"To follow and imitate Christ more closely and to show his self-emptying more clearly means to be more deeply in the heart of Christ before contemporaries." (CCK 932)
“I have given you an example, so that you may do as I have done for you” (John 13:15).
When I was 6 years old, my brother Joe was already in school, my father worked all day and my little brother had not yet been born. So on weekdays it was my mom and I in our three-bedroom apartment in the Bronx. When I wasn't doodling, watching TV, and creating little worlds with Play-Doh Fun Factory, I watched my mom do her homework. Every once in a while he picked up a shoebox full of coupons, dumped the contents on the kitchen table, and started sorting. He threw away expired coupons and saved other coupons for later use. And he attached the coupons to his grocery list to redeem when my dad paid and had cash for groceries.
I learned to save from my mother.
Being with my mom 24/7 has allowed me to witness the magic of the holidays. As my brother walked home from school to the finished apartment, I heard what was happening behind the scenes. I knew that the Christmas wreaths were assembled from pieces of ribbon salvaged from the factory where my father worked. I knew the Valentine's Day cards from Elmer's thick paper weren't held together, but by a "glue" made of flour and water. I knew the honeycomb bee, whose black and yellow colors guaranteed a spot in our Halloween show, had been begged by Bill's shoe salesman when he changed his summer show to the return".
I learned this skill from my mother.
I loved listening to my mother on the phone. If he spoke mostly Italian, then he went with his grandmother. But if Mom spoke grammatically perfect English, she could be sure that the hapless customer service representative knew what she was looking for. He was a pro at getting his money's worth. If a product or service did not meet her expectations, the mother wrote an angry letter to the offending company or filed a verbal complaint. When filing a complaint by telephone, always write down the time and date of the call, as well as the name of the person who received the complaint. Mum wrote the information in pencil on the mint green wall next to the phone - she thought it was a clever way to protect information in a household where things often get lost.
Once, when my mother was busy elsewhere, I took a pencil out of the phone and started writing on the wall. I started by copying my mother's pencil marks during a recent reprimand from the New York City Department of Sanitation, then I drew circles under the name of the blessed representative of Procter & Gamble all listening to my mom's reviews on Tide. . , The miracle of cleaning. When my mother came in, I painted my work with big brushes. He was very angry with me for writing on the wall and I couldn't understand why.
I only learned from my mother's example.
"I'm going to lick those pictures off the wall for you!" My mother told me. I still hadn't realized Mom was barking and not biting, and I was worried. So when mom wasn't looking, I gently licked the wall to see what was waiting for me. Even today, I clearly remember the raw wall, the dry plaster, the mint green, which had no taste.
Saint Paul reminds us: “We must behave towards believers in word and deed, with love, with faith, with purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Being a model is a big plus. Sometimes we withdraw and are tempted to clean up our bad behavior by warning others, "Do like me, not like me." But if we aim for excellence, our ideal is “Do as we do”. If we lead ourselves by the example of Jesus, we can lead others by our example and finally say with Saint Paul: "Be my imitators, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11, 1).
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