He was short; I’m tall; he grew up in a castle; I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. He spent years in Rome; I’ve never been there. He was a mystic; I’m not.
But his vision of the Holy took me by force; it’s an invitation inside God’s country, where the world’s empty promises and life’s dead ends fall away before the size and power and distance of Christ; it’s an invitation to claim the centrifugal and centripetal passion of Love and Call, sweeping one into the heart of God and hurling one out to the hearts of God’s people.
Ignatius: Any takers? Smith: I’m in.
Gary Smith, SJ, works with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Northern Kenya. He is the author of They Come Back Singing and Radical Compassion.
and oh yah… I’m in!
Wow! This is outstanding. I am profoundly touched. “it’s an invitation to claim the centrifugal and centripetal passion of Love and Call, sweeping one into the heart of God and hurling one out to the hearts of God’s people”. Thank you
I had the pleasure of leading a couple of discussions of They Come Back Singing for an IVC group this past year, so it’s great to see this post.
And I get the paradoxes: He’s a guy; I’m a girl; he’s from Spain; I’m from Ohio; he’s Catholic; I’m Presby; and — I’m in.