Serving God

"How are you going to serve God through the work that you do?"

This is the question that Debbie Snapp of our Catholic Social Services office shared during the Catechist Formation classes, and the questions that I reflected on in my last column. Today, I would like to expound on this.

Four years ago, Debbie began a program called "JustFaith" at the Cathedral. Since this time several other parishes throughout the diocese have also begun the program. My wife Pam and I participated in JustFaith the first year it was offered. During this time one of the biggest challenges I faced was gaining a clearer understanding of "Charity vs. Justice". It has always been easy for me to help that needy person standing on the corner or at the entrance to Wal-Mart. This simply is part of who I am and how I was raised. But what I quickly learned in JustFaith, was that this is charity. Not a bad thing, but we must look deeper in order to focus on Justice. When we focus on justice we are then addressing the reason why these people are standing on the corner in the first place. We must address the reason why our world is faced with poverty and oppression.

From this, I am drawn to a statement that was made during the Stewardship Day in August. The comment was this: "If we want our young people to get involved, we need to send them on mission trips." A very good statement and to some extent, very true. We do have several parishes that take annual mission trips, and the young people who are part of these have very powerful experiences.

But for a mission trip to truly be successful, more needs to be done. Just to involve our young people in the mission trips or the service projects is one thing. This involvment is the immersion part of the experience. A good thing and part of it, but there also has to be a time of reflection and follow-up once the group returns home. I believe very strongly that it is this follow-up -- this time of reflection -- that allows our young people to continue making a difference and working toward life long changes, helping bring about true justice.

For myself, I need to place greater emphasis on this element. Part of our schedule for the past two high school youth rallies has been to go out into the Dodge City community and do service projects. These have been very successful, but we could have done a better job on the reflection and follow-up afterwards. Also at the end of this month, 67 young people and 20 adults will be attending the NCYC (National Catholic Youth Conference) in Atlanta. During this three-day conference our young people are going to experience, witness and to some extent be exposed to many different justice issues. My hope is that each of them will return home to their parish, school and community, and continue to reflect on what they have experienced. And through this reflection become more involved in the life of their parish and community, and make a greater difference in the lives of many through this experience.

However, for this to happen, they need the help of many adults who are willing to help them with this reflection. This is where you come in. You are serving God and others through the work you do. How then can you help these young people do the same?