I was grateful to be able to give witness to religious life...and
I am grateful for Julian, wherever he is! It is the questions of others which
spur us to ‘be prepared to give account of the hope that is in you’ (1 Pet
3:15). So Julian continued upon his way and I continued onwards to find my connecting flight...both of us pilgrims on the journey!
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