Nun With a Nikon

         I began reading an article about an interview with a nun.  I probably would not bother reading an article like this, but it is a source I frequently turn to for information.  With this trust of the source, I plunged into the article.  The opening sentence was very good.  The author, Dan Stockman, asked a question.  “How do you turn $20 and a borrowed camera into a women's center, a 1,000-student school, an orphanage, a convent and a Montessori school?”  I had no answer, but I was curious.  The person being interviewed, Sister Rose Marie Tulacz, answered with two words, “You don’t.”  I wanted to know more about the nun from the Sisters of Notre Dame.

            She continued, “This is my life: God multiplies everything…When we empty ourselves, he fills us."  I smiled at this typical perspective of faith.  Clearly, she is a woman of faith; in fact, she has given her life to God and humanity.  She has taken that to a degree I never will manage.  I respect it and would like to imitate it in my own way and to the degree I am able.  I wanted to think more about her answer. 

            She simply says faith is her life.  I would like to say that, but honestly I am probably closer to the truth when I say that faith is part of my life.  No doubt, I hold back parts of my life from what God might want from me.  I want to continue to grow in the direction I am confident she already has traveled. It is from her perspective that she can confidently assert that God multiplies everything.  Theologically, I understand that and can say I agree.

            But I suspect Rose Marie has lived into the truth of that statement: she really does believe God multiples everything.  She elaborates in a way that is simple.  Empty yourself and God fills you.  She really does believe this.  But more than belief, I am sure she trusts that it is true.  It is both belief and faith.  For me faith is a verb.  To have faith is to trust.  It is to take the steps into the belief.  If belief is a bridge, you believe will hold you if you walk across it, faith is taking the first step onto the bridge. 

            I would have been content with just this much from the article.  But it went on in a charming way.  Of course, as with most religious communities, there is a story here that explains it all.  The story begins with a nun visiting Sr. Rose Marie’s community.  “Thirty years ago, a sister visited Tulacz's community in California and purchased several religious statues for her convent in Papua New Guinea.”  Now the New Guinea nun had a problem.  “She had no way to get them home!”  So the business side of faith kicked in.  “The provincial challenged the congregation to raise money for shipping.  Someone suggested Tulacz, in the midst of a teaching career, could take photos to make greeting cards to sell.”  The miracle is now in the making.

            Tulacz borrowed a camera and took $20 her father had given her and bought film.  She became a photographer.  Apparently, she is very good.  Her photography created a cottage industry.  Apparently, some of her prints now sell for $1,600!  If you are puzzled why a nun would be selling her wares, listen to how Tulacz responds.  She says an artist friend offered this counsel: “the secret to being an artist is to start selling it right away — don’t give it away for free, otherwise the community will think of you as a hobbyist.”

            Of course, faith is central to this story.  Here is how Rose Marie puts it.  “Every image I take or send out, every photograph I glue on a card is God's people.  Every photograph is an act of prayer.”  Again, this makes me smile.  I also would affirm that all humans are God’s person.  The Genesis creation story tells us humans are made in the image of God.  Theologically, I believe that.  However, I am sure Sister Rose Marie takes her belief into action in a way that makes me realize too often I am ok simply to believe something. 

What does it take to move the belief into action?”  That is the discipleship question: faith in action.  She is not only a nun with a Nikon.  She is a nun in action.  She has a higher purpose.  She is not just taking pictures.  How do I frame my own life in such a fashion?  I realize I talk quite a bit.  But I also believe the old axiom that actions speak louder than words.  What is my life saying?

I am also someone who likes to ask questions.  I wonder how she decides to take the pictures she does?  Perhaps I have my answer in the last sentence of the interview.  It is a clever answer, because she also asks her own question: “If Jesus had had a Nikon when he walked the Earth, what would he have captured?  I ask him: What does he want me to focus on?”  No doubt, Jesus informs her. 

I don’t have a Nikon.  But that last question can be my question also: what does God want me to focus on?  I suspect it can be your question, too.  We all know there are things worthwhile and things worthless. Let’s get our lives in focus.  And then let’s put our life into action.