Call and Respond

“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.””

Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus minister, Brendan de Padua, began his speech at the Nov. 12 2022 Fall Gala with this set of verses from John 1 35-39 to describe God’s practice of calling and our practice of responding.

Brendan sandwiched his remarks in between those of Tim Taylor, Director of the Newman Center, and Father Joel Seipp, pastor of St. Andrew’s parish in Murphysboro.

Undergraduate and graduate students at SIU volunteered at the gala in exchange for a free dinner. In terms of the duties that Brendan assigned, I did coat check at first, then served salads and refilled water at a back table, and finally helped the other students out a bit with basic cleanup to get the chapel to transition from a Saturday night banquet table setup to being ready for the 11:15 am Mass the following Sunday morning.

The choice of prime rib or pork loin along with options of mashed potatoes, green beans, appetizers including meatballs and nachos with cheese sauce, frosted chocolate cake, a choice of ice water, lemonade, iced tea, sangria, or other alcoholic beverages made the night special for all of us.

The dance floor also included a lottery drawing of raffle tickets for either a quilt or a night in a cabin sponsored by the owners of Larry’s Towing in Carbondale, a silent auction for donated goods, requests for generous tithing to keep Newman’s programs alive, and dancing to Footloose by Kenny Loggins and to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl.

It was ultimately a pleasure to serve and a wonder to see so many church parishioners respond to the diocese’s call to participate.