As American as humble pie
Editor’s Note: The following is from the Jan. 11 issue of the
Catholic Anchor, newspaper of the Archdiocese of
“Yeeeeoooooowwwww!”
My girlfriend of the
time ran screaming from the creek and inside the girls’ cabin.
It was the middle of
winter, in the mountains, with snow, and we had just finished swimming in the
creek.
The swim wasn’t
youthful exuberance. Okay, it was a little, but we also swam for a good
purpose. Really.
All of us college kids
had spent the day putting up insulation in an elderly woman’s house, and we
needed to clean off the fiberglass fragments.
We swam in a creek
because it was Appalachia, and we were trying to live poverty, while doing
social justice work at Nazareth Farm, a Catholic volunteer group in
I recalled that trip
of several years back, when Bonnie Cler recently
shared some of her experiences as a member of the Anchorage Archdiocese Global
Solidarity Partnership delegation to the
It was not, however, a
chance to relax at a five-star spa in a tropical Pacific-rim resort.
Social justice and
community service have always played an important role in my life, which is
why, several years ago, I spent part of Christmas
break volunteering at the Nazareth Farm.
Once, I remember
telling my father that I was thinking of becoming a cop. I didn’t realize it
was possible to snort a tea bag through your nose by laughing.
“Sorry, son,” he said,
wiping the tea off his shirt. “I picture you more the type to put a flower in
the barrel of a gun, rather than wield one.”
Thanks a lot, Dad!
Every family has a black sheep; apparently among the DeCranes,
I’m the tie-dyed one.
Social justice and
community service are important for Catholics -- but it is crucial to remember
why. It’s not something we do to feel good, but to fulfill our Catholic duty to
care for our brothers and sisters, and to truly understand them and advocate
for them, just as we would our own family.
That’s where humility
comes in.
Nazareth Farm asked
its volunteers to live in poverty, like those we served. Hence the 30-degree
bath to get insulation off, or using a bucket of rainwater to flush a toilet.
Tough? Yes.
Humiliating? Yes, but
also a chance to really walk in someone else’s shoes. It also helps you realize
what’s most meaningful. Unlike an iPod that dies
after hours of use, relationships endure.
I look at Christ, our
king, who was born in a manger as the ultimate lesson of what’s important. I
was touched to see real joy in the eyes of Filipino priest Father Ben Torreto as he talked about Alaskans who traveled to the
As a priest on loan to