The Trail of the Cheerios

In preparation for the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter the priests of the parish hear Confessions all day long on Wednesday of Holy Week. There are as many as six priests hearing confessions at the heavier times. It is always an exhausting and an exhilarating experience. To share the life of our dear sisters and brothers is always humbling and challenging to us. Most of the people who come to the Sacrament are so much holier, generous and loving than I could ever hope to be. This sacramental moment is often (to me) an unofficial canonization of God’s holy people, his saints, who are building up the Body of Christ by their lives of sacrificial love.

On this Wednesday some years ago the Lord gave me a sign and symbol of the Eucharist–His death and resurrection–which was my “peak” moment of Holy Week. One of the penitents who come to confession was a young mother of four. She came into my confession room with a baby under one arm and a collection of bags and other baby accoutrements under the other. She was typical of so many holy parents who put Jesus into a very special and real place in their lives. In the midst of all their hard work and struggles the Lord is there and they do their best to find time to pray and to make all of their unending daily activity the real prayer that it is.

Coming to Mass with four kids under ten is a monumental engineering and organizational project–but come they do. Confession ditto! Come they do! After this particular moving and beautiful confession in which I tried to gently tell her what saints she and her husband truly were (which most people can’t comprehend), she left with her squirming and happy baby, apologetic that maybe they had “disturbed” father. As she left there was a tear in my eye because I love her and her husband and all the sisters and brothers they represent, and because I see in her the holiness and love of Jesus shining forth in such a powerful and healing way.

After they left I glanced down on the rug and there they were: two Cheerios! Those cheerios became for me the very essence of what Eucharist means and what Holy Thursday and Good Friday symbolize.

For me, the two Cheerios were a new Eucharistic Bread symbolizing the incredible life of love and devotion of this young wife and mother and all the others spouses and parents she represents. These two Cheerios sacramentalize the dying and the rising that constitute the daily living and loving of God’s People.

I picked up the two Cheerios–my special Eucharistic Bread–and they are on my desk right now reminding me of what priesthood is all about. I pray that I can be the kind of priest that this young mother is. I pray that I can love and give the way she does, day in and day out, when you feel like it and when you don’t. I pray that I can live with her passion by loving others first and putting myself second to the family that God has given me to love and serve.

As I look at the two Cheerios I think of Good Friday–the dying to self and pride that this young mother and wife is doing every day. I think of her broken heart when she lost her baby. I think of the financial struggles that never end. I think of the sleepless nights, never going on vacation, never having a day off, not being able to pursue her remarkable talents and career. I think of her faithful and struggling love of her husband. I think of her love for her children for whom she would be willing to die at any moment.

I think of how hard she works to center her family in Christ and to make her home the little Church and her table and meals the Eucharist. And then I think of the total and uncompromising “yes” she spoke to the Lord and renews to the lord each and every day.

As I look at the Cheerios I also think of Easter in her life. I see the joy and pride in her eyes as she looks at her husband and her children. I see the profound peace and joy she experiences as she sees her children grow in grace and knowledge. I see what beautiful people her children are becoming because love fills their home and their lives–a love only a mother can give. I see the deepening of the marriage bond that has passed through the beautiful and delightful days of romance and passion to a love tested by self-giving and living for the other. I see the many young women in our community who have been touched by her faith, sisterhood and friendship.

I look at this beautiful young woman and I see the power of Christ’s resurrection shining through her as she epitomizes the worthy wife spoken of in Proverbs, chapter 31.

But most of all I see the resurrection shine forth in her because she is a true saint of Jesus who doesn’t have a clue that she is a saint. Her selfless, humble and loving life is being lived by so many today–in my parish, in our community and all over the world.

These holy ones are the saints of today. They are the treasure and pride of the Church because they are being the Church by living out the mystery of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection each day of their lives.

On Holy Thursday, I touched the Eucharistic Bread of the two Cheerios the previous day.

I realized once again how I am being taught how to be a priest by the example of the saints in my parish–the holy ones who love with all they’ve got–day in and day out without counting the cost. They are the saints of today and the best part is that they don’t even know it.

Of all these saints no one approaches the holiness of single parents who give everything and more to be father and mother. Their whole life is a living out of the life of Jesus the Good Shepherd as they lay down their lives in love for their little flock.  

Every day I thank Jesus for the holy ones He has placed in my life to remind me what it means to love and to give one’s life in loving service. I thank Him for that special Eucharistic Bread–the two Cheerios–that taught me what Eucharist really means. I discovered the Cheerios were left behind in many places that Wednesday. They blessed the floors of supermarkets, drug stores, doctors’ offices, friends’ dens (where they were gratefully gobbled up by crawling babies and pets).

The Eucharist had a long and varied procession in preparation for the procession on Holy Thursday. Every place that was visited by this holy woman became more beautiful and peaceful because love was brought there. It was symbolized by the Eucharistic presence of the Cheerios trail. The Lord visited these places because one of His personal friends who has given her life to Him and her little flock was there. Where the saints walk, the kingdom of God is made present. It was very present that Wednesday in Westbury in the trail of the Cheerios.

I thank the Lord this Mothers’ Day for the love of my beautiful sisters who hold up for me, by their lives, the image of the loving Jesus who lay down His life for His flock. They do the same. They live out the Paschal Mystery gently but convincingly inviting me to enter into it with them more and more. By their humble example they call me to nail to the Cross my pride, lack of faith, self-concern, pettiness and selfishness so that I might rise with them and Jesus into the glory and joy of Christ’s love.

Family is everything. I also thank the Lord for the gift of my own parents and my dearest sister Rosemary, who is also with God. I am so grateful that in growing up I shared so fully in the Eucharist of a mildly crazy and loving family. I am so grateful that I continue to share the Eucharist of love and family with my dear sister, Agnes, her husband, Lou and their beautiful daughters, Laura and Rachel. They love me so much and give me a safe and holy place to call home. Whenever I enter their home I feel the peace and love for Jesus fill every part of my being. I am in a holy place. I am on holy ground. I’m home.