Newspaper Page Text
I
Supplement To The South mi Cross, October 25,1984
□ Faith Today
Exercising your
potential
A supplement to Catholic newspapers,
published with grant assistance from Cath
olic Church Extension Society, by the Na
tional Catholic News Service, 1312 Massa
chusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C.
20005. All contents copyright ® 1984 by
NC News Service.
By Katharine Bird
NC News Service
During a recent trip to Africa,
Father Edward Braxton visited an
ancient tribe, the Masai, at their
village outside Nairobi, Kenya.
The priest, director of campus
ministry at the University of
Chicago, shared bread and beans
with the tribespeople in their mud
huts.
Then, Father Braxton said, a
14-year-old took him by the hand
and led him off to see his goat
herd. The young man told the
priest, in the English he learned at
a Christian school, that he didn’t
intend to cut his ear lobes as his
tribe traditionally did.
Asked why, the youth replied.
‘Because I know only Masai do
this." He added, “I see that if I
stay here all I will do is be a herd
sman. But there is a world much
bigger than the Masai."
"Now that 1 can read and write
1 want to go to secondary
school,” he told the priest. "But 1
know I cannot do it by myself.
We are fast friends now. Will you
help me?"
Father Braxton says he looked
at the earnest youth in his red
smock and beads and thought
how "incredible he is, given his
circumstances." The theologian
said he also realized that he
had a unique opportunity to help
this teen-ager. And, with more
education and perhaps college,
"there wouldn’t be any stopping
him."
Father Braxton indicated that
for such a youth the road to a
sterling future lies in education.
However, developing his potential
shouldn’t mean losing his
identity as a black, the
priest stressed.
□ □ □
"Real education is hav
ing your being expanded
to grasp the meaning of
life and your potential and
the contribution you can
make to your community,”
Father Braxton elab
orated.
Father Braxton, a black
priest of the Chicago arch
diocese, told of a young Puerto
Rican he met at Chicago’s Holy
Name Cathedral. After eighth
grade the boy dropped out of
school and started working in a
grocery store to help his parents
make ends meet.
"I saw he desired to know
more, so I encouraged him to go
to high school" and get a part-
time job. Father Braxton said.
Then, when the boy was tempted
to settle for a "quasi-managerial
job in a drug store, I argued with
him to stay in school, to keep
developing his mind."
After a while, the young man
took and interest in the legal prob
lems that some Puerto Rican peo
ple were experiencing. He began
asking legal questions, Father
Braxton said. Gradually the young
man recognized that he had a con
tinuing interest in legal matters
and decided to go to law school.
"Now he is a lawyer doing
wonderful things for his people,"
Father Braxton said. In his view,
that young man "came up from
the bottom by getting a tremen
dous grasp on his potential" and
how that potential related to
people’s needs.
Human potential. How do you recognize it?
Draw it out? Katharine Bird interviews Father Ed
ward Braxton, who says that most people have
more potential than they know what to do
with.
The man now
credits the priest for
his encouragement all down
the line. But, Father Braxton says,
"he puts too much on me. I was
just a catalyst to help him pursue
what was in him."
□ □ □
Human potential, Father Brax
ton reiterated, is the "capacity a
person has to grow and improve,
to recognize gifts and talents and
to develop them to the fullest."
The crucial next step, he thinks,
is "to read the signs of the time."
This means looking at the world
to see what is needed and then
connecting those needs with one’s
particular gifts.
Father Braxton said he is con
vinced that "most humans have
far more potential than they are
aware of." Often an unusual cir
cumstance triggers people into
awareness of some special
ability.
He told of a young
Nigerian woman who
studied at Harvard Uni
versity. During a political
upheaval in her country, her fami
ly was in a precarious position,
possibly facing death. At first,
unable to get reliable information
about her family, Father Braxton
said, the girl simply
"disintegrated."
Then, helped by conversations
with her friends and with him,
the student calmed down, mar
shalled her inner resources and
developed a systematic plan. She
located and then approached the
appropriate agencies to get infor
mation about what was happening
to her family .
In doing so, "she tapped human
potential she didn’t know she
had," Father Braxton said.
(Ms. Bird is associate editor of
Faith Today.)