Cover
story Can I do this with my heart? he asked
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff
The young Korean immigrant who
became a Catholic and took Francis as his name didnt know who St. Francis
was -- but Kims birthday (Oct. 4) is the saints feast day.
Then I learned about St. Francis from a book. Several
books, he said. Id never met a friar. A year earlier,
hed never met a Catholic. Until a Korean Catholic lady loaned me a
book, With God in Russia. I was so amazed, especially about the lives of
priests. Id never imagined that someone could live without family,
without spouse, because of God.
After baptism, Kim was increasingly curious about Franciscans. A
colleague in Worcester, Mass., where he worked as a maintenance mechanic while
studying mechanical engineering, had been a Trappist. One lunchtime they found
a St. Francis Church in the Yellow Pages.
Kim called. The parish wasnt Franciscan, but they gave Kim a
telephone number for the Franciscans on Bostons Arch Street. He called
and went to meet his first Franciscans. It was 1985.
At Arch Street, The brother made me very comfortable,
Kim said.
Kim went back to Worcester to think. Later he contacted the
Franciscans vocations office, and they suggested he spend some vacation time at
a Franciscan mission.
He arrived at the Philadelphia soup kitchen during the citys
1986 garbage strike. It smelled terrible.
In the kitchen theyre making lunch. Its hot, the
guys sweating, no shirts, wearing shorts. There were flies everywhere because
of the garbage. I said, Excuse me, is this the Franciscan
monastery? They said, `Yeah. Id never seen that kind of
place, those kinds of people. People swearing and messing with the chairs. I
was so scared. I thought, This is my summer vacation. After lunch
Im going back home.
But after lunch he talked to two of the brothers. One a former
lawyer and the other a former college professor, shared their lives. I
shared mine. I felt so ashamed. Dedicating their lives for this? I began to see
how selfish I was.
After lunch, too, director Fr. Kevin, prayed for us
volunteer students. The people you are serving are like Jesus, he
said. That strikes my heart. I remember and try to do that serving dinner that
night. I was still scared, scared not for myself but for, Can I do this
with my heart? I didnt want to do it without my heart, he
said. When I first served dinner I felt something new I dont know
how to describe. Whether it was joy. A very precious experience.
He stayed all week. Then I got to know the friars, some
sisters. Giving their lives for the people. That was my whole reward.
He was ordained in 1996.
National Catholic Reporter, June 16,
2000
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