May 18

This past weekend Troop 39 went to Camp Workcoeman for a magic themed camporee.

The magic show was great. The finale was a guillotine where one young scout was asked to “pick up a pen" dropped by the magician (needing to get down on hands and knees), then try “looking on the other side of this wooden block… try sticking your neck through the semicircle…” The audience was roaring and nervous. Then, the magician asks the boy, “have you ever done this before?”

“No!”

Looking puzzled by this the magician says, “well, neither have I!” We all nervously roar with laughter again. “One! Two! Three- times I tried setting this up earlier, but…” and so on.

We learned that the art of a magic trick is not showing off. “Showing off doesn’t impress girls” says the magician and I’m laughing… magic doesn’t really impress girls either. Still, I agree the trick, the real magic, is in sharing your excitement for what you do. I love sharing the neat things of scouting.

Before, asking for his steak

For all their meals the boys were planning unnecessarily complicated dishes; steak and potatoes, soup and sandwich, then on Sunday morning when we wanted to leave no trace quickly they announced they had chocolate chip pancakes to cook… Luckily they brought Bisquick Shake ‘n Pour bottles. One boy was shaking a bottle and the top came off… and he was wearing it all over his shirt and face. It was funny for everyone except for who it happened to; he stormed off. Another scout and the assistant scoutmaster went to sit with him and after ten minutes he was OK. Later he was good enough to laugh about it.

After, picking it up off the ground

Saturday night, “have you brushed your teeth this weekend?”

“no” says one scout. I couldn’t tell if he was proud of that.

“Do you have permanent teeth or baby teeth?”

“Well, mostly permanent” said very matter-of-factly

“Well, permanent teeth are not so permanent. Many adults are missing teeth (some men from other troops gave good examples of this). I smile “personally I use my teeth to talk, smile and eat.”

Two minutes later  “where can I get water to brush my teeth?”

Ten minutes later every scout was down at the latrine brushing their teeth together.

I am a server in a nice restaurant in the suburbs of Hartford. The entire cook staff is from Latin America. Alejandro, my age, is from El Salvador. He hasn’t lost his focus on the american dream. He works 55 hours a week and sends most of his pay home to El Salvador. We talk about this a lot. A $20 plate can feed his family of six for a day and they will eat very well. Alejandro is still young, he doesn’t have the commitments of a girl friend, he commutes from the inner city but lives in this restaurant working for his family’s food. When I clear a table and bring back $20 of uneaten food he tells me, “yeah it’s hard to think that my 55 hours goes towards giving food much less than that to my family.” It would be a mistake not to speak spanish with the cook staff. Their dignity is not in earning money. When we laugh and tell jokes or they tell me about El Salvador, their hearts go into it because El Salvador is where their hearts lie; our time is special.

Catholic Mass celebrated in the Maronite Rite (Consecration done in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke)

Jesus’ outlook on the existence of one man is beautiful. The whole world is not as worthy as the most insignificant human being.

“For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?” (Mt. 16:26)

Alejandro’s worth is not in his hands, his back, the ability to work. It is a mysterious relationship with his Creator, which concerns even the most insignificant human being.

“See that you do not despise any of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 18:10)

This relationship with Jesus is rich.

“treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field”; it is “the fine pearl of great value” for which a man will “sell everything he owns” in order to “buy it”. (Mt. 13: 44-45)

Knowing the Son is the irreducible subject to knowing the Father

“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt. 11:27)  “Simon, son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 16:17)

Alejandro’s greatest act of self-consciousness and self-possession, that is to say his freedom, is the expression of this relationship.

“ ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ “ (Mt. 22:36-39)

This freedom, the choice to love is the meaning of my life and Alejandro’s. Our two very personal and unique destinies are dependent on our absolutely unique and personal love with Jesus Christ, the Son of God.