CUMMINGS: Finding Jesus in the drive-thru

(Mahavir Shah/Unsplash)I think I was a typical teenage boy. I loved sports, was very competitive, couldn’t sit still, craved authenticity and couldn’t stomach hypocrisy… and I was not interested in religion.
But then at 15, I had a major conversion experience, where God, using a group of teenage boys on a baseball field, revealed Himself to me for who He is: love!  

After this life-changing discovery, I experienced a deep thirst to know this God who from all eternity had known me and loved me. At a certain point, I even began hitchhiking to daily Mass to be close to my new Friend. 

Little by little, I discovered that this God who is love was calling me to be like Him, and to love in return; and that I could love Him in every neighbor I encountered throughout my day, in my parents, siblings, classmates, teachers, co-workers and even the clients at McDonald’s.

One day, at a meeting with other teens who wanted to live the Gospel radically, we challenged one another to try and see Christ in every neighbor we encountered during the week (Mt 25:40). The next day, I was scheduled to work at McDonald’s. When I arrived, my boss asked if I could work a double shift. I was excited at the prospect of the overtime pay, until I stepped into the drive-thru area and saw the unending line of cars snaking through the parking lot and down the block. How would I survive 10 hours of this? 

All of a sudden, I remembered the challenge. There was Christ in every one of the people in those cars! I couldn’t repeat like a robot, “Welcome to McDonald’s. Do you want to super-size it?” This was Jesus! I remember throwing open the window, offering my best smile, asking each customer how their day was going. And I still remember the smiles I received in return, the brief conversations, the joy that became contagious. 

That 10-hour shift flew by. At the end of it, I was happy but exhausted. Arriving home, I was ready to collapse into bed, but first I knelt to say night prayers. And then, as I closed my eyes to pray, I unexpectedly burst into tears, overcome by emotion and divine consolation. I felt as if I was being enveloped, almost crushed by God’s immense love for me. 

At first, I couldn’t understand. I hadn’t been in Adoration all day; I’d been working… at McDonald’s! Then I remembered the phrase from Scripture, “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him” (Jn 14:21). No, I hadn’t been adoring Jesus in the Eucharist, but I had been loving Him intensely all day in each and every neighbor; and Jesus, who never lets us outdo Him in generosity, in turn, showered me with His love and revealed to me the Father’s immense love for me. I was 16.

Years later, at 20, I felt Jesus’ call to leave everything and follow Him, and two things became immediately clear to me. First, He was calling me to generate His presence together with others in a community modeled on the love of the Holy Trinity. Second, I was to witness that love and bring it into the heart of the world, just as He had revealed Himself to me on that baseball field and at McDonald’s. 

I believe I found both of these callings as a consecrated layman in the Work of Mary (Focolare Movement). For the past 40 years, I have lived in Focolare communities around the world, striving to witness the Gospel to all those I meet and across diverse careers ranging from banking to Church ministry.

Bob Cummings is an associate director with the Office of Vocations.