A Third World Close Moment

I had a "close moment" with students at Duke University whom I accompanied last month on a service project to Guatemala. Mitch, the student leader, sent me a post-trip reflection he wrote in which he mentioned a remark made by a fellow student who said, "It's nice that, here, our presence is enough." Mitch continues, "She said that at Duke, we are required to be intelligent, to present ourselves well, to be organized, to be extremely busy but not quite so busy that we can't handle it, and to be good at everything we do. In Lagunita Salvador, we did not need to be any of those things. Simply being present and showing our love meant everything. . ."

I got to thinking, and replied to Mitch, "I read your reflection, which was touching. I very much agree that being "present" is what counts. Learning that early is good, because being present to others helps us to be present to ourselves too, i.e. to appreciate that we can be ourselves and don't have to be somebody else. The third world dislodges us from our normal stance at the center of our own world, and helps us be happier (less pressured to be at the center) and more available to God's plan. There's the game of life in a nutshell, I would say!"

I was happy to be a part of their experience of growth, and Mitch's reflection was a welcome reminder to me of I need to go on these trips. It also reminded me of Guadium et Spes 24 (see below), which says that we discover ourselves by going out of ourselves to others.

(24. God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood. For having been created in the image of God, Who "from one man has created the whole human race and made them live all over the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26), all men are called to one and the same goal, namely God Himself.

For this reason, love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest commandment. Sacred Scripture, however, teaches us that the love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor: "If there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.... Love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law" (Rom. 13:9-10; cf. 1 John 4:20). To men growing daily more dependent on one another, and to a world becoming more unified every day, this truth proves to be of paramount importance.

Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.(2))"