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National Cursillo
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Pat Gerkin
If someone were to request that all the evangelists in the house
stand up, I’m sure I would remain seated. I can’t be accused of being my
best self most of the time either. But God doesn’t seem to mind the flawed
vessel. God just uses us, in spite of our perceived flaws, in the way that we
can best represent Love. I have a lot of friends who are evangelists of the sort
that bring many people into the Cursillo Movement or back to church or to their
knees before God, etc. That doesn’t seem to be my role in the body of Christ.
I think I am a seed-planter, and I am ok with that. After all, there won’t be
a harvest season if there is no planting season. The harvest season is the
glorious season. It’s when the fruits of the labor can be seen. We’d all
like to be part of that season. Jesus exhorted us to “Go forth and bear
fruit…fruit that will last.” And I believe that I am doing my part, however
small it may seem to me or to others. I heard a song recently that talks about
the date tree and the dreamer who brought that date tree to life. The dreamer
was the seed-planter who would not live long enough to see the date tree bear
fruit (apparently date trees don’t bear fruit for some 80+ years). But the
dreamer was sure that the tree would bear fruit to feed someone who would, in
turn, choose to be a dreamer and plant another seed. And so it goes on
perpetuating itself. The environments that I work in, both as an artist and as
an arts administrator, provide me with opportunities to do a lot of
seed-planting--and a lot of dreaming.
Most artists that I know are already working through their own spirituality,
using the most creative means they have—their art. It takes a lot of courage
to be an artist in these days of high tech stocks and millionaire lifestyles.
Putting your art out there is a lot like bearing your soul in a Cursillo talk.
It’s risky, because there is nothing between your truth and the audience.
I had an occasion to plant a seed, albeit a small seed, during a recent art show
I participated in. We six artists planned four receptions, and one of them fell
on Holy Thursday. I told them I couldn’t be there because it was Holy Thursday
and I would be in church. Silence. It came up several times in the course of the
month and each time I planted my little seed. Once they even started asking
about what happens there, and what do you do on Good Friday, and what about this
Virgin Mary? I thought, “Well, it’s a start.” I told them that I
wouldn’t gallery sit on Easter Sunday either, and they decided they would
close the gallery that day. I praised them for their wisdom. Who knows if, and
when, those small beginnings may bear fruit? But I know that I did the part that
was assigned to me. I planted some seeds.
People from all walks of life are craving something deeper than the superficial
lives in which they often find themselves. What is missing, they ask? I planted
more of my little seeds in a show that I named “Parable”. Each piece in the
show has a message or a parable for those who could see it. You wouldn’t
believe the questions I got from the audience. People who might otherwise never
speak a religious word in such a public place (It’s not “politically
correct,” you know), talked of Mary Magdalen, the Evangelists, loneliness,
living too fast, the women of the Bible, places of peace, and places of
yearning—places in the heart, as it were. Seeds.
At my workplace, as an arts administrator, one of my co-workers became
interested in this “Cursillo thing that Harry talked about.” Harry planted
the seed, and I had the pleasure of reaping the harvest when Dee made her
Cursillo last year. (Sometimes even a mere seed-planter gets to harvest the
fruit.) Even in the harvesting, another seed was planted. Our executive director
noticed Dee and I talking about different events that we were planning to
attend—strange things called ultreyas, group, and closings. Several months
went by and Dee and I began asking her if she were interested in making a
Cursillo weekend. She said she was, and I brought in a booklet about Cursillo
for her to read, as I had done for Dee. Months went by again.
The other day, I brought it up again and she said she was ready for an
application. I don’t do grand and glorious things to “evangelize.” I just
try to live my life as a Christian in an ordinary way. When I tell them that I
am serving a meal for the seriously ill retreat, they want to be a part of it
too. When I tell them about the cookie ministry in Kairos, they want to bake
cookies for it. I don’t have a plan. I don’t check off my milestones. I
haven’t drafted a mission statement, or goals and objectives. I just plant my
seeds. It seems simple, and it is. We don’t need to do anything dramatic
to fulfill our pledge to God. We just have to be the person God meant us to be.
“Just do our best and God will do the rest.” Count on it. Pat Gerkin
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