OUR MISSION IS TO REACH OUT
As the Season of Lent comes to an end, we are wrapping up our focus on our new Mission Statement. We are talking this week about the final part of the statement: “Our mission is…to reach out into the broader community by sharing aloha with everyone.”
On Sunday, I shared a story about Father Gregory Boyle, who spent most of his ministry working among the inner-city gangs of Los Angeles. He took a couple of gang members with him to a restaurant (a first for both of them!). When they entered the restaurant, the hostess just glared at them. No welcome. No indication that they might be seated. With their shaved heads, tattoos and baggy clothes, they didn’t belong there, at least in her mind. Because of Fr. Boyle’s persistence, she finally sat them. The customers became completely quiet as they stared at the two gang members. Suddenly, like an angel from heaven, the waitress approached and treated them as if they were her favorite customers, calling the two young men “Sweetie” and “Honey.” She brought them additional menus, kept their drinks full, offered them “extra this” and “more of that.” When they asked if she had “Tapatio” hot sauce, she brought it to them as if everyone asked for it all the time.
The two men were blown away by her kindness. When they got back into the car, one of them said, “She treated us like we were somebody” (a kind of treatment they rarely got!). Fr. Boyle called her “Jesus in an apron.” Upon further reflection, it occurred to me that this is how Jesus treated everyone: like they were somebody! Women and men, children and adults, Jews and Samaritans, healthy people and lepers…he treated each and every one as if they were the most important person in the world. As we live out our mission, our job is to do this very same thing. May God grant us wisdom, courage and compassion as week seek to share aloha with everyone!
I hope to see you for our Wednesday Lenten Reflection, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday during this wonderful and holy time of the year!
Kahu Alan Akana
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