Homily for Memorial Day 2025

 

Memorial Day was not meant to be a day for cookouts, road races, traffic jams, and sunburns. Nor is it the first day of summer.  The first observance that became Memorial Day was in Boalsburg, PA in October 1864, when a group of women placed flowers on the graves of the Civil War dead. Memorial Day is meant commemorate those who died in war, from the civil war to today’s wars.

 

My mom always referred to it by its original name: Decoration Day. It was, and should be, a time to visit the graves, place flowers and American flags, and, at least for Catholics, the attend Mass and to light candles in memory of the war dead. It is a time for public services in memory of those who died in the service of our country.

 

We ask why men and women bravely and voluntarily risk their lives to defend that which they and we hold sacred?   There are more reasons 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--be it at D-Day or in Afghanistan--is honor, gratitude, prayer for their souls, and prayer for the consolation of their families.

 

Before entering the Jesuits in 1997 I spent four years as a psychiatrist at the VA Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont.  Those years were eye-opening and heart-rending. It was not, is not, and never will be, easy to serve.  It will never be easy to recall those friends who died while the speaker survived. Many men broke down in my office as they spoke of fallen comrades and dealt with what has come to be known as survivor's guilt.  I kept a box of Kleenex Man-Size Tissue on the desk and a spare box in the drawer.  They had to be replenished often. This is not an easy holiday for some of those veterans who returned .

 

When asked to celebrate Mass for Memorial  or Veterans' Day, I invariably choose the reading from Sirach 44 that begins:.

 

"Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers in their generations."

 

The ultimate sacrifice that many of those who served in the military made--and will continue to make--can never be ignored or forgotten. 

 

Further along in Sirach we also hear:

 

"There are some of them who have left a name,
    so that men declare their praise.
And there are some who have no memorial,
    who have perished as though they had not lived . . . ,"

 

That is the plight of those who died in battle. Anonymity and hiddenness. 

 

One of the our country’s most important monuments is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It preserves the memory of all those who have been forgotten by time.  Perhaps the fame of the veteran is in the hiddenness of his or her service.  The honor of a veteran is doing a job day-by-day knowing that there will be little to no recognition or appreciation. 

 

The sacrifice of those who died must be acknowledged and their memories kept alive. We learn from those memories.  Thus, It is important to visit war memorials and read the names, it is important to visit the graves of those who died in war, and to listen to the stories of those who survive, if they are able to talk about it,  or to sit silently with them in their grief.

 

What went through the minds of those men and women when they were deployed?  What was it like packing before shipping out?  What was it like saying goodbye with the threat of not returning hanging silently over those goodbyes?   What was it like, what is it like, when there is a knock on the door and one knows the message before hearing the feared words: 

"We regret to inform you that . . . ?

 

"Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God." 

 

The reality is that sometimes peace can only be accomplished or maintained through war.  Sometimes the peacemakers are those who must fight.  Ideally swords will be pounded into plowshares and spears will be turned into pruning hooks. But at times plowshares must be reworked into swords and pruning hooks back into spears. 

 

The fundamental human condition is that we are sinners.  Some of those sins

threaten the lives and safety of others.  At times those sins ignite the fuse that leads to war. This has been true since the beginning of time; it will be true until the end of time.  Thus, our gratitude to those who died while serving, and our gratitude to their families who mourn.  As we remember them we pray:

 

Requiem aeternam                                  

dona eis, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Requiescant in pace.

 

"Eternal rest

grant unto them O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace."

 

 ______________________________________________

The photos are self-explanatory,  The candles were taken in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.  The crucifix overlooks the graves at the Jesuit cemetery in Weston, MA where I will be buried in time.  

 

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

What's in a Name?: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easte

 

Acts 14:21-27

Ps 145

Rev 21:1-5a

Jn 13:31a, 34-35

 

The first reading from Acts gives us history  anchored in a specific time and place.  Among other things it suggests that Paul and Barnabas could have benefited from GPS or at least a good travel agent.  They certainly covered a lot of ground in the first missionary efforts of the Church.  At times Acts is a combination travelogue and introductory course in missiology. It describes the difficult work of spreading the message of Jesus crucified and risen from the dead, to the world well-beyond Jerusalem.  Acts describes the challenge of sharing the Good News with those who would not have heard it otherwise. 

 

Much was happening as the community came together, growing in leaps and bounds.  It developed a unique identity such that in the reading on Tuesday we heard  “For a whole year they met with the Church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.” 

 

"and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians."

 

As Paul, Barnabas and the others spread out in their missionary efforts what came to be known as the Church was gaining a foothold, and the believers were given a name. That name would serve as a concise description of these people.  It was a name that would accrue more and more associations—both positive and negative—over the ensuing millennia.

 

Associations to the word Christian emerged, and continue to emerge, from observations of how Christians conducted-- and continue to conduct--themselves in the public arena,  even when 'being a good Christian' permits advancing an immoral agenda. There is nothing Christian about the intentional taking of human life at any point from conception to natural death in old age.  

 

That religious belief has a profound effect on behavior was well illustrated in Rodney Stark's book: The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History.  The book considers the period covered by Acts and into the first two or three centuries of the Church, a rather narrow span of time given the two millennia of Church history.

 

Stark described behaviors in the early Church that he contends drew many to embrace Christianity.  One of the most fascinating was the Christian community's response to plague.  From the very beginning Christians acted on the mandate to care for the sick.  Stark suggests that caring for the afflicted diminished the community's incidence of plague as a result of immunity developed from low-level exposure to the infectious agents; a primitive form of vaccination if you will.  In addition; the nascent Christian Church held, even then, absolute prohibitions against the taking of child-brides and against abortion.   Both of these prohibitions increased the life-expectancy of women who were Christian.

 

If the first reading from Acts gives us a history anchored in time and place,  Revelation indicates a point well-beyond the horizon anchored neither in time nor in geography.  It hints at what is to come in veiled language.  The images are strange, but strange is the only way to describe that which we cannot know in this life.  The reading does not tell us the how or the when.  But it assures us that we WILL be transformed in that instant when vital functions cease and everything changes.  We are reminded of this in a preface for the funeral Mass:

“Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended. . . . It is a great comfort knowing “there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain for the old order has passed away.”    Pain.  Suffering.  Sorrow. Those experiences that mark our lives on earth will come to an end in that final moment. 

 

The Gospel brings us back to the meaning of Christian and the associations people make upon hearing the word Christian.  Our identity as Catholics, is anchored in Jesus’ mandate.  “I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”  Christian identity should be apparent in those who follow Jesus’ command.  But, because we are sinners, that identity is not always visible.

 

Back in the seventies, a time during which some truly awful church songs were foisted upon us, and which, alas, remain firmly implanted in cheap, ugly, disposable "worship aids" and loose-leaf lectionaries, one of the most annoying and wrongheaded featured a thumping marching chorus and the stunningly narcissistic self-aggrandizing lyric:

 

“They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

They will knoow woooo  we are Christians by our love.”

 

That last know-wo sometimes sounded like the communal passing of a kidney stone.  

 

Musical value:  close to zero

Theology:  little to none.

Narcissistic index:  like American Express, priceless

 

Perhaps if the verse read, 'they SHOULD know we are Christians by how we show our love,' the words would be less grating, the sentiment less condescending, and more descriptive of a goal which we should seek. There is nothing wrong with the conditional sense.  Rather than assuming that we manifest our love so perfectly that others will immediately see us as different is more realistic—and humble—to admit that we have to work at it. Just because we proclaim ourselves Christians it doesn’t mean that the love part derives automatically, without effort, prayer, and self-examination. 

 

“The Lord is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and of great kindness.

The Lord is good to all

and compassionate toward all his works.”

 

That is a great consolation even when we act in a way that prompted Dr. Rieux,

in Camus' The Plague to observe: "as you know Christians sometimes say that sort of thing without really thinking it. They're better than they seem."  

 _____________________________________________________

 

The photos are from Sun Moon Lake, one of the more beautiful places I've ever been.  

 

The view from Ci-en Pagoda.  It was quite a walk to get up there.  I could not do it today.

Bikes at the hotel in which we stayed. 

The gate and the small shaft of light refelcted on the pavement drew me to this shot.

A lower level of Ci-en

Fr. Ignatius Hung, SJ in profile. 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Day of Prayer for Vocations

 

Today is the 62^nd World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  In a message written at the Gemelli Clinic in Rome and dated 19 March 2025, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the late Pope Francis wrote:

 

“A vocation is a precious gift that God sows in our heart, a call to leave ourselves behind and embark on a journey of love and service. Every vocation in the Church, ordained, consecrated or lay, is a sign of the hope that God has for this world and for his children.”

 

He continues: “For Christians, hope is more than mere human optimism: it is a certainty based on our faith in God, who is at work in each of our lives. Vocations mature through the daily effort to be faithful to the Gospel, and through prayer, discernment and service.” The examples of religious vocations are many.

 

In her autobiography: The Ear of the Heart  Mother Dolores Hart, a Benedictine nun at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut gives an accurate definition of a religious vocation:  "Many people don't understand the difference between a vocation and your own idea about something.  A vocation is a call—one you don't necessarily want.  The only thing I ever wanted to be was an actress.  But I was called by God."  She might have added that it is never easy as she went on to described her first night in monastery.    “I was consumed with overwhelming loneliness . . . I lay awake on the cot for a long time. . . terrified by the enormity of the step I had taken.  I began praying . . . I cried myself to sleep that night.  I would cry myself to sleep every night for the next three years." She remains at Regina Laudis today now age 86.  Many in religious vows can identify with her feelings of isolation and the enormity of the step one takes upon entering.

 

The word vocation derives from the Latin root:  Voco, vocare, vocatus.  To call.  To name.  To summon. To invite.  To challenge. The various meanings overlap but also stand apart,  each with shades of meaning.  that explain the uniqueness of each vocation. After 28 years as a Jesuit (in August) and 18 as a priest (next month) I've heard many vocation stories and have shared mine more than a few times. Some of the stories proceeded smoothly whereas others were marked by agonizing doubts, fits and starts, paralyzing uncertainty, and, in a few cases, false starts. 

 

Mother Dolores' yes garnered headlines in the magazines of the time.  Very few people knew she was going to enter until she walked through the monastery gate and took her place behind the grille.  Most vocations do not attract the kind of attention Mother Dolores’ did, except perhaps from family and friends. Not all are pleased or supportive but it seems the majority are. 

 

About three years ago there was quite a buzz over the movie "Father Stu" starring Dorchester's own Mark Wahlberg.  The movie tells the story of the late Father Stuart Long who is described in one review as: an "unbaptized boxer from Montana with a foul mouth and a troubled relationship with his parents.” To the consternation of many, he entered the seminary.

 

The script writers played fast and loose with some of the facts of his life but on the whole those who knew Fr. Stu  deem the movie accurate. A few are put off by the language, but . . . he was a boxer.  Most of them don't say gee whillikers, drat, or you so and so, when angry.  When he was ordained in 2007, six months as I was, Fr. Stu was already terminally ill with inclusion body myositis, an autoimmune neuromuscular disease for which there is no treatment, dying seven years following his ordination in June 2014.

 

A religious vocation takes time to reveal itself.  It also take a long time after entering before a man or woman is to ready to make a solemn commitment.  Thus formation and preparation are more than a year or two.  I don't know any order in which anyone can count the number of years from entry to final vows using the fingers of just one hand. Only after years of prayer, testing, self-examination, and observing, while being observed and tested, can one be ready for that final commitment.  The course is not always easy. 

 

Sister Deirdre Byrne, aka Sister Dede, is the blood sister of Bishop William Byrne, Bishop of Springfield, MA.  She is a retired full-bird army colonel, a solemnly professed sister in the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and a physician who is board-certified in both family practice and surgery. Her journey into the Little Workers was anything but smooth, not so much on her question of a vocation but the logistics of entering a congregation. That journey included rejection by one congregation.

 

Fr. Chase Hilgenbrinck, was a professional soccer player, who played briefly in Boston for  the New England Revolution before he retired and entered Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary.

He is now a priest of the Diocese of Peoria.

 

Despite the drawbacks, the losses and 'give ups' that accompany the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, many of us who have lived religious life for years can imagine no other life. 

 

Two elements are crucial for vocations. The first is prayer, prayer for vocations, prayer for those discerning vocations,  and prayer for those who are living their vocations.  The second is simply asking and listening. Toward the end of his message, the late pope wrote, “The discovery of our vocation comes about as the result of a journey of discernment. That journey is never solitary, but develops within a Christian community and as a part of that community.”

 

It is important that someone ask and listen to the response.  That someone may be a parent or grandparent who sees something, a friend who recognizes a spark, or a vowed religious with a certain intuition.  Someone needs to ask the simple question,

"Are you thinking of entering religious life or seminary?"  Then they need to continue to listen and respond. Ask, "what brought you to this decision?"  "have you begun the process?" Listen to the answers.  But . . .  never ever answer the question,  "What should I do?". That is between the individual and God.  No one else dare interfere with that dialog.  And pray that the young—or not so young—man or women will say with Mary,

 

"Fiat mihi secundum tuum." 

 

May it be done to me according to your will.   

_______________________________________

Photos are from LJubljana, specifically a restaurant "Pop's Place" a short walk from the SJ community in which I lived located on the river.  Once I discovered it, met the owner, a Slovenian who was raised in the US and graduated from UCLA, it became a regular destination, particularly every other Wednesday night when I returned by train from Pleterje in Northeastern Slovenia.  I stopped for a beer.  Burgers were fantastic, this from a man whose final meal would be a cheeseburger (rare) and fries should he have to face a firing squad.   

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Homily Vacation

 Was up in Vermont from Wednesday until today (Saturday).  Wasn't sure I would be back Saturday or Sunday thus have no public Masses at which to preach.  No homily.  Decided to simply post a bunch of photos of Piran, Slovenia.  Piran is a small town on the small coast of Slovenia situated on the Adriatic Sea.  I only spent one day there but it was one packed with photography.  The weather was perfect with periodic rain, occasional downpours, and clearing in the morning.  Stayed in a Franciscan friary near the center of town.  If I ever get back to Slovenia I head immediately to Piran where a friend has an apartment that he would be happy to loan me (it is his respite from being a surgeon elsewhere).  

 

The center of town.  Normally it would be jammed with tourists.  It was not a good day to be a tourist.

Took refuge in an archway during a deluge.  They came and went during the day.

The Franciscan Friary at which I stayed.  Traveled with another SJ who was attending a meeting there.  Never saw him the entire time until we were returning home.

There is no water on the lens.  Took refuge under an awning during another cloudburst.  The rain is on the window of the shop in front of which I was standing.

Followed this grop around for a while hoping they would stop.  They did.

The next morning.  Within an hour the clouds cleared. 

The harbor, the bell tower, and the baptistry, the hexagonal building to the right of the tower. 

 Back to homilies next week. 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD