Growing up, my family wasn't the most religious of families.
Our Catholic faith was wrapped up in our Filipino culture. So if we were at a family get together on a weekend, I wouldn't know if it was a family celebration, a cultural holiday, or a religious gathering - because mostly they were all three. It's great to have your faith and culture so interconnected but at times it is also limiting. I don't get to choose to be Filipino. I am Filipino. In a similar way, I did not choose to be Catholic. I am Catholic. That's just how it is.
So I participated in my faith insofar as I participated in my family life. I didn't really understand that there was a difference. But I can also admit that I didn't have a personal prayer life or any real concept of faith beyond my communal experience.
My family participated in this interesting cultural and religious tradition called the "block rosary." On a Saturday a bunch of people would come over to our house and it was like a regular family party. At a certain part of the party everything stopped and we all started praying the rosary in front of the a statue of the Virgin Mary. Then, everyone left. But they left the statue!
In the block rosary the statue of the Virgin Mary stays at your house for a week and then the next Saturday the same group will pick up the statue and bring it to the next family's house.
For that one week in the year, my family was the most holy family in the world. Every night, after dinner, we would go to the living room, get on our knees, and pray the rosary as a family. I needed a book to follow along with all the prayers. It hurt my knees.
When my friends would call to hang out, I would tell them I couldn't.
"Why not?," they would ask.
"Well.. the Virgin Mary is over at the house..."
When that week was over, my family went back to it's normal routine. We didn't stop, drop, and pray after dinner. We wouldn't do that again until Momma Mary popped by for a visit next year.
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It's amazing how a statue can change your reality.
Pre-statue, my family lived out our normal routine. When Mary was at our house, our demeanor changed. We were more intentional. We prayed. We sacrificed. We took the time to be holy. It wasn't like we didn't want to do those things. It was more like we didn't think about it. It took something special to motivate us and inspire us to enter into the Mystery of faith. It annoyed me, but I also appreciated it. Now, I look back and see that was crucial to my formation and growth.
Most people will not have a statue visiting their house. But you know what they do have? They have us. We have the opportunity to be the real life statues of today. We can be the Momma Mary who visits and inspires a person to get on their knees and pray. What if our presence brought prayer? What if our lives brought intentionality? What if our witness brought wanting?
I have heard it said that we might be the only Bible someone will ever read. That is what evangelization is all about. How did Momma Mary become the greatest of the disciples? She loved her son. She sought to protect him. She listened to him. She witnessed to his life and shared it with others.
How can we be great disciples like Mary? We can simply love. We can listen to him. We can protect those who he loves. We can witness through our authentic love of the other, whoever that may be.
We are the living statues. Let's go and inspire.
