By Christopher Kubat
Last January, I was fortunate and privileged to lead a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, often referred to as the “fifth gospel.” We were blessed to have as our guide Father Peter Vasko, OFM. He has led many pilgrimages to the Holy Land and his theological, geographical, cultural and archeological knowledge of the area is hard to match.
It was during this pilgrimage that Father Vasko invited me to lead a retreat to the English-speaking Franciscans. The retreat was held at a retreat center marking the birthplace of St. John the Baptist in Ein Karem (which is in the hill country outside of Jerusalem) last August. Just a few minutes away is the Church of the Visitation. It was a successful retreat because after its completion, none of the friars left the order! 
During the pilgrimage, I learned that Father Vasko is the chaplain to the Marines stationed in Jerusalem and during the retreat, I learned that Father Vasko was made an honorary Marine. Midway through the retreat I asked Father Vasko, “If you, a Franciscan, can be made an honorary Marine, why can’t I, a diocesan priest, become an honorary Franciscan?” He immediately said, “Oh … you have no idea what you are asking!” I thought, ‘He’s right, I’m nothing like St. Francis!’ and dropped the idea.
After the last talk of our week long retreat, Father Vasko put a cincture with two knots around my cassock and a brown zucchetto on my head and told me and the rest of the friars that I was now an honorary Franciscan.
During the retreat, I talked a bit about the life of St. Francis, who left a life of leisure and wealth to live a life of poverty, serving the poor and needy spiritually and materially. In a general letter addressed to the faithful, he said, “Let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in the world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give.”
This sounds a lot like the donors of CSS! I know someone who attended a funeral of a Jewish person and the rabbi said, “We Jews have a saying that the only luggage we take with us is our good works!”
It is true that one does not need to be a Franciscan, or even an honorary Franciscan, to love our neighbor in a sacrificial manner but just an ordinary disciple of Jesus Christ. St. Francis, pray for us!
