On Sunday, Father Tom gave a homily during the family mass about, get this, A Christmas Carol. As soon as he said this, I immediately smiled and thought about my dad who loves this movie and makes us watch it every Christmas Eve. For years I thought it was so long and boring but recently I have come to appreciate the story and its meaning. During his homily, Father Tom talked about how Scrooge sees scenes from his past, present, and future and reflects on different parts of his life. Scrooge made the choices he did and suffered some of those consequences. Father Tom said that the choices Scrooge made in his life are reflective of his greedy lifestyle that is all about work and money. Eventually, after Scrooge sees the dark side of his future, the redemptive part of the story comes in and Scrooge is a whole new person. He wakes up Christmas Day and is able to start a new life that is about other people and more important things then money and work. Father Tom connected this story to the life of a Christian in which we sin and maybe make bad choices before accepting God as our Lord and Savior. As we accept Jesus into our lives, we are then able to live a life of service and love for God and everyone around us. The main part of Father Tom's homily was the idea that God has given each of us gifts and talents that are reflected in our everyday actions: in our jobs, in our families, in our friends, and every interaction we have. The question becomes which gifts and talents are we using and which ones might we be forgetting about. I think that God is a very sneaky person in this sense because He shows and tells us to be good Christians by serving other people with our talents and gifts but how are we supposed to know what those gifts are let alone remember to use them.
This concept of my gifts and talents is especially meaningful to me this week and next in particular but I'm sure will be relevant to my entire volunteer year. Today was the first day I had contact with my clients. For most of the morning, I made phone calls to my clients, explained the Family Case Management program to them and then set up a time for my supervisor and I to come visit them in their homes to complete the intake process. After leaving about 15 messages, talking to about 6 people, and having at least 4 disconnected phones, I had initial contact with the clients I will help enroll and intake into our program. Now you would think that a phone call and getting basic information about a client would be easy but hello what part of social services is "easy"?! Ya, not a whole lot. Most of the clients were easy to talk to but it was very hard to get used to saying "Hi I'm Janine Moretti a Family Case Manager for Catholic Charities" to every person I talked to. (Yes Mom and Dad, Case Manager is pretty official huh? :) ) So as life always is, nothing is every simple or easy so of course I had some bumps along my way. One of them was when a father of a pregnant 23 year old answered the phone and asked me about the case management program. When I told him about the services we had to offer, he went on about how him and his wife have been trying to get their daughter help with this pregnancy and into a program like ours. He expressed his concern to me about how his daughter is never home, she's always "chasing a boy around" and how she really needs these services. Since our program is voluntary, the client would have to come into the office or call me to verbalize that she would like to be part of the program. This may have been a hard thing for the father to understand but I did give him all my information and hopefully it will be passed on to her. This phone call was eye opening but also pondering because there are many pregnant women in Chicago that need our services and our help but it is up to them to make the effort to enroll. The caring and protective father is trying to do everything he can to get his daughter into this program but the 23 year old needs to make her own decisions which is hard for the father to handle I'm sure.
Another client I talk to today was what we call a "high risk" case which basically means that the client either has health issues, family problems, or sometimes even personal problems that will put her unborn child in danger. This client had all of these. She was currently pregnant and smoked. She has five other kids but no custody of them, and she has had 6 other pregnancies that have either been aborted, still birthed or miscarried. Obviously this client is in need of some serious help not just with her pregnancy but with her well being as well. These are the things that I am going to find most difficult to deal with because people's stories are so different depending on what is happening in their life during that particular time. The numbers don't explain the story and the stories don't even have to be explained. The past is what it is and unfortunately no one can change that but our program can help this client and change her future as well as the future of her unborn child. Now I know that there are so many more underlining statements and discussions in this information but the point I want to make is that God's plan for me, well at least this is what I think it is, is to help people in any way that I possibly can. Right now that population seems to be these pregnant and parenting women who need my case management services and honestly this scares me. One: I'm new to the area, two: I am a complete minority in the area I am working in, and three: how am I supposed to relate to mothers or pregnant women? Even though these questions will always be running through my head, I am constantly telling myself that this is God's plan and purpose for me. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. Throughout this year I will strive to be the best case manager I can be for every client I come in contact with. I hope to make a connection to each and every one of them by gaining their respect and trust. I know this is not going to be easy but if God thinks I can do it, then I can do it.
With all that being said, take a moment and think to yourself: What are the gifts and talents God has given you? How are you using them? Are you using all of them or just some? I encourage you all to think about and live out these questions tomorrow, this week, this month, this year, and for the rest of your life.
Random Chicago fact: Apparently you can drink on the Metra which is the express train going back and forth downtown. Most of the people who communte into the city for work use this and have a nice cold drink on their way home.
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