We Are Nun Too Lost

Why are TikTok influencers suddenly paying attention to nuns?

W e may be slouching toward destruction, but if we follow the right leads, there is still hope.

Three profound, different things just happened quasi-simultaneously that caught my eye.

Three young women took perpetual vows to be espoused to the Lord, Jesus Christ, on Fifth Avenue in New York.

Pope Leo met with young people in Assisi, the birthplace of one famous man named Francis.

And back in New York, we started implementing the assisted suicide law that passed last year after a years-long campaign from the former Hemlock Society to make it so.

That last one has put Catholic nuns who care for the sick and elderly pleading for their religious freedom not to offer medically assisted suicide, because they most obviously can’t.

But is it obvious? Do we trust and believe in real love enough to see it is? Time seems ripe to see.

Sisters Eden Marie, Elena Marie and Maria Annunciata did not exactly go viral. (Though Sr. Elene Maria certainly has a smile that should.) Now and again, nuns do get discovered by mainstream media — just recently, there was a profile of Norbertine cloistered nuns in the Tehachapi Mountains of California. They had recently been of virtual interest because they were found out to be praying for moms woken by babies in the middle of the night, people struggling with addiction, and others, as part of their daily lives.

Why did TikTok influencers suddenly care about them? Well, it has to do with — some of — us. At the same time, it’s a wee bit exotic. Women who chose to forgo marriage and children — maybe it seems like a good idea with the baby wailing and you’re low on sleep — to pray for complete strangers. There’s also something intriguing about the remoteness — the opportunity to step away from some of the concerns of the world out here. Of course, while there are graces that come with consecrated life, transformation into angelic beings is not one of them. They do not walk away from all of the burdens of humanity and take on some new ones.

We also want that. We want that kind of love. A love that isn’t asking for anything in return. A love that is gratuitous. We want it for ourselves, of course, but we want to give it, too. We want to participate in it. That’s got to be one of the reasons that betrayal hurts so much — it’s the polar opposite of what our hearts desire, and we want to be, and be around. I’m no professional in these matters, but intimate betrayal is like taking a nuclear bomb to trust. And so there’s got to be a curiosity that goes to the depths of our hearts about the nuns in such circumstances. I mean, we know they are nuns, but can they be trusted? If they say they are praying for us, are they truly? When there’s nothing in it for them? When I can’t give them anything in return?

Of course, as with the three Sisters of Life who just took final vows in their community, what the Norbertines get out of praying for the sleepless mom and person in the throes of addiction is Heaven. Loving you is making them closer to and more like God — their love is in union with Him. God Himself is loving us through them! Their contagion, too, has got to be Divine. Right now, as we ponder their charity, aren’t we examining our ways of loving? If you’ve got little ones, you’re likely covered — and then some. And at the same time: Are we thinking about that one person we had almost given up on? Maybe it’s time to call. Maybe it’s time to visit, even if it’s going to be difficult. She may need your presence. Maybe it’s time to forgive that other one. Or maybe the call is to simply join the nuns in prayer.

Days are also ordered by prayer in the lives of the Sisters of Life, but they also have a more active service to women who need accompaniment — when they are pregnant, and long after they’ve had their babies. The Sisters become part of people’s lives in the most varied ways — including taking some of them into their convents to live for a time. We may debate — or want people to stop politicizing — abortion. They have the antidote: It’s love.

I understand very well why assisted suicide is tempting and can even seem like a good. No one wants to see suffering, and we Americans can tend to think Independence Day is about fireworks and proving we can do things on our own. We’re more dependent on one another than we often care to admit — and it’s not a betrayal of anything that happened in Independence Hall 250 years ago.

Intimate betrayal, by the way, is one very good reason to not believe that we can really rely on nuns in our hour of need — for prayer or anything else. We fear we will be alone in pain. We don’t trust our capacity to give and care — and don’t realize our value — for a loved one in her final days.

That’s where Pope Leo in Assisi comes in. Addressing young people, the Chicago-born pope said “the whole world” is “looking to you to be new saints. Dare to believe in the word of the Gospel.” He urged them: “become fully human with the freedom of Jesus Christ; embrace Sister Poverty!”

Poverty isn’t just giving up wealth, which Francis did do. It’s realizing we all have weaknesses and the God Who created us knows what we need. It’s why He doesn’t leave us alone. And the nuns won’t either. Even having to go to court to fight for their right to love as God mandates them to.

“Saint Francis . . . teaches that radicalism of the Gospel . . . makes us aware, attentive and always eager to follow Jesus, and therefore humble and welcoming towards everyone. It is not an easy path, but it brings much joy,” is how Leo explained it.

My Empire State may be the abortion capital of the world, but it’s also overrun with the kind of radical love that can make choosing death for the unborn child or the old man who no longer remembers your name. And they are not just there for such intense moments. They are praying for us when we think we are most alone.

I have hope because the nuns are doing their part. And because the rest of us can still be saints (too).

This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.