Lately, in my group of friends in Communion and Liberation,
the topic of the “gaze of Christ” has come up multiple times. How can I see Christ gently looking at me in
my daily life? How does He continue to
call me and to gently lead me through my daily experiences?
This question has become increasingly important to me in
recent days. After three extremely busy
weeks, I have moved back to Evansville,
IN, and taken a teaching job at a
wonderful elementary school with a beautiful parish. It has been very overwhelming and rushed,
with many things to do to prepare for the school year (which started a week and a half ago), as well as to move to a new city and a new home, unpacking boxes and
getting settled. It has become very easy
for me to get caught up in the busyness and the day-to-day of the working
world. But thankfully, I have friends to
remind me that it is in the everyday, in the simple gestures of this life, that
we can truly see Christ calling us.
Throughout this time, I have had so many gentle reminders of
His presence with me. Even when I forget
at times to turn to Him and thank Him for the gift of this job, the gift of a
friend to live with, the gift of a beautiful house to share with her, there are
little reminders to help me to stay on track.
I wanted to share just a few of the many little gestures, the times that
I have recognized the gaze of Christ upon me:
*When two friends came over late at night to help my
roommate to move her large furniture into the house (even after they had had a
busy day themselves)
*So many teachers have popped in to my room just to see how
I am doing and to see if I need anything
*A friend gave my roommate and I an amazing supply of
leftovers so that we could feed guests at our house. (He even brought a knife over later to cut a
watermelon for us!) From his perspective,
he probably just wanted to get rid of those leftovers! But for me, it was such a simple gesture of
charity, that true love of Christ that offers anything that He has for another.
*A 5th grade student in religion class, answering
the question “In 3 sentences, can you tell me who Jesus is to you?” reminded me
of the simple truth of my faith. Her
answer: “Jesus is the good inside of
everyone. Some people just forget about
it when they are mean. I believe that
everyone has the same amount of Jesus in them.
They just forget to show it.”
As St. Therese of Lisieux
said, we need to do small things with great love. Thank you to those who have reminded me, even
in this busy time of my life, that Christ is walking beside me, that His gaze is upon me, that I am not
alone, and that every thing that I do is for Him.
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