The spirit at work
One of the most significant periods in my life was when I worked as a Marianist brother in Korea for 12 years. While I was there I was very much involved in helping to pass on the charism of Marianist religious life to another generation in another culture. This deepened my own experience of what it meant to be a Marianist religious in the Catholic Church today.
They say that once you teach something that is when you learn it. One of the classes I taught in the formation program of the novices was “Marianist History.” An important part of our heritage is that the Society of Mary originated from a lay movement. We are a people of faith who follow Jesus after the example of Mary in our service to others. Inspired by the works of our founder, Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, who strove to rebuild the church in post-revolutionary France, we share as people of community and as leaders in mission in the work of bringing Christ to the world.
I felt a real sense of generativity in religious life through teaching. Here, there were young people with whom I could share things that were important to me. In turn, I saw them taking that spirit and sharing it with other generations and lay people they knew. I watched them grow. As that happened, I became very much aware that something was happening far beyond my talents, my skills, myself involved in all of this. The Spirit was at work. God was involved and God made everything move.
One day, one of the young brothers from my class met some ladies on a bus. They had a little group that used to get together to do some faith sharing. He asked them, “Would you be interested in the Marianist lay life?” With that invitation, they came over to the house and the young brothers began taking turns giving them classes on Marianist spirituality. The movement grew and today they have about 250 lay Marianists in different cities in Korea. All of this came about because the novices had learned the history of the lay movement in class, and it grabbed them in such a way that they wanted to share it with other people.
My class, the “History of Religious Life,” also helped to crystallize my own understanding of the vocation of religious life in the church. It was about much more than cheap labor. It was a prophetic lifestyle that caused people to stop and think when they saw us, “Who are they? Why would they want to do that?” You really force people to think about God because there is no other explanation for our path, our selfless Christ-service to the youth, poor and marginalized.
Just being wherever we are as religious, we know that we are serving a worthwhile purpose. Even if some are old and retired, or dying in bed, they continue to witness to that life. No matter what state of health one may be in, life has meaning. For, as the saying goes, “Jesus has no arms but ours.” We are only instruments through which the Spirit continues to be at work.
Brother Dennis Schmitz is a member of the Society of Mary, also called Marianists, Province of the United States. Professed for 46 years, he resides at the Center Marianist Community in Honolulu. He is on the provincial leadership team and is director of special ministries for the Marianist Center of Hawaii.
