The Encounter Between Aidan and Mrs. Kershner

As the Christian Service Coordinator for the entire student body, Mrs. Kershner often feels like she gets a bum rap.  It’s not that she doesn’t love the kids, which she does unconditionally.  It’s just that she is responsible for verifying service hours.  These service hours are required for promotion from grade to grade and ultimately for graduation, so sometimes they feel like a burden for kids who already lead extremely busy lives.  Quite often, kids avoid making eye contact with her because they know they are behind in completing the necessary hours and they are afraid that eye contact might lead to an uncomfortable conversation with the “enforcer” of the service requirement.

During the semester of Aidan’s accident, Mrs. Kershner was teaching classes that included only seniors.  She had never taught Aidan and never spoken to him.  A few days before the accident, she was substituting in a class where Aidan was present.  Toward the end of class, Aidan asked a question.  “When were service hours due?”  Mrs. Kershner thought this question was a little strange since most kids avoided speaking with her and, as she discovered later, Aidan had already completed his hours.  He had served the homeless at Our Lady of the Road and had coached at summer baseball camps, so the requirement for him was already complete.  

As she considered Aidan’s question, Mrs. Kershner found herself intrigued.  Toward the end of class, she walked over to Aidan’s desk and struck up a conversation with him.  There were no other desks available, so Mrs. Kershner hunkered down so the exchange would take place with them on the same level.  She began to ask him questions and he began to volunteer information about himself.  As she engaged him, she found herself drawn in by his “profoundly deep and smiling brown eyes,” her words.  He had caused her to stop, and she was truly listening to him.      

Aidan told her that his father was a professed Secular Franciscan dedicated to serving others and that he made sure that his boys understood the importance of being men of mission.  Mrs. Kershner asked if Aidan was also a Franciscan?  Aidan said no.  She then asked what his spirituality was?  Aidan said, quite unabashedly, that he did not know, but he proudly offered that his middle name was Augustine.  She asked what style of prayer he preferred?  Once again, quite innocently and without any reservation or embarrassment at all, he said that he did not know.  

His eyes became introspective, and he did not notice Mrs. Kershner looking deeply into them.  She reflected later that there was a little bit of heaven there.  Aidan proceeded to tell Mrs. Kershner that he knew his purpose in life, and then said something like this:

“I don’t know exactly how, but I know that I want my to spend my life serving others.  I want to dedicate my life to making the world a better place for other people.”    

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This encounter was the first and last time that Kathy spoke to Aidan.

At first it had seemed a casual moment, a moment like so many others where we encounter one another without truly being present.  She was grateful the moment had gone deeper and that she had taken the time to meet Aidan, on the floor, at his own level.  Aidan, it turned out, needed to say, and she needed to hear, things that might have seemed unimportant at first glance, but that now have an importance that could not have been guessed in the moment.

After the bell rang, as Aidan was leaving, Kathy reached out and grabbed Aidan’s hand and told him that she thought the moment had been a divinely inspired appointment and she thanked him for talking with her.  Later it was clear to her that this was a singular moment in salvation history with consequence and gravity.  When Aidan said that he knew his purpose in life, Kathy wondered at that, because she felt she was still discerning her own purpose.  Her full purpose might be unclear, but now she felt stirred to redouble her own commitment to works of divine charity.  Among the other motivations she had for serving others, she would now add the memory and inspiration of Aidan to her list.

In the days that followed, Kathy, like many others, found herself spending significant time in the chapel at St. Joe, in front of the Most Holy Sacrament, the True Presence.  She found that her time there was especially fruitful, full of ongoing inspiration.  But most importantly, she found that she could be present to the Sacrament in ways that are often elusive.  The sense of presence and deep listening that she had perceived in her encounter with Aidan was carrying over into her prayer experience.

She knew that others around her, in prayer in the chapel but also throughout the entire school, were stopping and experiencing the same thing.  They were more present to each other and were listening more closely to what the other was saying.

She thought about the name Aidan, which means “fire” in Gaelic.   If she had been blessed with a son, she would have named him Aidan, in the hope that he would set the world on fire via a life dedicated to the same kind of service to others that Aidan had described in their encounter.

She knew that this Aidan, despite or perhaps because of the accident, would have the same effect.  He would be a spark that would lead people to a place where, at least for a while, they did not look past each other during their encounters, but instead were present to each other in the same way that she and Aidan had been present to each other on the floor of that classroom.

She felt her life was forever better because of the experience she shared with Aidan in that one moment.  

She believed Aidan’s sacrifice would make all of us better people.

She knew, in the end, just as he hoped, Aidan would make the world a better place for those he left behind.

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This last little bit is mine.  I do not remember seeing or hearing Kathy say it.

It sums up what I am experiencing after writing this out:

If only all of us could experience a perfect moment of presence and listening like Kathy and Aidan did, then perhaps we might each be blessed with the ability to keep and remember the divine appointments that we so often miss or forget in our lives.  

How can you enter the scene of Kathy and Aidan’s discussion?  

What divine appointment to “make the world a better place for others” is awaiting you, and will you be present and listening closely enough to ensure it does not pass you by?