“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is simply – “how do you live your ministry?”How do I live my ministry? Immediately I was hit upside the head with words and emotions and memories and impressions:
- Poorly
- Enthusiastically
- Successfully
- Half-heartedly
- Joyfully
- Humbly
- With laughter
- With tears
- Accidentally
- Instinctively
- LOVE THEM
Right now, my ministry is my life, and my life is my ministry. It’s not an easy idea to express and many times it’s not an easy life to live, but I don’t want an easy life… I want a life that fulfills me. And I know that that will only happen when I am following God’s call for me. God’s call for me right now: “Love them. Love them with your whole mind, heart, soul and body.” Three of those make sense… but how do I love them with my body?
This is my reflection on that question.
Eyes
They say a really good teacher can prevent 90% of classroom discipline with just their eyes. A look of disapproval, a look of love, a look of what are you doing, can do amazing things. But sometimes there are things that are seen that just can’t be ignored. This is one of those moments…
I was in my normal place outside the cafeteria when the bell rang and the stampede began. In the middle of the chaos a student of mine pulled his hand out of his pocket to give me a hey sign as he passed, but something else slipped out of his pocket at the same time. It was purple, and rubber, and open, and definitely not supposed to be in school. A condom on the floor in a high school can’t be ignored.
My eyes saw something and in dealing with it, amazing things happened. Who could’ve guessed that this student needed someone to talk to about his sexuality? He had questions that he couldn’t talk to his friends about. He had reservations about what he was doing. He needed something to start the conversation… and believe you me, a condom on the floor was a pretty unavoidable beginning. Was it uncomfortable, yes. But it was 1,000 times more rewarding.
Mouth
The things I say and the way I say them are an enormous part of my ministry. But recently I’ve realized that what I say out loud is only a part of the words that form my life of ministry. The words of my personal prayers are equally, if not more, important.
A Spiritual Mentor of mine, Fr. Ted Hesburgh, has a favorite prayer and it has quickly become mine as well. Many times every single day I find myself murmuring his (and now my) personal prayer –“Come Holy Spirit.” Come, give me the right words. Come, help me speak like you. Come, help me not to laugh! Come, be with this student. Come and join in the fun! In every moment in my ministry I hope that the Holy Spirit feels welcome, I just need to use my words to invite him in.
Nose
Loving with my nose. I guess it might be safer to say loving in spite of my nose in this case.
In my ministry at the parish we have spent the last 10 months dreaming about creating a space for our high school youth group and it finally happened! It sounds like a great idea to invite the young people to help until you have a room full of wet paint and shoe-less high school students… IT SMELLED! Seriously, there was something ripe happening in that room, but there was also something amazing that made it all worth it. These students realized that their parish cared about them. In giving them a place to call their own they realized that they have a place in the Church (a physical place and a proverbial place) to call home. If it takes a couple hours of a smelly room to make that happen then I would do it any day.
Touch
For good reason there are limitations on how a minister can physically interact with students, but a lot of ministry can be done with just a simple touch. And it can happen in so many ways!
A fist bump on the way into an exam. A high-five celebration for getting that GPA back up to a 2.5! Handing over a box of Kleenex at just the right moment. A hand on the shoulder during prayer. A touch of affirmation from a friend during a retreat activity. Holding hands during group prayer. All of these are ways of communicating love without a single word being spoken, and sometimes the message is all the clearer for it.
I once had a student tell me in an application to be a retreat leader: “...at that moment I was sitting there crying because I had never had a male role model in my life. I thought I was the last one in the room but someone stopped and put their hand on my shoulder and I knew it was Mr. Campbell. It seemed like he was telling me that he was there and that he cared about me. I realized then that I was surrounded by men who would be there if I needed anything.” I could’ve spent 15 minutes telling him that I would be there if he needed anything, but he got the message loud and clear in just a couple seconds of praying for him with my hand on his shoulder.
Ears
Maybe the most important skill in ministry is listening, and it’s the one that I needed to work on the most when I first started. Here’s one final story that shows that it isn’t always necessary to have the right words to say.
I was sitting there in my Campus Ministry Room, in my ugly green recliner when he came in. I had never had a real conversation with him but he started in nonetheless…
Student: “I need to talk to you”
Me: “Sure thing. Table or couches?” (an important and sometimes revelatory choice)
Student: “That table’s fine… So, I’ve been wanting to talk to you. What has happened was… A lot of stuff is happening at home… I haven’t seen my dad in a long time… my mom and stepdad really aren’t getting along… my stepdad mistreats me and my mom… he’s a lot bigger than me… it makes me so mad, but I can’t stop him… they’re getting a divorce but we can’t move out… the only thing I have left sometimes if my faith… I just pray that God is with us…”
Me: “Name that’s amazing that you still turn to your faith. It’s true that God is always there and sometimes that’s the only thing that keeps me going too. But I hope you know you’re never alone, a lot of people at school are here for you. What can we do to help?”
Student: “I don’t know… I just needed to talk to someone… (more that I won’t include)”
Me: “Let’s plan to keep checking in regularly”
Student: “That would be good.” He stands up and starts to stretch like he’s going into a boxing ring and with a little smile on his face, “Man! It feels good to just get that stuff out!” He smiles and leaves the room.
_____
So there are five little glimpses into how I live my ministry and how I love in every way I can. It can be exhausting at times, but when it does I always come back to my current favorite Bible passage… (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17) Always be joyful, never stop praying.
Colin Campbell graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2013 with a BA in Theology. At Notre Dame, Colin sang and played percussion in the Notre Dame Folk Choir, served twice as a Mentor-in-Faith for Notre Dame Vision, and worked as a campus tour guide. After graduating, Colin was accepted to Notre Dame's ECHO Faith Formation Program. ECHO placed him in Indianapolis, IN, where he serves both as the assistant Campus Minister at a Cristo Rey High School and as the Youth Minister at a nearby Catholic parish. Colin will take his comprehensive exams this summer for his MA in Theology through ECHO. He can be reached at ccampbell0203@gmail.com.
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