Young Life and the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus

Charles de Foucauld was a lot like the kids we work with every day.  He was dealt some tough cards.  He was orphaned at the age of six.  Without care and support, he was easily tempted by base pleasures and easy living.  He lost his faith in adolescence.  And he was no stranger to failure.  Indifferent about school, he failed as a student.  Following in the footsteps of his grandfather who raised him he sought a career in the military but was kicked out.  He had little direction. 

Then he met Jesus Christ.  In a tale all too eerily similar to my own, he was dramatically impacted by the piety of simple Muslims in Morocco and fell headlong back in love with Jesus and his Catholic faith.  His life would never be the same.

Inspired by the witness of Jesus Christ, Foucauld committed his life to poverty, service and solidarity with the lost.  He became a priest and set out to embody the humble life of his Savior.  Setting up camp in a remote oasis in the Algerian desert, Foucauld spent the rest of his life establishing a “ministry of presence” among the poor and oppressed.  “Let us mingle with them,” he said.  “Let us be one of them.”    

He was eventually killed in that remote village by Taureg rebels who misunderstood him.  His plan to start a society of “Little Brothers” who would follow him and the example of Jesus did not come to fruition.  It seemed as if he failed yet again. 

Seventeen years after his death, however, four companions inspired by the humble life of Charles de Foucauld left their comfortable worlds and headed into the Sahara Desert.  Though he was not alive to see it, the Little Brothers of Jesus was formed and Foucauld’s dream had come true. 

All over the world, in forgotten corners that we'll never know about, multitudes of Little Brothers (and now Sisters) of Jesus labor quietly among the lost and marginalized today.  Surely the words of their founder, someone they never met, ring out daily in their heads, “The whole of our existence, the whole of our lives should cry the Gospel from the rooftops. . .not by our words but by our lives.”

Sounds a lot like Young Life.