Gilberto Cavazos-González, OFM
Associate Professor of Spirituality and Director of the Hispanic Ministry Program at the Catholic Theological Union
Director of the Interprovincial Formation Program for the Franciscan Provinces of the Sacred Heart and St. John the Baptist: St. Joseph Friary
http://www.ctu.edu and http://www.ofm.org
- How were you called to your current ministry/service?I was blessed with parents who insisted I speak both Spanish and English fluently, and as a result when the Franciscans were looking for a friar who was fluent in both languages, I was invited to go to Rome for a couple of months and help with translation. While I was there, I decided to return and get a doctorate. Initially my interest in study was more to be able to live in Rome and learn a third language. Little did I realize, I would fall in love with studies. The potential for my staying in Rome as a professor and translator slowly began to develop as I approached finishing my doctoral degree, however the Franciscan Province that I belonged to asked me to apply for a position opening up at the Catholic Theological Union. I really wanted to stay in Rome, but for love of my brothers in religious life, I decided to apply at CTU, not really thinking I would be given a second look. Lo and behold, I was asked to interview for the position and eventually I was offered the job. If there is anything I have learned as a Franciscan it is that whenever I do what my Franciscan brothers want me to do, it turns out to be a wonderful and growth producing experience, so I gave up Rome for CTU and have enjoyed it immensely. I feel I learn more than my students, but don't tell the administration that or I might be asked to pay tuition.
- Who inspires you?When I was in the third grade, I ran into a pair of knees in the corridor outside my classroom. As I looked up to see who owned those knees, I saw my father's head gently scraping the hallway ceiling. I proudly announced to my friends quot;¡Es mi papa!" ("It's my father!"). Well as time went on, I grew taller than my father and to my adolescent mind, there was no way he and I would ever see eye to eye. I no longer looked up to him as when I was a child. Now, however, I am older, and have reached the age my father was when I was in my teens. I have to say, as I look over his life, I have to marvel at his leaving his family to come to the U.S. in order to provide us with the basic necessities. He worked hard and long hours at a bread factory to make sure we would always have tortillas on the table and clothes on our back. He eventually became the manager of his department and soon had us working at the factory as well. When we'd complain about the work, he'd tell us the only way out was through a higher education. He loved our mother and she loved him and in that love they both nurtured us to adulthood. My father never went past the sixth grade and he always hungered for an education, but never had the luxury of getting one. If my three brothers and I are all educated and working in education it is thanks to Papá's sacrifice and encouragement. His dedication to his family and his reaching out to others poorer than ourselves is my inspiration.
- What are the biggest obstacles to peace?
I suppose the biggest obstacles to peace are those people who feel that they and only they are right and as a result everyone else is either totally or partially wrong. This fundamentalist stance to life as being black and white, right and wrong is dualistic, closed minded and non-Christian. It keeps people from dialogue and communication, it leads people to a defensive stance that can quickly become offensive and combative. It is what starts wars, destroys nations, and kills people, and is slowly decaying our planet. - Describe for us a typical day.
I get up around 6:30 and pray with my Franciscan brothers at 7:30. After that I have breakfast and get ready for work. I live close enough to CTU that I usually walk over, which is nice on good days, but when the cold wind blows, brrrr, this little Tejano wishes he was back in south Texas! Anyway once I get to my office a typical day can be any combination of meetings, class preparation, teaching, meeting with students, writing, etc. I usually have lunch with some of the staff at CTU, in the cafeteria, but now and then we just have to go out for enchilada, tacos, or burritos. I am done around 5 p.m. unless I have an evening class. I try to be home for prayer before supper and have dinner with the brothers. After supper, I might have meetings, or other such things, but if I don't and it is Wednesday, you'll find me watching "Smallville." - How do you get the news?
I suppose I should get the news by reading the papers or watching television, but I don't. Newspapers, except for the comics, are usually depressing or silly. The only news I watch is on Despierta America or De Mañanita and only on occasion. I prefer to get my news from having people I know talk about what they read, saw or heard on their way to work. It makes is more personal and real to me than to read it off a page or have some stranger tell it to me over the airwaves. - What are your favorite websites and why?
I enjoy surfing with google.com for any number of theological and social issues. I particularly like putting in words like cosmology into their image search engine to see what will come up.
I can't say I have any favorite web-sites that I return to over and over. I did pray with Sacred Space (http://www.jesuit.ie/prayer/ ) for a few months and I like going to the Official Vatican Website (www.vatican.va ) on occasion just to see what the Pope is up to. And of course I like putting together my own website or rather web-zine on Spirituality called Spiritualitas (http://gilbertoofm.tripod.com ). - How do you nurture your faith life?
My faith life is all about relationships; relationship with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), relationships with my family, with the friars, with my friends, with people whom I have served and have served with. It is also about my relationship with myself. So I nurture my faith life by nurturing my relationships, sometimes I do better with one set of relationships then I do with others. At times I get so caught up in relating to others that I forget to nurture the relationship with my self and other times I get wrapped up in me and forget others. But I try not to forget the relationship with God and the Spirit usually lets mw know where I need to find the balance of relationships for a more holistic faith. - What advice would you give the next generation of church and civic
leaders?
Learn from our mistakes. We certainly did not learn from the mistakes of our predecessors. They say that those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it, and if that is true, many of our political leaders and a few religious ones as well must have flunked out of history 101. - Tell us something about yourself that we wouldn't know.
I am a bit of an artist. I like to draw and more recently I have developed my poetic side, writing poetry in Spanish, English, Italian and even "Spanglish." I've put some of my poetry online in my web-zine but not all of it. Actually it was my friend Denise Joseph who first called my poetry to my own attention by asking me to send her some of it. I had never realized that I wrote poetry till I had to collect it from my journals and pieces of paper stuck in a variety of books. I typed it all up in 30 something pages. Another friend of mine, Luigi Miranda got me to stop writing my poetry in thoughts and get it down on paper. I usually do this, but some of my poetry refuses to get trapped on the written page. - Share a favorite quote that inspires you.
Heart of a poet
28-IV-97
One needs the heart of a poet;
a heart that knows how to welcome,
a heart that can receive,
a heart that assimilates.
One needs the heart of a poet;
a heart that knows how to paint
the most intense of emotions.
A heart that can gather humanity
and engrave it with pen and paper.
A heart which cannot fake anything;
but everything sings and recites.
One needs the heart of a poet;
a heart as big as a seed,
a heart as small as a torrent,
a heart, which is natural and alive.
One needs the heart of a poet;
a heart that knows how to enjoy life
and cry over pain.
A heart that can stimulate hearts
and give them words.
A heart that can love and desire
with gratitude
A heart like yours… Like mine.
