Aimara Mayer
Moreau FYE – Mike Comuniello
Capstone Integration
4-29-2022

Our God is Love
	My mission is to love. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus answered that it was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and that the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. The commonality between thee two commandments is Love. Paul reinforces this in his epistles. He says, “if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have Love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). It is clear then that my mission, and that of every Christian, is first and foremost to love.
	For me, that Love manifests in two ways. The first is in small, everyday acts of kindness. Saying good morning to the janitors or the dining hall workers, helping my classmates with their work, simply offering a kind word here or there. The second is in being a force for change, however small that change may be. I believe I have been blessed with eyes to see and ears to hear what is wrong with humanity, to see and hear the cries of injustice and oppression. And though I cannot do everything, though I may not be able to affect meaningful change to systemic racism throughout the US, I can do something; I can work to address one issue in one place and push for meaningful, substantive change. I have a voice, and I will use it.
	In all, I will strive to be patient and kind, to listen without judgement with the assumption that what they are saying comes from someplace real and valid, even if I do not agree with their words. Even when my heart may be angry, even when it may be hatful, I will choose to love. Love is not a feeling but a choice, and I pray it is the choice I will always make. For that is what it means to be Christian. To be Christian is to choose God above all else, and our God is Love.

	One of the questions Father Himes tells us to ask ourselves when considering our calling is “What bring you joy?” (“Three Key Questions,” Fr. Michael Himes – Moreau FYE Week 3). In the past, I have said that what would bring me joy is a simple, quiet, peaceful life. But I no longer believe that is the case. I do not think it is possible for me to find joy in a quiet life when my transgender siblings are being attacked across the country. It may not even be possible for to find a quiet life when here at Notre Dame speakers are invited who speak against my identity as “truthless.” Dean Cole said of himself that “The callous murders of unarmed men like Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd are real for me” (“I Am George Floyd. Except I Can Breathe. And I Can Do Something,” Dean G. Marcus Cole – Moreau FYE Week 12). Similarly, the stories of transgender men and women, of transgender children, having their identities, their lives, turned into the next battleground of a culture war is very real to me. I will not and cannot stay quiet about it. To paraphrase my brother, I cannot have the luxury of ignoring politics.
	So, as I said in my mission statement, I will be a force for change. And that starts right here at Notre Dame. The University makes the claim that “We welcome all people, regardless of color, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social or economic class, and nationality” (“The Spirit of Inclusion at Notre Dame,” University of Notre Dame – Moreau FYE Week 10), but it is clear that some are much more welcome than others. The 2020 Inclusive Campus Survey found that 40% of those who identify as transgender or non-binary do not feel belonging here at Notre Dame (“2020 Inclusive Campus Survey Report,” University of Notre Dame – Moreau FYE Week 11). That is the highest number of any group. Notre Dame cannot claim to welcome all when nearly half of one of its most vulnerable communities feels they do not belong here. I intend to push Notre Dame to do more, to truly welcome non-binary and transgender students. I do not yet know exactly what form that will take, but I intend to reach out to the Gender Relations Center as a start, and from there find who I can talk to and what changes I can push for to make Notre Dame a welcoming place in fact as well as in name.
	One of the things I must be careful of in walking this path is to walk it in Love. It can be far too easy, especially with an issue this serious and this personal, to fall into demonizing the other side, to paint them as hateful bigots or ignorant fools. It can also be easy to give up, to decide that the other side will never listen, and that no real good will ever come of pushing for change. I have to be careful to do neither of these things. Avoiding them will be hard, but it is doable. With regards to the first, I have no doubt that there will be times when my heart will burn with anger and even hatred, but thankfully “Solidarity, however, is not an automatic mechanism. It cannot be programmed or controlled. It is a free response” (“Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone,” Pope Francis – Moreau FYE Week 7). I will not always be able to control how I feel, but I will be able to control how I act. And I pray that however angry I may grow, I will always choose and act with Love. With regards to the second, there is precedent that even the most bitter of enemies with the most diametrically opposed viewpoints can come together and find common ground. Just look at what Father Hesburgh was able to achieve. It’s said that “he loved to watch people who didn’t agree on anything get in a room and bridge all that” (“Hesburgh,” Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley – Moreau FYE Week 2). I hope that in the years to come, I can be a little like Father Hesburgh in that regard.
	Finally, just as I hope to love others, I must also remember to love myself. I am coming out of an extraordinarily stressful time in my life, and I will also soon be coming out as openly transgender. No doubt, that will bring on stress of its own. For all the lofty goals I am setting, I will need to remember to take time to slow down and rest. To take time to recharge, to recover, and to enjoy the good things I already have, which are plentiful. Or, in the words of Pico Iyer, “Don’t just do something. Sit there” (“Why we need to slow down our lives,” Pico Iyer – Moreau FYE Week 1). There is much to be done in the world. But there is also much that is already good and should be enjoyed for what it is. I intend to remember that, and to enjoy the good that is already here.