There is a famous Van Gogh painting titled Irises. The frame is dominated by dozens of beautiful blue irises. And off to the left, almost as if it is being pushed out of the picture, is a single white iris. Some might say the white iris doesn’t fit, yet somehow it does.

If you are a catechumenate team leader, you may not quite fit. And yet, you can’t imagine fitting in anywhere else. Somewhere along the way, you were called to this ministry in a way that others were not. And you said yes, even though it meant you’d be a white iris among a field of blue irises. And that makes you a hero.

What the world needs

I know you don’t think you’re a hero. Lots of heroes don’t think they are. Remember the pandemic health care workers? They didn’t think they were. But we did. They saved lives. They healed people. Just like you do—but in a different way. Which also makes you a thorn.

To save people, to heal the wounded, things have to change. You see that, but not everyone else does. So a lot (I mean a lot) of what you do is agitate for change. The person who most needs Jesus in their life is probably the person who can’t come back in September or come on Wednesday nights or come on Sunday.

And that is probably the person who most needs to hear something encouraging, something hopeful, something merciful. Maybe your parish is not set up to make space exactly when the seeker is seeking or not able to speak to the seeker’s deepest wound. And so you become a thorn, trying to change the way we’ve always done things. Which makes you a refuge.

Because who else? Who else has those eyes that in one blink say I get it I understand I care I’ve been there I’ll be there trust me everything will be okay? Who else has the heart and the stomach for this? Who else will be the safe space where a near-stranger knows they can say their secret?

The person who most needs Jesus in their life is probably the person who can’t come back in September or come on Wednesday nights or come on Sunday.

Why we are called

A catechumenate team leader needs some skills, of course. I found a job description that listed 30. Maybe you don’t need all 30, but you’ll need a lot of them. And, if you’re like me, you had almost none of them when you started. You learned them. Or you will. Someone will teach you.

But your skill set is not the thing. The thing is God called you because you are you. Peter, Andrew—Jesus didn’t call them because they knew how to fish. He didn’t call Mathew because he needed someone to do his taxes. Paul’s expertise in Torah is not what God was looking for. Someone might have all 30 skills on the list and not get called. But you did.

I think catechumenate team leaders need to invest in skill building. You need to become as good as you can possibly be at scripture and prayer and teaching and managing and discerning and everything else that should be in your job description. But we cannot confuse the skills with the call. God called many of us when we had few skills.

What God sees in you is not a skill set. What God sees in you is your not-quite-fitness, your heroism, your thorniness, your refuge-ness.

What God see in you is a work of art. 

Your turn

In your parish, what are the desires for change brought forward by those who are looking for a relationship with Jesus? How did you hear the call to walk with others on their journey of faith? Share your thoughts in the comments below.