Sister Mary Jones hopes her joy can light a fire

    In many ways, Mary Jones had it all.
Despite challenging times in the American auto industry, Jones had a comfortable job with Ford in Detroit, traveling throughout the U.S. and Mexico to keep tabs on suppliers whenever engineering changes for new models required updated parts to keep the assembly line humming.
    She had her “dream home,” a Ford Explorer, a dog and a couple of cats. But, something was missing.
    Jones had thought fleetingly about a vocation to religious life when she was in her late 20s, but usually she dismissed those thoughts by saying, “God, you can’t be serious.”
    Jones lived her Catholic faith in her parish, working with a ministry to the poor and helping with music for Sunday Mass.
    “I just went on with life,” said Jones, 51, who professed final vows as an Adrian Dominican sister earlier this year in front of the entire student body at St. Mary’s Dominican High School, where she serves as campus minister. “The way I look at it now, God wanted me to have a certain set of tools in my toolbox for me to be the sister I needed to be.”
    Her job with Ford opened her eyes to the realities of wealth and poverty. Before she accepted the position, she told her boss that she would be compelled to tell him the unvarnished truth if she witnessed unsafe working conditions.
    “I told him, ‘I’m not going to look for reasons not to give them a just wage,” Sister Mary said. “My boss said, ‘That’s exactly what I want.’”
    The job was a little dicey, especially for a woman. When she toured an assembly plant in Juarez, Mexico, she would stay across the border in El Paso, Texas, and a guide would escort her across the border.
    “I would ask the driver to drive me around because I wanted to see some of the neighborhoods,” Sister Mary said. “He said, ‘Seniorita, I can’t go in some places.’ On the flip side of the coin, the people who worked at the plants were given meals and clothing and they were profiting not only for their own family but also for their extended family. Still, the living conditions were not what I would consider equal. That was a seed in me that really started to grow into an awareness of social justice issues, and it became a passion for human rights.”
 Her personal epiphany involved her widowed mother. About six months after Sister Mary had purchased her dream home, her mom visited and “I could tell that she was lonesome and wasn’t eating well.”
    “My mom and I really didn’t agree about anything,” Sister Mary said. “I was praying one night and it came into my heart, ‘This house is big enough.’ So, I called her up and invited her to come live with me. There was silence on the other end, and then she said, ‘Are you kidding?’”
    Even Sister Mary’s older brother was thrown for a loop. “Have you lost your mind?” he asked.
    What happened next was more confirmation that Sister Mary’s invitation was heaven-sent.
    “About two months after she moved in, she was diagnosed with cancer,” Sister Mary said. “Not only did we become friends and develop understanding between us, but I was also able to give her what she needed in those last months of life. She never had to fear going into a home. She was at home. What a gift that house was to allow me to walk with my mom during that time.”
    Her mom wanted to live to see the new millennium. She died on Jan. 12, 2000.
    “That is one of my best blessings and memories of having my heart opened by God,” Sister Mary said.
    When she engages her Dominican teenagers about their lives, she sees their pure passion in helping others. The school has adopted nearly 500 children for the last two Christmases. Students go far beyond their service-hour requirements to tutor kids at Lafayette Academy down the street. The girls collected 17,000 pounds of food for Second Harvest last year.
    “What excites me is the passion these young ladies have for serving others,” Sister Mary said.
    That’s why Sister Mary was so thrilled to take her vows in September before more than 900 students.
    “I’m still in amazement over their behavior,” Sister Mary said. “You could have heard a pin drop.”
    They will ask her penetrating questions about whether or not she was sorry she didn’t become a religious sister sooner. Invariably, she will answer, God was right on time.
    “This is a chance for young women and young men to see what religious life can be and what it is. One of my favorite quotes of St. Catherine (of Siena) is, ‘If you are what you should be, set the world ablaze.’ The way I’m living that statement is by saying yes to God. When the students see that joy, it gets them thinking, ‘I wonder what God is asking me to do?’”
    Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at pfinney@clarionherald.org.