Once on a Wednesday
By Br. Sawyer Phillips
The day has arrived, the middle of the school week. The sun is shining, stomachs are grumbling as lunch time approaches, and student leaders are mixing lemonade and preparing sports gear to transport to campus from the Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM).
Today is the day when we Post-Up on Memory Mall at the University of Central Florida, bringing our student community to meet their passerby peers on their way to lunch, the gym, dorms, or class. It’s a highlight in the week from 12:30-2:30pm where we get to share the light and joy of the Gospel with those we encounter. We get to interrupt the mundane days of college students with a smile and a “hello” and an invitation to stop, have some lemonade, and chat or kick a soccer ball around before they head to their next engagement.
What we do is so simple. Yet it makes an impact larger than expected. Every week we have meaningful conversations with people about life, God, and our Catholic community. Often, I find that people appreciate someone taking an interest in how they are doing, without an ulterior motive. Our first priority is not to force religion on them nor to recruit them to our CCM events. Our priority is to meet them as they are, where they are, with all the thoughts, opinions, worries, and spiritual hungers they experience. As we meet them with authenticity, they encounter love. This is the love of God for them at that moment. It’s real and true and ordinary. Beautiful. Meeting people like this changes lives. This is how we met Josh Lasarte.
Josh was new to campus and was walking to his dorm after class on a sweaty August afternoon. He was passing by when I said “hi” to him. And you know what happened next? He ignored me and kept on walking as if he hadn’t heard me. Yep, that happens a good bit. Well, I shrugged it off, he had headphones in. However, the next moment surprised me.
That guy who had ignored me, had stopped, turned around and was now approaching us. As he drew near, I introduced myself and struck up a conversation with him. I learned he was from South Florida, a transfer student to UCF, and a Miami Dolphins football fan. Eventually, I asked him why he turned around. In response, he said something like this, “While I was approaching you guys, I saw your table and realized y’all were the Catholic group on Campus. I was raised Catholic, but I didn’t want to stop and talk to you. So, when you said “hi” to me, I ignored you and kept my eyes straight ahead. But, as I was walking away, I experienced something unexpected. Inside me I felt this tug to turn around and go back. So, I did. And here I am talking to you now.”
Wow! When I heard Josh tell me this, I was confident that it was the Holy Spirit who had moved in his heart and drew him back to meet us. From that moment on, something new began awakening in Josh’s spiritual life. He started attending our ministry events and coming to Mass. He joined a men’s sharing group, and was soon a friend to many in our community. The very next week he was back with us at Post-Up. Soon enough, he was the one reaching out to strangers and interrupting their day with a smile and a “hello”!
Josh, the one reached out to, has become the one reaching out. This is how Jesus does it. He calls us, we respond, He equips us, and sends us out to share what we’ve received from Him. From this simple encounter, Josh has embraced his identity as a missionary disciple of Christ and continues to reach out to new men and women nearly every week. His story shows me that the small “yes” we give to God every Wednesday affects change on our campus and bears witness to the attractive life we live as Christians. All glory be to Him.