Recently I read a book called Sacred Encounters with Mary, an account of visitations people have had with the Mother of Jesus. Most of these encounters are very simple, and yet profound in their own way. The following one impressed me:
As I was going into meditation one day, I asked of [Mary], "How can I help to prepare the way for the the return of Christ?" A little while later, she appeared to me in a vision and I saw her roll up her sleeves....As she rolled up her sleeves, she took me by the hand and led me to a sink where we proceeded to wash dishes together. In that moment, we were just two women doing what needed to be done. Interestingly, I have an expression that I have used before and since this encounter: "Talking doesn't do it, reading doesn't do it it; living is what does it." And I always say that if you can't wash dishes with me, you haven't got it.
Matthew Kelly, a renowned speaker on the Catholic circuit, always says, "Just do the next right thing!" We often wonder what we can do to help, especially in view of world-wide hunger and poverty, violence, human trafficking, and just plain ignorance. I think we have to commit our lives to God and trust that He is able to use our talents in His own way. We want to be useful; we want our lives to count for something, but we are helpless to know what to do.
St. Therese lived perhaps one of the most "useless" lives of all, behind the cloister walls, and died at the age of 24. And yet today she is known world-wide as the patroness of missions. Her way of life was unbounded confidence in God, trusting Him to accomplish in her all that He desired.
I think we can all wash dishes -- or do whatever is needed at the moment to clean up the world we live in. It may not seem like much, but as Mother Teresa often pointed out, a pencil in the hand of God can change people's lives.
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