What a Life! for February 17-21, 2007

Last month, President Bush invited Shannon Hickey, founder of Mychal’s Message, to attend his State of the Union address. At the age of eleven, Shannon started a nonprofit organization to further the legacy of her favorite priest, Father Mychal Judge, the Franciscan chaplain for the New York Fire Department who was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when debris from the World Trade Center hit him.

Mychal’s Message is dedicated to continuing the work of Father Judge by meeting the needs of the homeless and sharing his message of unconditional love. Mychal’s Message began in January 2002, when Shannon marked the 11th anniversary of her lifesaving liver transplant as a baby. Instead of gifts, she asked for socks for the homeless. To date, Mychal’s Message has collected and distributed more than 100,000 new items to the homeless and poor. Shannon is currently in 11th grade at Lancaster Catholic High School in Pennsylvania.

God calls each of us to be a presence of love in the world. Loving should be at the heart of our lives. Yet, some things can prevent us from bringing our love to others. One such thing is fear. We are often afraid to give our love because we are afraid of the consequences. Love can cost us dearly.

When we reach out in love to others, we can encounter all kinds of dangers. When we love, we give up the illusion that we are in complete control of our lives. When we open ourselves to love, we can be hurt by those who might reject us, criticize us, judge us, try to possess us, or use us.

C.S. Lewis put it this way: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. In that casket n safe, dark, motionless, airless n it will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable . . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell.” (The Four Loves)

We were made in the image of a God who is love. God created us to reach out to others in love. When we hold back that desire, we are negating our very reason for living. When we refuse to love, we become loveless and very unattractive. Who wants to be associated with an inhuman human being?

We need to overcome this fear of loving. In our lifetime we find ourselves involved with all kinds of people. God calls us to love every one of these brothers and sisters who may cross our path. The temptation is to save our love only for a few. We might think that it is too much of an effort to love everyone. However, we do not choose whom we are going to love. God calls us to love everyone. If we have any hate or indifference within us, then we are not like God, who is pure love.

In our relationships, some will be deeper than others. Yet, the same basic call to love is present in every relationship. Love exists inside us, not somewhere out there. We need to expand the circle of our love so that it excludes no one. In other words, we need to love as Jesus loved. He loved all and forgave all. As St. Paul says, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”