Requiem Aeternam: A reflection for Memorial Day

31 May 2021

The first commemoration of those who died in war was held in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania in October 1864. That long ago first memorial ceremony was held in a cemetery near what is now the intersection of US 322 and PA 45, a few miles south of Penn State University which had been founded only nine years earlier. 

 

It is unlikely that the three women who gathered others for that observance, one of whose son was killed and another whose father died in the civil war, foresaw that it would become a national holiday. 

 

Many Americans of a certain age remember and perhaps use the old term: Decoration Day.  My mom always referred to it that way even after it was officially renamed Memorial Day.  It was, and should be, a time to visit graves and war memorials, to place flags and flowers on the graves of the war dead, to attend public commemorations of the sacrifice made by men and women whose lives were prematurely ended, and, at least in Catholic cemeteries, a time to place candles in memory of the men and women who died in the service of their country. 

 

Memorial Day is a time to ask why?  The question is not 'why does war happen?'  War is a built-in feature of humans; the world will never be free of war any more than it will be free of sin.  Rather, we ask why men and women voluntarily risk their lives to defend that which they, and we, hold sacred. It is a time to wonder what it was like--and is like--to stand at the induction center, an eighteen year-old high school graduate or a newly minted nurse, being sworn into the military, knowing that he or she might not return.  Today is dedicated to the memory of those who didn't return.  There are more reasons why men and women are willing to risk and lose their lives than there are men and women in the military.  No matter the reason, the only response we can offer to those who lost their lives defending our country is gratitude, honor, and prayer.

 

Memorial Day should not be a day dedicated to automotive deals, clothing sales, cookouts, or that first weekend on the Cape or, for those of you from Pennsylvania, "Down da Shore."  All those things have their place. However,  it is critical that we keep our eyes and hearts fixed on the true meaning of, and reasons for, this day; to honor the memory of those who died protecting us. 

 

And, as we pray for those men and women, we also pray for their families whose lives were upended and irrevocably changed by their deaths.  The Gold Star mothers.  The dads who never got to play catch with a son or daughter again.   The many who were forced to make pilgrimages to foreign soil to visit the grave of a parent, a sibling, or a best friend buried there, and for those who never knew for sure, and will never know for sure, where a loved one's body is or if it was even buried.  

 

Be it standing at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Vietnam Memorial, or the memorial to the War dead in front of where Plymouth High School once stood, the only possible response is to remember, to thank, and to pray: 

 

Requiem aeternam                      

dona eis, Domine, 

et lux perpetua luceant eis. 

Requiescant in pace. 

 

"Eternal rest 

grant unto them O Lord, 

and let perpetual light shine upon them. 

May they rest in peace."

 

Amen

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

  

In the Name of the Father: Homily for the Solemnity of Holy Trinity

Dt 4:32-24, 39-40

Ps 33:4-5,6,9,18-19, 20,22

Rom 8:14-17

Mt 28:16-20

 

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity compels us to consider the most important truth of our faith. We recall this truth every time we begin and end Mass.  We invoke the Trinity every time we pray.  We call upon the Trinity whenever we say the words:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  What we call the Trinitarian formula is critical to every sacrament we celebrate from baptism to the anointing of the sick and dying.  The sign of the cross with the Trinitarian formula begins and ends everything the Church does.  As it should.  We read in The Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son  and of the Holy Spirit. "

 

Catholics are NEVER to be baptized by a priest using the bizarre formula: in the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier as those of a certain persuasion would like.  Indeed, if that formula is used for baptism it is invalid and the child must be baptized again.  This is as it should be. 

 

The Catechism continues,  "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity 

is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. . . .It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith . . . (It is) the light that enlightens them. . . . It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the hierarchy of the truths of faith.”  Every time we make the sign of the cross, we recall a mystery that is inexplicable. The Trinity remains inexplicable despite the vast number of books written about it.  Though each book may contain a bit of insight into the nature of the Trinity, no book captures the essence of the Trinity.  No book, or the sum of all books, will ever capture that full essence.  In the end, the dogma of the Trinity depends on faith and faith alone. 

 

A dictionary defines faith as:  “Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.”  That definition complements the one from the Letter to the Hebrews: “Faith is the conviction of things unseen.”   We must become comfortable with the definition of faith as mysterious because despite the absence of logical proof, despite the impossibility of philosophy or science  to explain the Trinity, one cannot call oneself Christian if he or she denies the Trinity.  Father.  Son.  Holy Spirit.

 

Many of you probably heard the legend that I did back in grade school a lot of decades ago.  It still serves to illustrate the impossibility of understanding the dogma of the Trinity. 

The great theologian and philosopher St. Augustine was walking along a beach trying to understand One God in Three Divine Persons.  He wanted to explain the Trinity through logic.  He noticed that a little boy had dug a hole in the sand and was walking back and forth between the water and the hole with a seashell filled with seawater.  He would fill the shell at the water’s edge and then empty it into the hole in the sand.  Augustine observed this for a while and then moved closer and asked what he was doing.  The boy responded that he was emptying the sea into the hole.  Augustine asked how he could expect to empty something as vast as the sea into a small hole?  The child responded, “I can empty the sea into this hole more easily than you can understand the Trinity.”  

 

Only through faith can we understand some things that our inadequate intelligence will never be able to comprehend. Even if we were to comprehend the Trinity, the limits of human vocabulary, the ultimate emptiness of all languages, the pallid nature of similes and metaphors, would not allow us to explain it in a way that others could understand.

 

The word Trinity does not appear in the Bible.  Rather, the understanding of the Trinity grew as the Church began to consider what Jesus had said and done during His time on earth. The doctrine of the Trinity is the doctrine that in the unity of God there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is only One God–-yet the Persons are distinct. Thus, Jesus always speaks of His Father as distinct from Himself, yet He also notes that “I and the Father are One.”  The same is true of the Holy Spirit.

 

Over the past weeks many of the gospels have come from Jesus' farewell discourse in John’s Gospel in which Jesus refers to both the Father and the Holy Spirit in reference to Himself several times throughout this farewell.  

 

The Trinity is, and will remain, a mystery forever.  The oft-repeated doxology: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end.  Amen" reaffirms the fundamental truth of our faith. 

 

It can also fuel hours of contemplation. 

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The photos below are from the recent retreat we gave at Cohasset on the South Shore.  Black and white is my first love in photography.  The first several rolls of film I shot back in 1977 were black and white.  when I went to England most of the shots were also black and white.   

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Come Holy Ghost: Homily for Pentecost

Acts 2:1-11

Ps 104

1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13

Jn 20:19-23

 

"Come Holy Ghost

Creator blest

and in our hearts 

take up they rest"

 

The hymn we all learned in childhood is a free translation and paraphrase of the ancient "Veni Creator Spiritus"  'Come Creator Spirit,' thought to have been composed by a German monk in the ninth century.  It has been set to music in various languages by many composers over the twelve centuries since, with a range of styles from Gregorian chant to somewhat dissonant twentieth century approaches.  Most shocking is the use of the last verse as the final words of the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites.  They are sung by Sr. Blanche as she ascends to the guillotine to face her death simply for being a nun of the monastery.  It is one of the most devastating scenes in all of opera.  

 

The second reading in the office of readings yesterday was part of a sermon by an anonymous sixth century African who wrote, "The disciples spoke in the languages of every nation . . . whoever received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue."  Today the Church speaks in the language of every nation as she embraces the languages of the people.  In that sense Catholic Church speaks in tongues to all peoples at all times.

 

One hears in theology school that one cannot understand the New Testament without first knowing the old. This is particularly true of Pentecost which is not a uniquely Christian term or feast though the meaning of Pentecost for us is different than is Pentecost in the Jewish tradition. 

 

Pentecost derives from the Greek root meaning fifty days.  The Jewish Pentecost, also known as Shavuot, commemorates Moses receiving the Ten Commandments fifty days after the Exodus.  In the Jewish liturgical year Pentecost falls fifty days  after the first seder of Passover. This year Shavuot began Sunday evening May 16 and ended two days later on Tuesday May 18.  

 

In the Catholic liturgical year Pentecost falls fifty days after Easter, with Easter Sunday counted as day number one.  Just as Moses received the wisdom of the Decalogue fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt, the disciples, and by extension the Church, received the wisdom of the Holy Spirit fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, His exodus from death. 

 

The first reading is dramatic. Wind.  Fire.  Speaking in tongues. A shocked populace hearing the poorly educated and unsophisticated Galileans speaking whatever language was necessary to tell the city's many visitors the Good News of Jesus.  Scholars sometimes refer to the speaking in tongues as “the reversal of Babel,” the undoing of the event that caused the earth's multiplicity of languages, a multiplicity that is a source of division among the peoples. That division and the periodic conflicts that result from it will remain,  no matter how many COEXIST bumper stickers travel the highway.  

 

At Pentecost, that which had been split apart  by man's pride at Babel was rejoined through Jesus’ humble obedience to the Father in Jerusalem.

 

Upon the descent of the Holy Spirit, that which had been shattered by hubris, was reformed through Jesus' sending of the Holy Spirit.

 

The reading from Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians is important because emphasizes both the unity of believers and the diversity of gifts which they receive, the diverse talents that each possesses and, by implication, those talents and abilities which each does not possess.  

 

Paul wrote, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”  We celebrate those manifestations today, we celebrate those gifts of the Spirit.  Each of us is given gifts in various combinations.  These gifts are neither identical to nor interchangeable with the gifts given to anyone else.  A major life task is to discover our unique gifts and develop them.  

 

In some strata of American society it is fashionable, if not required, to deny even the possibility of differences and distinctions, abilities and inabilities, talents and complete lack of talent.  The reality is, however, that no one can be anything he or she wants to be simply by wanting it. It was never true.  It will never be true.  No, we are not all equal in ability, talent, intelligence, or anything else.  

 

Some in government and society go so far as to deny fundamental biological differences with delusional intensity, demanding that others buy into that delusion at the penalty of job loss or other draconian penalties. The result of denying differences in the name of equality results in a bizarre pseudo-equality that is a malignant form of exclusivity. This pseudo-equality fuels a heightened sense of specialness.  As a result each individual or group insists that his, her, or the its specialness must be recognized as the most special of all specialness. 

 

Med school professors oftentimes share parodies regarding the body during anatomy or physiology class. The general outline is an argument among organs or body parts about which of them is the most important,  arguing among themselves which is the supreme controller, which is the MOST critical to the life, comfort, and survival of the organism.  But, except for the appendix, an organ of sorts that does appear to be useless, there is no most important organ.  All of the body's organs are equally necessary.  Each has unique functions that cannot be replaced by another.  The lungs cannot do the work of the liver.  The liver will never do the work of the heart. The pancreas cannot replace the kidneys.  If one organ or organ-system fails the body dies as one by one the other organs and organ systems fail.  

 

No one can become anything he or she wants to be simply by wanting to be that thing or pretending to be it. No one can become something simply by "identifying" as it.  We all live within realities that are chromosomal, physiological, psychological, and cognitive among many others.  Some of these limits are inborn others are acquired.  We all have strengths and abilities.  We all have weaknesses, inabilities, and disabilities. It will never not be so. The only true equality, the exclusive lowest common denominator among humans, is that we are sinners. We are sinners loved by God, but, sinners nonetheless. We can never afford to forget that. 

 

The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit have been bestowed upon us. Our first task is to cooperate with them in the manner to which each of us is called. The second task is to use those gifts and graces to share the revelation of Jesus with those whom we meet using whatever language necessary.

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Sometimes I shoot pics of things that simply catch my eye.  This kind of photography is possible only when alone and in the right mood.  Any number of things may shout 'Shoot me, shoot me.'  So I do. 

All three of these were shot on the same Sunday morning, fairly early in the day, while wandering the streets of Ljubljana in July 2018.  

Without the two turquoise vases shouting out this photo never would have happened. 

A tired symbol of modern life:  the satellite dish

The flowers in window boxes drove this photo.

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Love Makes the World Go Round

 7^th Sunday of Easter 

Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26

Ps 102

1Jn 4-11-16

Jn 17:11b-19

 

Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord on Thursday marking forty days after Jesus’ resurrection.  One week from today we will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit.  We have celebrated the full Glorification Event of Jesus, from His birth, to His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.  The day after Pentecost we will resume ordinary time which will continue throughout the summer and most of the autumn until the new liturgical year begins on November 28^th the first Sunday of Advent.  

 

During the fifty days after Easter we heard of the coming together of the community that believed Jesus to be the Messiah, the Promised One, the Christ.  We read a few weeks ago:  “It was an Antioch that they were first called Christians.”  At no time in the history of the world since then have there not been those who are called, and who call themselves, Christian.  It wasn’t always smooth. It still isn't. Sinful human nature raised its head more than once in the history of the early Church.  As it continues to raise its head today. That too is unlikely to change.

 

In today's reading from Acts we see Peter coming into his own as leader of the Church, the rock upon which the Church was built.  It was necessary to choose a man to take the place of Judas, the suicide.  Rather than a contentious campaign or vetting possible replacements by a committee of apostles, Peter opted to flip a coin to determine who, between two men, would  take that place.  The coin toss favored Matthias whose feast we celebrated on the 14th. 

 

The second reading from the First Letter of John begins with a difficult mandate.  “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another.  . . . if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”

 

“We also must love one another.”  

 

There is nothing unique about the commandment to love. There is nothing specifically Christian about the command to love others as you love yourself.   All of the world’s great religions have some variation of  what is called the Golden Rule to love others, to treat others as you yourself wish to be treated, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Nothing about that commandment makes it uniquely Christian. 

 

As the late Jesuit scripture scholar  Father Stanley Marrow explained in his commentary, “loving with . . . utter selflessness, even to laying down of one’s life, is not uniquely Christian.  What . . . must distinguish Christians is:  when they love, they love as Christ loved them and because he loved them.”  We can appear to love others for many reasons.  But only when we love because Jesus loved us, can we truly say we love. Father's commentary is a welcome antidote to the appalling post-Vatican II song--one cannot call it a hymn--"They Will Know We Are Christian By Our Love"-- a song with a thumping beat, a hilariously simple-minded chorus, and narcissistic lyrics, one would assume love is a copyrighted characteristic of Christianity.  It is not though self-adultation certainly comes through in the lyrics.

 

John's Gospel is fascinating and, at times, challenging to read.  John gives us a unique understanding of Jesus, a unique Christology, compared with Matthew, Mark and Luke.   John focuses on the meaning of the events of Jesus' life for our salvation. The Gospel reading today was the last half of chapter 17 of John's Gospel a chapter is sometimes referred to as the High Priestly Prayer. 

 

It  is unique because there are no parables, stories, discourse, instruction, or dialogue with the apostles.  The chapter is one long prayer from Jesus to the Father as he prepares to enter into his passion.  It is a chapter worth reading slowly at home.  It is deserving of prolonged meditation.  

 

As the second reading challenges our concept of love the Gospel challenges our relationship with the world. “I gave them your word, and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world . . . I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one”

 

We cannot afford not to be in the world.  Nor can we afford to be OF the world.  

 

We can only remain in God, we can only remain in love, if we live in accordance with God's Word.  We can only remain in love if we preach the Gospel of Jesus on a constant basis, and necessarily by what we say.  We may be more effective when we live according to the Gospel and preach that Gospel to all whom we meet through our actions, using words only when needed.  

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Some night shots from Ljubljana, Slovenia.  One of the great advantages of being there was that our community was a short and very safe walk from the center of the city (the two safest cities I've ever lived in have been Taipei and Ljubljana.  Midnight photography was completely anxiety free.  No way in hell would I go to do night photography in D.C.).

Looking down on a floating dock/bar in the Ljubljanski river.

Black and white is a perfect medium for night photography  Much more latitude in the processing than with color.

Have been fascinated for a long time with shooting glass, especially when illuminated by candle light. 

Ljubljanski Grad (castle) overlooking the river  The castle was part of the view from my tiny room at the SJ house.  

Vodnikov Hram restaurant.  Good food.  Excellent photo subject. 

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

I Call You Friends: Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter

 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

Ps 98

1 Jn 4:7-10

Jn 15:9-17

 

The Acts of the Apostles and John's Gospel are prominent during the Easter Season, a season that is rapidly coming to an end.  Acts describes the growth and success of the apostles' mission, along with the inevitable conflicts and squabbles that were part of the Church's early growth. It is fascinating reading.

One of the things that has mystified and amused me over the years is observing apostle bashing, the most popular indoor sport in theology schools.  

 

Apostle bashing reaches its zenith during Lent when we are reminded of the apostles misstatements and miscues in the readings.  Commentators and preachers have a field day sneering at Peter and the others. However apostle bashing shines an unflattering light on the bashers because of assumptions underlying their tirades: I never would have acted that way.  I never would have misunderstood, rejected, or tried to manipulate Jesus.  Were I there I would have TOTALLY understood everything. The reality is that none of us would have responded any better than the apostles.  Most likely, we would have reacted to Jesus' teaching more like the Pharisees and lawyers.

 

The bashers have a lot to say about Peter's triple denial, the apostles' non-presence at the foot of the cross, and so on.  They have much less to say about the apostles we meet in Acts following Jesus' resurrection. 

 

Over the past weeks we have seen a different Peter in Acts than the stumbling, bumbling, misspeaking and denying one of the gospels.  He is now confident, eloquent and humble, quite a contrast to the brash, shoot-from-the-hip-and-the-lip Peter we came to know through the gospels. The man who swung a sword in Gethsemane is now abashed by Cornelius' homage. "Get up.  I myself am also a human being."  The man who denied Jesus three times, now fearlessly preaches Jesus death and resurrection in hostile territory. Quite a change. 

 

The reading from Acts is discontinuous.  We miss the background that makes Peter's statements radical in his speaking to Cornelius and his guests.  Peter is preaching against an exclusivist tendency in the Judaism of the time.  By extension he is also preaching against our own desire for exclusivism.  God's impartiality was not, and is not, a new or uniquely Christian teaching. The statement that whoever fears him and acts "uprightly is acceptable to him" is definitive of Christianity. 

 

The Jesuit Biblical scholar Xavier Leon-Dufour traces the idea of God's impartiality back to the Old Testament, beginning with the psalms and moving to Jonah.  He writes, ". . .gradually we see the emergence of the idea that apart from the Jew Yahweh's love even embraces the pagans as well. . ."  

 

Thus, Peter's order that the Gentiles be given baptism is no surprise.  

 

The second reading from the First Letter of John and the reading from John's Gospel are perfectly intertwined. "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins."  This verse recalls Paul's Letter to the Romans, "(God) shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."   John and Paul both defined the human condition: we are sinners.  And they described God's response to that condition: His love.  We are sinners loved by God.  That is why we rejoice during this Easter Season.  We are sinners loved by God and redeemed by God.

 

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.  . . . Love one another." These words are among the most poignant and comforting in John's Gospel.  

 

One important dimension of friendship is that we are never really separated from true friends.  It doesn't matter if there are thousands of miles between friends. It matters little if dementia wrecks in the mind and memory or if one or the other has died. The relationship between friends never ends  because true friends are united by love.  Love never dies, succumbs to dementia or moves away.  As our friendship with Jesus grows, as his indwelling with us permeates deeper into our beings, it becomes more natural for us to share that love with others. That sharing is less through our words than our actions in responding to the needs of the other.  

 

Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman defined our friendship with Jesus, and the ideal relationship between two people when he chose his motto:  Cor ad Cor Loquitur.  Heart speaks unto Heart. He wrote the following prayer about friendship: 

 

"Shine through me Jesus

and be so in me

that every soul I come in contact with 

may feel your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see no longer me, 

but only You."

______________________________

Blossoming tree in the front yard.

Tulips at the house nextdoor

Dogwoods in front.  Pushed the processing very far to get this watercolor effect as opposed to the clear blue sky that was the original background.

Gasson Hall at the end of the main drive to BC.  I suspect parents turn in, see this, and reach for the checkbook. 

St. Mary's Hall Jesuit residence.  Mailbox here, frequently eat here, but don't live here.  

The entrance to St. Mary's looking toward Gasson.  The tulips will be done by the end of next week and replaced with something pink.

A kind of outdoor classroom.  Science major at Penn State resented English majors.  In beautiful weather they were sitting cross-legged under a tree discussing Virginia Wolff and we were under ventilation hoods in organic chem lab.  

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter

Acts 9:26-31

Ps 22

1 Jn 3:18-24

Jn 15:1-8

The readings we hear from Acts are an important window onto the history of the Church, detailing how the groups of believers came together into what became Church, a Church that was soon identified by the name "Christian" as we heard in the reading on Tuesday. We see ways of thinking and behaving in the apostles identical to ours. They argued among themselves. There were disagreements. But, they came together when they had to and responded to what was going on around them. They were not pious fools. They were believers who realized the importance of prudent action.

Today's reading brings to mind Frank Loesser's WW II jazz-inflected patriotic song with the hymn-like title: "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." The song's underlying message is that while praising the Lord we simultaneously must act in our own interest. One of the best lines in the song is:

"Praise the Lord and swing into position.

Can't afford to be a politician."

It appears that those who can't do campaign for congress and higher office. The apostles acted prudently here. When the Greeks got touchy and threatened to kill the newly converted Paul Barnabas got him out of danger by sending him home to Tarsus where he would be safer, and perhaps where he could be observed for a bit.

The former persecutor of followers of The Way, the man who stood by and silently assented to Stephen's martyrdom, had to learn prudence himself. His reputation precede him and the others were a bit wary.

We need more than good intentions, enthusiasm, and a pleasant demeanor to succeed in any work of the Church. Chrysostom notes in his 20th homily on Acts that in addition to grace, human resourcefulness and sometimes caution are important when engaged in apostolic activity. He wrote, "You see, God does not do everything directly through his grace. He frequently compels the apostles to act in line with the rule of prudence."

While the first reading impresses on us the need for prudent action the second reading repeats a version of the two great commandments, "And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us." The first part of this double command is not difficult as worded. The second part is a real challenge at times. Ideally our love for others should emerge from frequent reception of the sacraments and from regular prayer.

Preaching on John's Gospel is never easy. The Gospel is dense with little overlap with Matthew, Mark, or Luke. The farming images are a challenge for us who live in an east coast industrial society rather than on farms. We don't have much experience with sheep, goats, or grape arbors. Lamb comes shrink wrapped. Goat cheese comes in a little tub. Wine is poured from a jug with the Gallo label on the side. In the end it is our loss.

The image of Jesus as the vine is prominent in John. In the second volume of his study of Jesus, Pope Benedict discusses the principle images of Jesus in John's Gospel, including the image of the vine. He wrote, "The vine is a title that embodies" a whole understanding of church. The vine signifies Jesus' inseparable oneness with his own, who through him and with him are all "vine," and whose calling is to "remain" in the vine. Jesus is inseparable from his own and his own are one with him and in him." The word "remain" appears eight times in the few verses of John that were just proclaimed. That frequency highlights its importance.

What does it mean to remain in Jesus;

He who is The Way?

What does it mean to be steadfast clinging to Jesus:

who is The Truth?

What does it mean to be consistent in one's faith

that Jesus is The Life?

What does it mean to stay, to remain, to engraft oneself on the vine?

It means a mix of prudence, love, and unwavering commitment.

We are living in an era of unprecedented divorce rates. Professional sports contracts mean nothing. Vowed religious life is afflicted with broken promises and commitments. What is difficult about understanding the word forever? Initial enthusiasm is easy. There is a rush of something enthusiasm in the first bloom of romance, there is euphoria during the first months after pronouncing vows. The challenge in both marriage and religious life--and probably in professional sports as well--comes when things get mundane, monotonous, routine, frustrating, infuriating, and difficult. The challenge begins when reality rears it head. That is when the enthusiastic high has to be replaced by perseverance and prayer. Only perseverance combined with prayer allows us to remain part of the vine that is Christ who instructs us to remain in Him as He remains in us.

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Spring is exploding at BC. Wandered with camera using a 70-300 mm lens for all the shots. Some cropping. Glorious weather.

First two shots are reflections of the tulips in front of Saint Mary's Hall, blowing in the wind and reflected through distorted old glass.

Shooting across the top of the dining room table in the satellite community in which I live.

Grape hyacinths down the street.

The neighbor's archway. Some very tasteful landscaping in the neighborhood.

All the trees are blossoming.

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD