Hey, I'm Fr. Mark Mary! — And I'm Fr. Emmanuel.
We are the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and this is Ascension Presents.
Fr. Emmanuel is back — we're happy to have him back — and today he’s gonna share a story,
something that really moved him when he was down doing some mission work in Haiti.
Fr. Immanuel, go ahead.
So just before Holy Week, I was in Haiti doing a mission trip with some students associated with FOCUS.
Beautiful experience down in Port au Prince, which is a capital city in Haiti.
They have a Children's Hospital, so mostly — and tragically — children who are malnourished.
So that's two kind of big rooms full of children,
and then they have an upper room where children are a little healthier, but still have some health problems
and maybe just don't have the support or what they need from their parents.
And beautifully, one day I went in to the upper room, so that’s where the older children are,
and there was this young boy there — I think his name was Williamson.
Williamson and Bonne Année.
‘Bonne année’ — when you speak French — means ‘good year.’
And he has a beautiful smile, and he had this bright orange lollipop.
So he's just holding it, and I was really struck because
he is just taking it — and there's loads of little children around him —
and he's just putting it into their mouths,
and they would open their mouths and he's twirling it very quickly so they can taste the lollipop.
And then he would take it out, and he’d put it into another kid's mouth.
And just so they can get a little bit of the flavor.
Now I'm sure you feel like “Oh that's gross!”
And sure, are there questions of hygiene and maybe germs?
And yeah, but that's really not the point — in a sense — of the story.
The essence though, was what I saw on his face — was this joy.
You know, this joy at sharing what he had with others.
I've been given something but it's not for me.
My joy is in seeing you experience joy, and this is a little boy who has nothing.
I recently received a letter...
I’m the vocation director, so sometimes you get letters
from little boys from good families who are interested in their vocation and write, kind of, their questions.
So this question was “Do you ever wish you could say ‘No, that's mine.’”
Clearly a question from a young boy who's from a big family,
and I think struggling with, like, “Aghh.”
And wanting to know — because we take a vow of poverty — how do YOU do it?
You know, you don't have stuff ‘that's mine,’ but how do you do it?
And I thought about him when I saw this little boy.
He had a lollipop that was HIS.
But he didn't keep it for himself and there was more joy in sharing it with others.
Brothers and sisters, for us that can be —
in our very individualistic society where we can be very, at times, self-absorbed —
the joy of sharing our life, the joy of sharing what we have with others,
the joy of sharing faith, the joy of sharing our time —
so often we can be a little bit possessive.
And yet, Jesus invites us to be like that little boy,
to enter — kind of — into communion with others
even though it costs us.
It cost him — he had less lollipop because he's sharing it with others.
But there was more joy.
So I invite you to learn from this little boy Williamson from Haiti
about the secret of joy in communion.
[Fr. Mark Mary] Fr. Emmanuel I think it's beautiful and — just like how you were ending it there —
at the end of the day there was less lollipop but more joy.
Like the paradox of Christian love — that when we give ourselves we’re filled up so much more than we give.
And that's one of the great gifts of serving a God who's never outdone in generosity.
And my brothers and sisters, we thank you again so much for watching.
If we can get an ‘Amen’ for being willing...
For being willing to share whatever the gift is — whatever the lollipop is in your life —
with your brothers and sisters, knowing that there's greater joy in sharing it.
If you want to — again — speak to us, share a little bit of how you want to do this in your life,
how somebody has shared with you and you've been enriched by it, use the comments.
And if you want to keep making sure you don't miss any of the videos, go ahead and subscribe.
My brothers and sisters thank you so much! ‘Somos peregrinos poco a poco’ — together,
‘vamos a llegar’ — we're gonna make it together.
See you again! Bye!