Food motivates students. I wish I would have taken a whole class on how to use food to get people to do things. Like any good teacher, I used this principle ad nauseam throughout my teaching career. However, I still remember one student, let’s call him Jeremiah, who forever made an impression on me.
It was springtime in school with final projects and exams coming due. As Jeremiah approached the end of the semester, he began to lose his motivation. In an effort to motivate him, I made a deal, “Jeremiah, I will buy whatever you want for lunch if you finish your English term paper.” Jeremiah looked at me and said, “Even Chipotle?” “Yes,” I said, “even Chipotle.”
Jeremiah finished his English term paper and earned his burrito. I fulfilled my promise the next day during lunch. There, in my office, was the burrito of great delight. Jeremiah stopped by my office to enjoy his prize. As he picked up the foil-wrapped burrito, he hesitated. He looked at me and said, “My friend Adam is in the cafeteria. Can I go get him and bring him here? He’s alone.” Jeremiah put down his burrito and went to his friend.
We hear in John’s Gospel 15:13, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” I had a new insight that day, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s burrito for one’s friends.”
I wrote previously about St. Francis de Sales and his love of the Song of Songs. There is a passage in this biblical book when the two lovers who are frantically searching for one another finally find each other. The Latin passage is Tenui Nec Dimittam, which means “I have taken hold and I will not let go.” This is the motto Francis chose for himself and it is the motto of the Oblates. It captures what God says to us, I have taken hold and I will not let you go. It also mirrors our response back.
After Jeremiah and his burrito, I see our motto in a new light. If Francis and the Song of Songs are right, then we have a God who will drop anything and everything for us. The great insight and goal is to ask for hearts ready for acts of charity. In moments when I am slow with charity, when I am slow to take hold, when I am slow to reach those alone, I think of Jeremiah and whisper, “Put down the burrito.”
Fr. Joe Newman, OSFS
Provincial
Toledo- Detroit Province
