Interview: Amy Uelmen- Loving Jesus Even at the Office

Published about 1 month ago • 4 min read

INTERVIEW: AMY UELMEN- Loving Jesus Even at the Office

by Kristen West McGuire

(Amy Uelmen is a senior research fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. She was a founding director of the Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work at Fordham University (2001-2011). Formerly an associate at large law firm, she also is a consecrated member of the Focolare community. This interview was completed in 2007.)

Kristen: Where did you grow up?

Amy: I grew up in Los Angeles, and then headed east for college and law school and then pretty much stayed east.

Kristen: And your family was Catholic?

Amy: Yes. We went to Catholic school and were very active in our local parish. But the fabric of my spirituality comes from the Focolare Movement, a set of strong ideas that has permeated how I think about myself and my faith. We got involved in Focolare when I was 8 years old. Later, a Focolare house opened in L.A. and my sister and I were very involved with the youth there.

Kristen: What is the Focolare movement?

Amy: It’s an ecclesial movement started by Chiara Lubich. The overarching core of Unity plays itself out in many levels. There is a strong emphasis on building relationships of mutual love, and on that verse in the gospel of Matthew, “where two or three are gathered, there I am in their midst.” This presence of Christ in the community helps us to find a way to love all kinds of people. Focolare is well known for ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.

Kristen: Where did you attend college?

Amy: First I attended Georgetown University, and then GU Law School, and then I spent two and a half years in Italy and Switzerland attending a program of formation for living in a Focolare community house.

The break was super healthy and a way of soaking in an alternative perspective. It was a tremendous strength coming into a high-pressure work environment. That’s where I got the guts to buck the tide of some aspects of firm culture.

Kristen: Was the actual practice of law a real shock to you?

Amy: (laughs) Well, we should make distinctions. Any kid coming out of school finds the change from college to the work world challenging.

But, yes, the context of working for law firms is hard, and I think it’s getting worse. The system of making money for the firm is billable hours. Time is money. That’s where the rewards are perceived to be.

Kristen: How long did you work as an associate?

Amy: I was there three years full time, and then I went part-time.

Kristen: What?! Now wait, you’re not married, and you don’t have children, and you live in a Focolare community house. Why go part-time?

Amy: My reason was to reclaim space for aspects in my life other than work. My colleagues were mystified. I think it ties in with this sense of identity that people invest in their work. There are ways to work through the economics of going part-time, but the greatest tensions to work through are cultural. An eighty hour work week does not allow for a broader sense of identity.

Kristen: Was your move frightening or freeing?

Amy: As long as the reference point is only about balance, you have competing priorities, and that can be frightening. When you work in a strong all-absorbing cultural context, you need an alternative frame of reference, which for me was love. It’s not about balance so much as letting love permeate everything you do. And that’s freeing.

Kristen: How do you manage professional relationships differently now?

Amy: In having love as a focal point, it helps me to see when to challenge others to grow, and at the same time love also suggests when to stay in the background, rejoicing in the ways that others can be more and do more.

This applies to life in community, too. There is simplicity in seeing how love can transform everyone and everything we do. Focolare communities welcome everybody: doctors to plumbers to housewives, lots of education to little education, Republicans and Democrats. Everyone can set out on the journey and experience God’s love and respond to it.

Kristen: But don’t conflicts arise in community?

Amy: When conflicts arise, the question often becomes, “How can we grow in accepting and loving each other as we are?” It means discovering all of the ways in which we are a gift to each other. Discovering God’s love brings a ray of hope to so many circumstances. Transforming what you have already in your life, that is the raw material to be permeated by God’s love.