ROCHESTER HILLS — As students, faculty and staff at Oakland University lined up to receive ashes on their foreheads during an Ash Wednesday gathering in Oakland’s student center, other students peered curiously through the windows or paused their game of pool to catch a glimpse.
The Ash Wednesday event, organized by Fr. Steve Mateja, a priest in solidum at St. John Fisher Chapel University Parish in Auburn Hills, is typically held at the parish, which serves as the home base for the university’s Catholic campus ministry.
This year, however, Fr. Mateja and students from the campus ministry decided to bring the Lenten witness to the university’s central campus hub, an auditorium-style event space called “The Habitat” in the student center, where students come to grab lunch, study or play pool.
Sharing and witnessing to the Gospel is not just a task for the clergy, Fr. Mateja said, and shouldn’t be confined to homes or church pews.
“Jesus commands all of us to go out and teach all of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Fr. Mateja said. “We, as Catholic Christians, have a right to be present in the world. We have a right to wear our faith on our sleeve. We have a right to worship God — the Gospel isn’t meant to be only for our homes.” Fr. Mateja said any witnessing to the Catholic faith needs to remain respectful, and his hope is simply to let everyone know the saving love and power of Jesus Christ.
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