Dec. 11, 2011: 3rd Sunday of Advent

Sometimes I wear regular clothes when I’m travelling through airports, and that's when I have interesting experiences. On one occasion, I was sitting next to a man on an airplane who started small talk with me. He asked me, "Where are you from?" He could see that I am an Asian, yet I have a southern accent. Believe me, sometimes I feel like a Texan trapped in a Korean body. I replied, "From Dallas, Texas." He continued, "Where are you really from?" I replied, "Originally from South Korea, but I have been in the States for 27 years." Noticing the ring on my ring finger, he then asked, "How many children do you have?" As we continued chatting, he shared about his life and family and eventually he said, "You are a good listener. What do you do for a living?" I had to blow my cover when I responded, "I'm a Catholic priest." "I knew it," he said. "Something is different about you." He told me that he was a Catholic, and I ended up hearing his confession.

We have all been asked at various points in our lives, "Who are you?" We respond to this question in variety of ways by answering with where we live, what we do for a living, or how many children we have. However, I like what Mother Teresa had to say about this question in a Time Magazine interview in December1989.

Time Magazine: [Mother Teresa], it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God's grace in the world.

Mother Teresa: But it is His work. I think God wants to show His greatness by using nothingness.

Time Magazine: You are nothingness?

Mother Teresa: I'm very sure of that.

Time Magazine: You feel you have no special qualities?

Mother Teresa: I don't think so. I don't claim anything of the work. It's His work. I'm like a little pencil in His hand. That's all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do it. The pencil only has to allow to be used. In human terms, the success of our work should not have happened, no? That is a sign that it's His work, and that He is using others as instruments - all our Sisters. None of us could produce this. Yet see what He has done.

How true this is! When John the Baptist was asked who he was, he said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, 'make straight the way of the Lord.'"  He said he was merely God’s instrument, an instrument to point the way to Christ. Each of us, like Mother Teresa and John the Baptist, are a pencil in God's hand. What God desires to write through each of us is His compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience. As we continue to prepare ourselves during this Advent season, we need to look within ourselves to see if we are allowing God's hand to reveal His Son to the world through us.