God at the Crossroads: Young Life and the Catholic Church in the Rio Grande Valley

Virgilio Elizondo, the famous Mexican American priest and theologian widely renowned as the founder of U.S. Latino theology, once asked, “Do you want to see, understand, and appreciate Jesus today?” He continued, “Then enter into the lives of those who are living similar experiences and struggles, those living in the ‘Galilees’ of this world, those living in the margins and crossroads. ”[1] Last week I found myself in just such a place, and no doubt I saw the face of Jesus.

Last week marked the second great phase in the important missionary partnership between Young Life and the border territories of the Diocese of Brownsville, TX. I was there alongside local Young Life and diocesan staff, to extend Bishop Flores’ vision that every kid in the valley would know Christ personally and reconnect to their Catholic faith community. An invitation was made to every Catholic priest, youth minister, volunteer and parent: Come and see how we can reach a world of kids in the Valley together.

Flying down I wondered whether anyone would show. I tried to envision what it would feel like to present this YL-Catholic initiative to a group of five people, ten people, maybe fifteen. I wondered whether this message would be met with resistance or indifference. I wondered, after all this work and investment, if God was really with us.

I was not prepared for the response.

More than one hundred of the warmest, liveliest, most humble, most wholehearted people gathered to listen, with great earnest, to the vision of Young Life and the Catholic Church working hand-in-hand for the gospel. In this forgotten frontier, in this place that is more than 95% Catholic, God’s presence took on flesh with smiling faces and bright, receptive eyes. God had not forgotten us. God was revealing himself to us.

Elizondo’s greatest insight, one that he spent a lifetime exploring, was that God was making a point when he chose the forgotten crossroads of Galilee to reveal himself. It was not in the political powers of Rome. It was not in the intellectual centers of Alexandria. “When God became human, he became a marginal, Galilean Jew, a village craftsman living on the periphery of the political, intellectual, and religious powers of the world.”[2]

These border towns of southern Texas are modern-day Galilees, veritable crossroads of culture, where Christ’s body is coming together. In Elizondo’s words, “these diverse peoples encounter one another not to fight, humiliate, or exclude one another, but to form new friendships, new families, and new beginnings.”[3]

Each of those 100+ people were invited to enter into a joint YL-Catholic leader training program where they will learn to walk side-by-side into the world of lost kids. Together we will learn to proclaim the gospel in a way kids understand. Together we will love kids in a way that embodies our message. And together we will reveal this place for what it really is – a modern-day Galilee, a crossroads where God has shown his face.

This picture was taken in Harlingen, just one of our meeting locations in the Rio Grande Valley

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[1] Virgilio Elizondo, A God of Incredible Surprises: Jesus of Galileee, Landham, MD.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

[2] Virgilio Elizondo, “Jesus the Galilean Jew in Mestizo Theology,” Theological Studies 70 (June 2009), 273. Virgilio Elizondo is a Mexican-American pastor and theologian widely renowned as the founder of U.S. Latino theology. He joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame in 1999 where he continues to teach as the Notre Dame Professor of Pastoral and Hispanic Theology and Fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies. His primary residence is San Antonio where he serves as parochial vicar of St. Rose of Lima parish.

[3] Ibid.

Catholic Reflections from Young Life Camp

This blog post was written by my lovely wife, Tasha, who spent the last week with me and 36 other guests at the Catholic Adult Guest Camp at Timber Wolf Lake, a Young Life camp in Michigan. Tasha serves as the director of evangelization and discipleship at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church and is also a professional photographer (although she would like it known that the beautiful picture below was taken by Kelsey Jenney, the camp speaker).

It’s quiet at Timber Wolf Lake.  The ten minutes of silence is finishing up and I finally gained a few minutes of solitude to myself.  Chasing our three children around while being here has proven to be a daunting task, a reality that hit me hard once again this morning.  Every year it's the same thing, the anticipation for an incredible week of camp and the amnesia of what it really means to be a staff person’s spouse when they have a role at camp I'm trying to wrangle three small children.  Oy vey. 

And yet today we hit our groove.  We enjoyed free time, conquered the zip line with both our six and three year olds, and managed some much needed rest for my soul and solitude with the Lord.  As I went back early and was putting kids to bed tonight I had some time to just think about all of this…

My life has been changed because of Christ.  That is completely transparent.  It’s who I am, it’s how I desire to live, and it informs my vocation in life.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to walk this world without Him.

And my heart has been filled because of Young Life.  I don’t know why I got lucky enough to experience what this mission is, to enjoy such kingdom living here on earth.  Michael said tonight, “It was a unmerited gift of God to be introduced to Young Life sixteen years ago (when he first went on staff),” and he is so right.  It has been a total gift to our life and our family.

It’s not Young Life in and of itself that is so powerful.  It’s not an organization or a mission statement.  It’s not even fancy buildings or intricately designed schedules. 

It’s an incarnational culture that is palpable.  It’s walking around outside and seeing people spontaneously praying for each other.  It’s meeting someone for the first time and they engage you with questions about your life.   It’s meeting someone for the first time and one of their initial questions is curiosity about how you came to know the Lord. It is FUN.  It is full of life and it is all about Jesus. 

I didn’t get this growing up.  I had an incredible Catholic upbringing and I knew who God was…but I didn’t get these messages about Jesus that cut right to the heart… messages that break through all the bondage and help me understand who He really is.  I didn’t know that I needed Jesus every day…in every relationship…not just in Mass or in a Catholic retreat or service trip.  And when those worlds came together I started to grasp living my Catholic Christianity…

As I was putting Jackson to bed tonight I talked to him about how tonight some kids would have quiet time with Jesus for the first time.  I also told him that some people here didn’t know Jesus, or didn’t have him in their hearts.  He was shocked.  “Really mom?  Like who?” 

“Well buddy we don’t really know who but we just know that they are out there.  We have to pray that God will open them up to receive him tonight.  We want everyone to have Christ in their hearts.”

Tonight my prayer was just that.  My prayer was that all these kids would just know and experience an ounce of that life-changing love of Jesus.  That they would feel pursued by God.  That they would sit in that silence and let go of all the lies and know the truth of Jesus message for them.

And I was brought to tears at the realization of how many kids will know that tonight.  Because they have been brought along by a leader, because they have been sought out, pursued, and known by someone who didn’t have to reach out to them.  Because they heard an incredible message.  Because they laughed in complete freedom for the first time in a long time this week.  Because they put away their cell phones and all the technology that gets in the way of real relationships.  Because they were able to walk away from all that may have once kept them in bondage.  Because they looked around and saw beauty like they’ve never seen it before.  Whatever has brought them to these ten minutes of silence, I prayed that Jesus would engulf them with love.  And I knew before I even said that prayer, that He was doing so at that very moment.  

We have had the incredible privilege of bringing some of our friends from back home to camp with us this week.  Catholic friends who we have been walking with in a couples study for almost a year.  Our priest, our youth minister, a teacher from our Catholic high school…and it’s like the Gospel message.  When you’ve experienced something this good (the way Christianity is lived out so authentically in Young Life) you just want to share it with those you love.  That is what this week has been.  Watching our friends and their kids experience the love of Jesus through the mission of this organization.  Amazing.

No one organization is perfect.  No one mission is complete.   Every institution in some sense will fall short because it is made up of sinners…but this Young Life mission that emphasizes the centrality of Jesus Christ has given my heart an understanding of how to love people and orient my heart to Jesus and it has enlivened my Catholic faith.  For that I am grateful. 

Last night as my son went to bed he was talking about one of his friends who had a rough day and was struggling with his time at camp.  Jackson says, “Mom this is the best place on earth because it’s all about the most important person…Jesus.”

Amen Jackson.  Amen. 

“For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity-the man Christ Jesus.  He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.  This is the message that God gave to the world at just the right time…”  1 Timothy 2:5-6

I Am Responsible

A friend of mine is a recovering alcoholic. He tells me that on the wall of many AA meeting rooms hangs a statement. It reads:

I am Responsible.

When anyone, anywhere

Reaches out for help,

I want the hand of AA to be there.

And for that: I am responsible.

Like many aspects of the 12-step program, this simple statement holds profound truth and power. It recognizes that I am my brother’s keeper. It proclaims that God, in the face of the skeptic’s scoffing, did do something about the world’s suffering. God created you and me. Put simply, it accepts responsibility.

There’s a lot of analysis out there about the current state of affairs of the Church. Pew Research Center, the Gallup Poll, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), have all placed empirical numbers behind the commonplace hunch that in the desacralizing face of postmodernism the Church’s efforts to evangelize (it’s fundamental raison d’etre) aren’t going very well.

Let me state as an emphatic caveat that I am both indebted to and grateful for the rise of religious research and the contributions this body of literature makes to the proclamation of the gospel. I am both a researcher and a student of research. I love the stuff. I’m fully onboard. Yet I fear that for many, and I can say this of myself even, this bourgeoning corpus of statistics isn’t bringing us any closer to addressing the problem. We can slice and dice the data but it doesn’t mean we’re doing anything about it. The overabundance of analysis brings more paralysis than apostolic action.

Pope Francis warns against an unhealthy Church “clinging to its security” and getting “caught up in a web of procedures.”[1] I wonder if he might say that same thing about all our impressive statistics. While we’re “in here” crunching all our numbers and arguing about interpretations, there are millions “out there” dying on the streets and losing hope in the dignity of life. “If something should rightly disturb and trouble our consciences,” Pope Francis exhorts, “it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life.”[2]

Perhaps an AA meeting might do us all good. What if every Christian, everywhere would accept responsibility for his brothers and sisters, those people in their daily sphere of influence who are quietly drifting, who are silently suffering, who need someone to talk to? What if on the wall of every Christian home hung a sign that said:

I am responsible.

When anyone, anywhere

Reaches out for help

I want the hand of Chris’s body to be there.

And for that: I am responsible.

It is much easier to pontificate over numbers than it is to pick up the phone, hop in the car, physically GO to where real people are, and engage “the other” in the name of Jesus. Yet we must call. We must go. We must embrace and love and forgive and comfort and challenge. We must, in the final analysis, take responsibility.

I believe God is calling every one of us. No one is exempt. No one is forgotten. And I can do no better than Bohemian-Austrian novelist Rainer Maria Rilke who wrote this haunting poem entitled “Go to the Limits of your Longing”:

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

Then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall

Go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like flame

And make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going.

No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

 If you're ready to be responsible, so am I. Give me your hand. We'll do this together.

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[1] Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), 49.

[2] Ibid.

Playing With Children, Dancing With God

I played with the children this morning. We ran around the trampoline. We hit whiffle balls with golf clubs. We wrote on the driveway with chalk. When they got cranky we had a snack. My youngest son took a nap. My three and six year old played with water on the deck. Now they’re in the tree fort.

When given the space, children do things that we don’t naturally do. They march in circles. They sing. They pick dandelions in the yard. They throw those helicopters into the air, ya know the ones that fall from trees? They imagine that they’re in a boat, even if they’re just sitting in the grass.

They fight sometimes. But they generally know right from wrong. When I asked Addie why Jackson was upset with her, she said it was because she had three fish and he only had one. I asked her what would happen if she gave one fish to Jackson. She said that they both would have two. I asked if that was fair. She got a big smile on her face and ran out onto the deck and gave Jackson one fish. 

Jesus was constantly trying to tell everyone to be like children. Children seem to have a knack for showing us the face of God. But we’re often too busy, too sophisticated, or too important to see Him. Children don’t know the difference between transubstantiation and consubstantiation but they know what love is. They might be mad at you for at 7:00 when you tell them they can’t have candy for breakfast, but they forgive you by 7:15 when you get down on the floor and roll around with them like, well, a child.

I read a poem this morning that reminded me of being a child. It was written by a little boy who had a terrible disease and didn’t live very long. But he could “see” better than most of the adults I know. It’s called “Angel-Wings”:

This morning, I smelled something very good.

Perhaps, it was a rainbow.

Or maybe, it was a dinosaur smile.

Or even, a seashell.

I am not sure what I smelled.

And I am not sure what rainbows

Or dinosaur smiles

Or seashells

Smell like.

But I’m sure they smell wonderful.

Wonderful and special

Like the smell of Angel-Wings.

But also,

I’m sure they smell a little sad,

Because we can’t really smell a rainbow,

Or a dinosaur smile,

Or a seashell,

Or especially,

We can’t really smell

The wonderful smell

Of Angel-Wings.[1]

My children are playing. They are beckoning me to see, to hear, to feel, to taste, and yes, to smell the wonderful presence of God. Lord, let me say yes. Let me say yes to the glorious invitation that you give us in children.

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[1] Mattie Stepanek lived only thirteen years, suffering from a rare form of muscular dystrophy. In that time he published five best-selling volumes of poetry, penned peacemaking essays that influenced international leaders, and wrote the lyrics for an award-winning country album. See Mattie J. T. Stepanek, Heartsongs (NY: VSP Books, 2001), 9.

Young Life and Catholic Diocese Sign Historic Missional Agreement

This week marks an exciting new chapter in the relationship between Young Life and the Catholic Church. On Tuesday, the Most Reverend Daniel Flores, bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas signed a collaborative agreement with Young Life to “Reach a World of Kids” together – introducing teens to Jesus Christ, helping them grow in their faith, and guiding them back to their respective faith communities. This groundbreaking event represents the first time in history that a Catholic diocese and Young Life have formally united to share in the great call to reach “every kid, everywhere” together with the gospel.

In his address to the assembly of diocesan priests (numbering nearly 100), Bishop Flores noted, “We’re breaking some ground that hasn’t been broken in the relationship between the Catholic Church and Young Life. I’m very grateful that the Lord has given us this chance to move forward.” His comments were received warmly by a presbyterate grounded in a long legacy of missionary zeal.  

While the bishop acknowledged the significance of the signed agreement, his remarks made it clear that the enduring merits of this relationship will flow from its ability to impact the lives of kids. “There are a great number of young people in our diocese that may have a vague sense of faith, but are yet unconnected,” Bishop Flores explained. “These kids are vulnerable.”

The bishop then challenged his priests, with the warmth and collegiality of the Good Shepherd, to take on the mantle of their missionary call. He continued:

We as a diocese need to be more proactive in attending to the great number of young people who are unconnected to anything. This is the great challenge here. They are lost. They need to hear that there’s somebody to help them get connected to the Lord and to the Church.

“That’s why I think this relationship [with Young Life] is so important,” Bishop Flores reflected. “Young Life is an organization that has a long history in the United States, announcing the kerygma and, through a process of friendship and accompaniment, getting teens connected back to their faith tradition.” A vision was cast of the hand-and-glove relationship between Young Life and the Catholic Church, each contributing something essential, yet working together as one body in Christ.

The Diocese of Brownsville recognized Young Life’s unique position to reach lost teenagers, those who are disconnected from and disinterested in church. But what happens after the faith of those teens is rekindled? Where do they go from there? Bishop Flores noted, “We can’t just say to kids, ‘The Catholic parish is over there, so go,’ because they may go and they may knock on the door but they may not get a very welcome reception." He went on to stress the need for Catholic leaders working in the mission of Young Life to serve as bridges back to the Church. "As the Holy Father insists, and this is just the Gospel, ‘Evangelization happens when you know somebody who can receive and welcome you, and then accompany you as you become integrated into the faith community.’”

I’m immensely grateful for the ecumenical acumen and personal friendship of Bishop Flores and his diocesan staff. Their pioneering spirit and missionary tenacity corresponds to the primary focus of Pope Francis as he leads the Catholic Church to “get involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; bridge distances, and touch the suffering flesh of Christ in others.”[1]

This is the call of the new evangelization. Today begins a new era for Young Life and the Catholic Church to embrace this sacred call together.

Pete Johnson (left), Regional Director for Young Life's Lone Star Region

Most Rev. Daniel E. Flores (center), Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, TX

Michael Havercamp (right), YL National Liaison to the Catholic Church

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[1] Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), 24.

Risen Life

"Arise, shine; for they light is come,

and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

Isaiah 60:1

The Call comes on this My Day for all who love Me, to arise from earth-bands, from sin, and sloth and depression, distrust, fear, all that hinders the Risen Life. To arise to Beauty, to Holiness, to Joy, to Peace, to work inspired by Love and Joy, to rise from death to Life.

Remember that death was the last enemy I destroyed. So with death My Victory was complete. You have nothing then to fear. Sin, too, is conquered and forgiven, as you live and move and work with Me. All that depresses you, all that you fear, are powerless to harm you. They are but phantoms. The real forces I conquered in the wilderness, the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Cross, in the Tomb.

Let nothing hinder your Risen Life. “Risen with Christ,” said my servant Paul. Seek to know more and more of that Risen Life. That is the Life of Conquest. Of that Risen Life was it truly said: “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Fear and despair and tears come as you stand by the empty Tomb. “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.”

Rise from your fears and go out into the sunlight to meet Me, your Risen Lord.[1]

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[1] This beautiful reflection was discerned by “two listeners” in England in the early 1930s. See A. J. Russell (ed), God Calling (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour Publishing, 1998).