Religious Life

I missed something yesterday! I went to mass, but there was a no mass. Some people where working on the church. Today I went to mass, at a different church, and there was no mass because the father had an emergency. At this occurrence this verse came to mind: “'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” Matthew 26:31 Today, I saw this verse comes to life.

So many times I have undervalued the importance of religious life. The truth is, without them, there would be no place to call home. There would be no church.

In the church we have mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. We have a family. Mothers and fathers take care of the house! They keep it open and clean. Brothers and sisters become the cool aunts and uncles that every kid loves having. Those who chose marriage vocations are exactly like siblings who got married while there other siblings are still at home.

Without my Heavenly family on earth, I wouldn’t have a home to call my own. Outside the church’s walls, I am a vagabond. I go from place to place. I tell the world of God’s love and mercy, but none of it is my home.

They say the choice isn’t taken until I have a wedding ring on, that may be true, but so far the choice I made is to follow Jesus no matter where He leads me. Yet, I cannot be more thankful for the family that he gave me. They take care of the house. I come back, there is food on the table. Then I go back out to the field, sleeping in tents and doing his work always knowing that no matter where I go, I have a place to call home.

To all who chose religious life, thank you for making my life better! Thank you for keeping my home clean, so that when I come back from the battle field of the world, I can be washed of my sins in the fountain of mercy, at the sacrament of reconciliation. When I come back home from the craziness of the world, I can find a quite moment, where I know that my siblings will be there to listen, to help me take care of my problems despite having their own.

For so many years, I have been told I should be a nun. With the pressure of so many years I have grown apart from religious life. I have grown to resent something that people have been trying to force me to do, that I never got a chance to consider it’s beauty. I never got to consider that my heavenly family has an extension on earth, that all the saints I love so much weren’t always classified as saints. They were mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers some lived in Our Fathers home on earth, other lived in small families that mirrored my father’s home. All equally as beautiful.

For the first time in my life, I look at religious life and I see family. I see those who chose to stay at home to make sure our home grows in beauty. Don’t get me wrong, I never had anything against the religious, but I never had anything for them. In fact, I have judged them more often than I’ve thanked them.

Cheers to a new perspective on family and may God place us where He needs us.