“God, Is That You?” Msgr. Scott Friend helped college students learn how to answer that question at the annual Catholic Campus Ministry Convention Feb. 23-24 in North Little Rock.
Msgr. Friend, diocesan vocations director, explained how to pick out God’s voice and follow it to nearly 120 students, campus ministers and staff at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel.
The students represented 10 Arkansas colleges and universities.
Deacon Richard Papini, diocesan director of campus ministry, said it was wonderful to have Catholic students “from so many cultures” get together to celebrate their faith. He estimated more than 30 of the students present were from other countries who attend Arkansas schools.
New to the convention this year was the involvement of the Student Ministry Advisory Committee, which was formed last fall to help plan and execute CCM events. “I think we have more student involvement as a result of having SMAC,” Papini said.
In addition to Msgr. Friend’s talks, the two-day event also included Mass celebrated by Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert, diocesan administrator, a banquet, dance, praise and worship music and an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
During his homily, Msgr. Hebert praised the students for their active participation in the Mass. “Thank you for being such good, young Catholic people,” he said.
“The way you live your life as Christians; the way you live your life in Jesus Christ; the way you center on him as your hope and your salvation says something to the rest of your college mates, my friends, just by the way you are,” he said. “You have the living water. Live your life in such a fashion that others may be refreshed in Christ.”
Through three presentations, Msgr. Friend explained that the key to discerning God’s voice is to understand the difference between the ways of God and the ways of the world. God is love, whereas the world is driven by sin.
In his second talk, he described how “World Vision,” entered the world through the fall. Adam and Eve became enemies and Adam became a victim of Eve. As a consequence of their separation from God, all people are born to see self and others the same way, through sin.
Describing this human tendency, he said, “We’ve been victimized by our choice. I’m not responsible for what I do because it’s your fault.”
As a result, people are “plagued by a desire to be loved,” he said. “Jesus never teaches anything about how to be loved. He teaches us how to love.”
Describing his struggle with multiple sclerosis, Msgr. Friend said being focused on God does not mean his fear goes away, it just means, “I am very much aware of my fears and I am just no longer pulled by them.”
Adrianne Johnson, a junior at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, said, “At times I felt like he was talking to me.” Msgr. Friend confirmed what she had always believed, which was, “we don’t give up on people.”
With a close friend who is an atheist and two others who “have been painfully separated from their churches,” she has learned that “you have to love people where they’re at. If you shun them they’re never going to see that love in you or they’re never going to know the love of Christ,” she said tearfully.
Kerry Evans, a sophomore at Hendrix College in Conway and co-chair of SMAC, said she would take the idea of being “a contemplative in action” with her after the convention.
“It can be as simple as standing in the grocery line and trying not to victimize something else and count how many items they have in the 20 items or less line,” she said. “You have to humble yourself and be patient and say maybe it’s not my place to make somebody else my enemy, ever.”
