Since I learned that Gustavo Gutierrez passed, I’ve been thinking of him and the time I spent with him at Boston College in the summers of 2008 and 2010. I’m still amazed at the joy he radiated in all he said and did. Here is my favorite story with Gustavo Gutierrez:

After class, I’d help him walk back to his room on the main campus. We would walk by White Mountain, an ice cream shop across Comm Ave. from Boston College’s campus. Every day, we’d stop for ice cream. He enjoyed ice cream like no one else I’ve ever seen. His face lit up in pure delight.

And every day Gustavo picked vanilla, even though he had many different flavors to choose from. I asked him why he only opted for vanilla ice cream (that would be my last pick). Gustavo told me about growing up in Lima, where his father was a day laborer and infrequently found work.

When Gustavo’s father did find work, he would take his daily wage and on the way home, use it to buy Gustavo and his sisters ice cream. Gustavo recalled this and laughed, adding how his mother always complained that she could buy so much more food than the luxury of ice cream.

Gustavo explained: “But this is how God is with us. God does not just give us the basics, only what we need. God delights in us and loves us gratuitously, abundantly. God wants to spoil us, wants to see us enjoying life in its fullness. Just like a father treating his child to ice cream.”

I hope you’ll join me in celebrating Gustavo Gutierrez by enjoying some ice cream—or whatever delights you—and then take some time to sit in the presence of the God who delights in you exactly as you are.  And then, labor for a world that honors the dignity and agency of all.