The Rent We Pay
Blessed Solanus Casey

Father Solanus Guild Reflection by Br. John Celichowski, OFM Cap. – January 30, 2025
The day after Christmas, the communities at the Solanus Casey Center and St. Bonaventure Monastery received the news of the sudden and unexpected death of Sidney Davis at age 54. Three days later, the world received the news of the death of Jimmy Carter at age 100, after more than two years in hospice care.
In many ways, they were different men. Sidney Eulas Davis II was born in California in 1970. James Earl Carter, Jr. was born in Georgia in 1924. One was a Secular Franciscan who rode his three-wheeled bike, complete with side baskets and a safety flag, up and down the streets of Detroit. The other was Governor of Georgia and then President of the United States, who traveled all over the world on Air Force One. One was unmarried and lived with a disability. The other was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who was married to his wife Rosalynn for 77 years.
What our brother Sidney and President Carter had in common, however, was a deep spirit of public service. One was exercised within the relatively small world of Detroit’s East Side, particularly at the Solanus Casey Center, and involved hours of prayer and the humble but important tasks of greeting guests and maintaining the Votive Chapel alongside the outdoor Stations of the Cross and Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. The other was exercised teaching Sunday School for decades at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, negotiating peace and promoting human rights in dozens of countries, and helping to build thousands of homes with Habitat for Humanity. One received words of thanks. The other received the Nobel Peace Prize (2002).
Service, it is said, is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on earth. Some form of that saying has been attributed to many people, including British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm, and Marian Right Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. All but Ms. Wright Edelman have passed from this life to the next.
Bl. Solanus Casey had a similar attitude. “We should ever be grateful for and love the vocation to which God has called us,” he wrote. “This applies to every vocation because, after all, what a privilege it is to serve God, even in the least capacity.” These words were not mere platitudes. He lived them, from his simple desk and ministry as the Porter of St. Bonaventure Monastery to the kitchen and dining room of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen.
The type of work or its location weren’t matters of concern for Solanus. He observed, “What does it matter where we go? Wherever we go, won’t we be serving God there? And wherever we go, won’t we have Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament with us?” His vow of obedience and living in places as diverse as Detroit, New York, Milwaukee, and Huntington, Indiana reinforced that lesson over his many years as a friar.
When he had to contend with the worldly ambitions of his disciples, Jesus told them, “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43b-45). Though very different, Sidney Davis, Jimmy Carter, and Bl. Solanus all demonstrated that redefinition of greatness with their lives. We pray for the grace, courage, creativity, and desire to do the same with ours.