Homilies

Readings: Genesis 2, 7-9, 3, 1-7; Psalm 51; Romans 5, 12-19; Matthew 4, 1-11.

Genesis: The great book: supposedly put together by Moses some 1500 years B.C.  The title means "origin." It is the first book of the bible, the first of the five first books that make up the Pentateuch, a Greek word, or Torah, for the Jews.  It covers ca. 2000 years of history and has 5 main characters: Adam (& family), Noah, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.

Today’s delightful little story tries to explain in simple terms how bad came into our world.  Guess how: it is the woman’s fault.  Could a man have put this little myth-story together?  A woman?  I invite you to read the book of Genesis.  It is fascinating.  Remember that it is myth, not literal.  Like, notice how many creation stories are presented.

No Perfect Marriages, only Perfect Moments

Last week we talked about the first of the Seven Secrets of Marriage, namely Divorce, Never, Murder, Always.  Meaning you can threaten your spouse with murder, which is play, but divorce is a non-negotiable with the exception of the three "A’s."  Remember the "A’s?"  Abuse, addiction, & adultery. 

This morning I would like to talk about this: No Perfect Marriages, only Perfect Moments.  Four observations. 

First, from childhood I think we all come to understand that there are no perfect marriages, while at the same time romantic movies, TV, and novels snooker us into false expectation.  Like,"When I find the perfect person, I will live happily ever after…"  False.  There can be, however, healthy marriages.  To have a healthy marriage, perfect moments are needed. 

Secondly, what are perfect moments?  Being a novice, I don’t always know, but I would suggest that when I have a perfect moment I have two feelings: peace in my spirit and affection for my spouse.

Some years ago a woman who was dear to me and who has passed away very unexpectedly described to me a set of her perfect moments.  Every night she & her husband would go to bed 15 minutes early and wake up 15 minutes early in the morning.  During the 15 minutes they would cuddle.  They would talk. They would ask each other about the day they just finished or the day ahead.  Any fears, any blessings, anything touch you, how are we doing, what next, and so forth.   It was her morning & evening perfect moment.

I wanted to do the same thing when Rosemary & I got married.  But, seeing as I started a little late and my shoulders and hips don’t have the flexibility to cuddle like I wished, Rosemary & I have a stand up hug every night before climbing into bed together, which is also one of my daily perfect moments.  We hold onto each other standing there in the dark and count our blessings of the day.

We had a number of perfect moments this past Christmas in Mexico, like taking out to lunch Maria Luisa & her daughter Karina, probably the first time they have eaten in a restaurant in maybe years. 

Another: our anniversary party every Cinco de Mayo, May 3 this year.  And dancing.  When we are on, it is perfect.

A third observation: perfect moments can happen.  They can also be set up to happen.  Some need to be set up.  Like Cinco de Mayo, like dancing, like cuddling in bed or hugging.  In other words, they take planning and discussion.  They are worth it.

A final observation: you can substitute the word "friendships" for "marriages."  Perfect moments can take place with friendships just as much as with marriages.  Like marriages, they also involve planning and effort.  There are no perfect marriages and no perfect friendships.  Only perfect moments.

What & when was you last Perfect Moment?  Your next?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-02-10.mp3

Readings: Zephaniah 2, 3; 3, 12-13; Psalm 146; 1 Corinthians 1, 26-31; Matthew 5, 1-12.

Zephaniah: The three chapters of the little book of Zephaniah were composed some 6 centuries B.C.  The theme is a common prophetic line: doom is the lot of the people because of their evil ways and eventually Yahweh will restore his people to his favor.  Note that the Babylonian defeat & captivity will come in another half century or so.

Preparation for a Great Lent: 7 Secrets of Marriage

I do not know how many times I have mentioned in here that because of being married I know I am a better, more integrated, and more peaceful person, priest, and psychotherapist.  As a way of making Lent different and more positive this year, I was thinking I would like to run a series of homilies on marriage.  I feel like a novice in this enterprise and like to tap the wisdom of some of you couples who have 30, 40, 50, and 60 years of marriage, like we witnessed last cinco de mayo when we had our annual anniversary party at Fairview Farm. 

However, in doing some reading on this subject, as well as considering my own experience married and likewise as a marriage counselor, I have put together Seven Secrets of Marriage.  We may run past Lent, but it really does not matter. 

Today’s Secret is: Divorce?  Never!  Murder?  Lots!

The first part of this is serious.  The second, play.  Marriage is entered into with the determination that it is forever.  I know lots of couple who started out with this determination, but did not carry through because the commitment wavered.   Commitment to make it work, which involves communication and murder, lots of it.

Murder is what I want to do when I don’t get my way or get hurt.  The temptation is to go passive aggressive or just plain aggressive.  What about to say instead, "I want to murder you."  I say this before I get too angry & too hurt.  It is a joke & used as a signal to let the other person know I have a problem.  It builds and is built on an atmosphere of play. 

Any reason for divorce?  Yes.  The three A’s: abuse, addiction, adultery.  A comment about each one because they are seldom black-white.

There are different shades of abuse, for example, verbal and physical.  Physical abuse is a blow or slap & is never tolerated.  One blow, out of there.  One blow always leads to others.  Once started and the poison is planted.  The temptation: this was a one time event because of stress.  The rule is clear: one blow is one too many.  Get out, get help.  Verbal abuse is tougher to deal with because it can range from cynical put down jokes to screams and temper tantrums.  It kills relationship & friendship.  When the yelling is accompanied by breaking things.  Watch out.  Dangerous.

Addictions, too, are hard to determine.  First of all, almost all addicts deny they are addicts. Secondly, what are the deadly addictions?  Alcohol and drug addiction are considered deadly.  However, what if my spouse only gets drunk or high on week ends?  Is one or two bottles of wine, or a six pack alcoholism?  What about addictions like work, or smoking, or TV, or exercise?  One thing for sure: treated & dealt with early reduces later family dysfunction. 

Adultery is often considered a black-white issue.  It happens, I’m gone.  Healthy.  What happens when the person gets into recovery, regrets and reforms?  And wants the marriage to be reestablished?  How does forgiveness and acceptance figure in here?

Of the three A’s, physical abuse is the most toxic and the easiest to respond to.  Out.  I have worked with couples who have dealt with the other forms of the A’s and because of their determination to avoid divorce, they have gotten into recovery and lived healthy lives. They might even have gotten to a point where they could play at murdering each other. 

How is you marriage going?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-02-03.mp3

Readings: Isaiah 8, 23-9, 3; Psalm 27; 1 Corinthians 1, 10-17; Matthew 4, 12-23.

Isaiah: This great book continues for one more beautiful week.  Today we are presented with another vision of a people walking in light with joy and rejoicing.  Just a reminder: the visions in the book come from ca. 800 years B.C.

To what are You Called?

I would like to talk this morning about The Call.  Has anyone heard about a guy named Franz Jagerstatter?  This man was beatified last October in the cathedral in Linz, Austria.   He was Austrian, born in 1907 to poor farming parents.  He toyed with the idea of joining a monastery when he was 27, but decided his mother needed him to stay and help her with the farm.

At 29 he married Franziska and later said he could never have imagined that being married would be so wonderful.  The year was 1936.  Two years later you know what happened?  What happened in Austria?  Nazi Germany unified as it were Austria, and it became basically a state in Germany.  Coincidentally, Adolf Hitler was born in a small Austrian town neighboring the small town Franz was born in. 

With the Nazi take-over of Austria the arrest and exportation of the Jews began immediately.  The majority of the Catholic Church gave full and complete support to the Nazi take over and unification.  The diocese of Linz was an exception, and it was near Linz that Franz & his family lived and listened to the debate.  He was torn.  Some priests even encouraged Franz to get along, don’t endanger his family and keep his head down.

While Franz was struggling with his conscience, Germany spectacularly continued its unification plans, taking over Poland in ’39, France, and the Netherlands.  And arresting Jews.  In February,1943, just two years before the end of the war in May,1945, Franz got his orders to report for military service. March 2 he reported to the military base and refused to serve.  He was arrested and spent the next five months in prison in Linz.  In July he was found guilty of impeding the war effort and condemned to death.   August 9, 1943, 4:00 P.M., he was beheaded.  He was 36 years old.

Franz Jagerstratter heard The Call, Folks.  I am humbled by his example.

Jesus is walking along the lake.  He sees these rough fishermen and calls them to come along.  They do. We get the same call.   I am tempted to think the call is for that guy, for Franz, or someone else.  Not me.  Wrong.  We each get The Call.

To what are you called?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-01-27.mp3

Readings: Isaiah 49, 3-6; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 1, 1-3; John 1, 29-34.

Isaiah: Again we have one of Isaiah’s consoling messages.  This message focuses more on being called.  Remember, the writers of this book lived about 800 years before Christ.

I want to talk about Yahweh’s promise, "I will make you a light to the nations."

A Light to the Nations?  Me?

As many of you have noticed, after Mass & coffee a good percentage of our community reconvenes over at Costco on Central.  Where else can you get such a great free lunch?

When I am not watering trees after Mass, I normally drop Rosemary at the entrance, go fill the car with gas, and then wait for her in the parking lot while listening to Prairie Home Companion.  I love that program and almost always find myself laughing my head off.

Last Sunday Rosemary and I had gone to do our weekly shopping as usual.  I had filled the car with gas and was sitting in the parking lot.  At some point I noticed that an elderly man was wandering around the south side parking lot where I was sitting.  He had passed me already three or four times.  He would walk by me heading toward the Central side of the lot, then return.  Shortly he would do it again.  He had a couple of bags in his arms.  I’m watching him, thinking he must be confused, but I’m not doing anything.

Finally Rosemary arrives, I start up the car, and while we are pulling away I point out to her the man wandering around the parking lot.  I tell her I wonder if he is lost, confused, or suffering from dementia or worse. 

What does she say?  "Let me see if he needs some help."  So we turn around and she gets out.   They talk and together begin to walk around the parking lot.  I wait some more and finally she comes back.  She had helped him look for his car, which he said was a white Infinity.  Since together they still could not find the car, she informed the Cosco staff, who said they would help him.

This is it.  This is what Yahweh is talking about when he says, "I will make you a light to the nations."  It does not mean  lightning is going to strike.  It does not mean the other guy.   When I grew up the Christophers were a Catholic group that intended to light one candle instead of cursing the darkness.  Light one little candle was the theme.  I remember as a kid going with my dad to a rally in the Cotton Bowl, of all places.  It was evening, the lights were turned off, and everyone lit a candle.  I can still remember how beautiful it was.

Lighting the candle does at least two things.

1.  It touches the spirit of the person who receives the light.  That elderly man must have been touched when he saw Rosemary come across the parking lot to help him.  I was. 

2.  The effect is contagious.  When the person’s spirit is touched, he becomes a light and touches someone else.  So instead of the elderly man being angry and frustrated, he is peaceful and gracious.

I was rather confounded that I never thought about getting out and helping the elderly gentleman, but I was delighted that Rosemary immediately suggested she help him when she heard my thoughts. 

How are you a light to the nations?   

    AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-01-20.mp3

Readings: Isaiah 42, 1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 10, 34-38; Matthew 3, 13-17, The Baptism

Isaiah: After 6 weeks of marvelous visions of the future, the writers of Isaiah today present a contrary vision, actually a vision of suffering that will characterize the savior.  Instead of a conquering hero, we are given a Suffering Servant.  There are three or four of these Suffering Servant Songs in the book of Isaiah, and they certainly were not the common expectation of the people.

There are two parts to today’s selection.  The second part is a beautiful description of how Yahweh, despite suffering, will help us to open the eyes of the blind and free people imprisoned and living in darkness.

The Story of Cuernavaca

Last summer our community sent $2500 to two women, a mother & daughter, living in a garage in Cuernavaca.  The money was a grant & a loan to help them start a small pharmacy.  Over the Christmas holiday Rosemary & I had the privilege to see how far they have progressed.

If you remember, I requested the help for a number of reasons.  First of all and obviously, they have virtually nothing and I for-see the day when Maria Luisa, the mother will pass on.  She has already had three primary sources of cancer.  I could see Karina struggling to live some day, while dealing with the fact that her mobility is so limited because she is crippled from childhood polio.

Karina, Maria Luisa, & I had talked about the day when Karina would be alone.  Out of the conversations came the idea that Karina could open a small Mexican pharmacy, which is more like our small convenience stores.  She had already worked in her aunt’s store and knew the business.  Moreover, despite their lack of formal education, I pick up how intelligent & savvy Karina is.  I often tell her she has a gift for teaching if she could only get the education and certification.  She has not been able to do this, even if I supported her, because she has had to care for her sick mother over the past five or six years.

The state of their progress is this.  The women have opened a small shop in an arcade.  They are selling candles and tea and similar items.  Karina tells me that she was not able to get a license from the government to run a little non-prescription pharmacy.  I had thought that she would have had an advantage in getting a license with her disability.  But no.

A couple of observations.

First, I was impressed with their ingenuity and creativity.  Instead of getting discouraged and defeated, they moved in a slightly different direction.  They found a place that is about 20 minutes by bus from their neighborhood, saying that they did not want to pay the higher rent for a place closer to home.  They did some do diligence to find this place in the middle of a busy neighborhood with lots of shops. 

Secondly, initially I was not excited about selling candles.  Can you make a living off of candles & tea?  However, looking at how proud they were of their clean little shop I could not help but think they will make it.  Karina is too street smart to lose.  They spend a few pennies on the bus and they tell me they will be open seven days a week.  Really they don’t have much at home, so the shop may be like a home.

If they succeed with this venture, I have told them that we are giving them a loan. Pay back is not to us but to people they know who really need help in Cuernavaca. 

Finally, both Rosemary & I were humbled that we could be the bearers of such joy and optimism.   I am grateful to all of you who made this dream come true. 

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-01-13.mp3

Jackie’s HOLLAND: Download welcome_to_holland.doc

Rosemary’s Blessing:

May you always have walls for the wind, a roof for the rain, tea by your fire,              laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all that you heart may desire.

 

Readings: Isaiah 60, 1-6; Psalm 72; Ephesians 3, 2-6; Matthew 2, 1-12

Isaiah: We finished the year with the hopeful passages from the great book of Isaiah and we begin 2008 with another of the passages.  Remember these images were the dreams of people, probably men, who lived ca. 800 years B.C.

The Magi

I did it again, folks. 

Rosemary & I have a custom when we are in our little bed & breakfast at Oaxaca, Mexico or in other places.  In the evening we put a bottle of wine, some peanuts, and maybe some cheese on a table in the tropical little paradise of a patio the Valencia family have in their house.  A bottle of wine on a table with a couple of glasses seems to draw people and we have some great conversations.

When we arrived in Oaxaca this past Dec. 29, we followed our usual custom, set it all out and prepared to wait for people to come in from their day’s adventures.  I noticed that in a little alcove at the edge of the patio a lady in her mid 50’s was quietly sitting.  I walked over to her and invited her to have a glass of wine with us.  She declined. 

When I returned to the table I mentioned it to Rosemary and she said she had already invited her, but that she had declined to her also. 

Meanwhile, people drifted in and soon we had about half a dozen guests talking about their wanderings around Oaxaca, a beautiful little colonial town.  All the while we were at our  table the lady sat by herself in the alcove.  At one point her husband came up and sat with her, but never came over.  In fact, they did not even look at us. 

So I did it.  I said to Rosemary something like, "Those people seem rather unsociable and stand-offish."

And you know what happened.  The next day at breakfast we got to know them a little more.  They were from Vancouver, he French Canadian and she British.  They were shy, but proved to be quite warm and friendly once we got to know them.  In fact, they eventually became one of our favorite couples among a bunch of really interesting people.

On one occasion they even surprised and impressed all of us because on their own, even without Spanish, they took a country bus out to one of the mountain ranges that surround the valley in which Oaxaca is, so they could go hiking.  We were impressed because not only was it a pretty adventurous trip, and they did not strike me as athletic.  But also they persevered with their hike even though the day they chose happened to be one of the coldest days I have ever seen in Oaxaca.  When they got off the bus in the middle of nowhere, they said the wind was blowing fiercely and eventually they ran into rain and snow.  Fortunately, they had rain coats, but not a lot of warm clothing, because no one expects cold in Oaxaca.  When they actually joined us around the table that evening they were celebrated.  Ultimately, I think they did not drink.

I talk about this couple because they were for me something like the Magi.  We imagine them as kings, but in reality they would have more resembled anything but.  They are intended as symbols by Matthew, symbols of the non Jews, the ugly Gentiles, which is what we are.  In other words, surprise, surprise, Matthew wants to show that Jesus appeared even to these unsavory characters.

This Vancouver couple was not unsavory in any way.  Just because they did not eagerly accept my invitation to a glass of wine, I did it.  I judged them negatively.  Judging the book by the cover again. 

Who are the Magi in your life?  The people you judge?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-01-06.mp3

Readings: Isaiah 9, 1-6; Psalm 96; Titus 2, 11-14, Luke 2, 1-14.

Isaiah: This is another of the great visions of Isaiah 1.  This comes from one of our ancestors who was reflecting some 800 years B.C.  We have enjoyed Isaiah all the four Sundays of Advent because of his marvelous vision.

The Gift of Life

Last Thursday I was at Baylor Hospital ca. 5:30 in the morning.  I was there to give a hug and a blessing to a woman & a friend who was coming to have an operation.  She was donating her left kidney to her sister in law. 

She naturally had some anxiety and we had talked about this earlier.  I felt privileged to be there with her.

Two comments on this event: the receiving & the giving. 

First, we are celebrating this evening the fact that we are the recipients of life.  My friend’s sister in law received life, rather dramatically.  Our parents gave us life, our teachers give us life, our companions give us life, you people give me life, God gives us life.  Even every day.

Secondly, like my friend, we are invited to give life, sometimes as dramatically, sometimes in small ways, probably daily.  In fact, without giving life, we likely stagnate.  This generation of life often involves anxiety, discipline, sacrifice, and pain.  Guess what: giving my life is reciprocal, i.e., I usually get back more than I give.

Looking back at 2007, what was the biggest way you received life & gave life?  And this year?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-12-24.mp3

Readings: Isaiah 7, 10-14; Psalm 24; Romans, 1, 1-7; Matthew 1, 18-24.

Isaiah: The great prophetic book.  8 centuries before Christ.  Talking here about the coming of the savior.

The Gift of Life

Last Sunday morning ca. 1:30 A.M., a friend of mine was having insomnia.  She got up without waking her husband.  Got into her car and headed down Belt Line to get a coffee or something at the 7-11 on the corner near Central.  Along the way she lost control of her Expedition, ran into a pole, and then slammed into another.  Parkland Hospital awakened her husband at 3:00 A.M. to inform him that his wife Sally had just died in their emergency room.

I have known Sally Ann Kidwell Swenholt since the 60’s when she was a little girl and I taught her big brother John Michael at Jesuit, where he was a good basketball player.   She was 48 and married 29 years to her high school boy friend. Her father had been my dentist in Preston Center until he retired and John Michael took over.  She became a dental hygienist and cleaned my teeth every year or so.  Her sister Susanne is a special friend.  I have loved this family and been privileged to walk with them through some great times and some troubled times.  This event has knocked me out.  Why?  And why at this time of year.

Some observations.

I can’t answer the why question for myself.  It just happens.  I can live with that mystery.  However, one big lesson stands out for me: life is a gift.  I may blow it off or I may treasure and appreciate it.  Sally Ann did the latter and I hope to follow her example.

One of the qualities that endeared her to me was that she was a delightful airhead who chattered non-stop.  The Kidwell dental office works very efficiently, on time.  You get your teeth cleaned & X-rayed in 30 minutes.  More attention needed, you make another appointment.  I do not know how she & I ever got through a half hour appointment.  Talk & more talk.  Ever try to tell someone how your sister is or how the Masses are at San Vino with someone cleaning your teeth with a drill mounted brush?  We always had so much to catch up on. 

As a tribute to her person centered, caring life, as well as the Kidwell family, St. Rita’s was full with a thousand plus people.  People were standing in the back.  Even though I could not concelebrate with Phil Postell, the Jesuit president, I was delighted that I got the idea and then did it: I applauded after Shauna, Sally’s oldest child who also works at the dental office, gave a beautifully amusing & tear filled eulogy to her mom.  In fact, though I fantasized that I might be clapping all alone, people not only jumped right in, but as Shauna came down & hugged her dad, the whole community stood and redoubled their applause.   I was in tears. 

One other observation.  When Sally drove into that pole on Belt Line she did not have her seat belt on.

We are privileged to celebrate here this morning, we are privileged to celebrate Christmas tomorrow, we are privileged to be alive.

How are you treasuring this gift today?

   

Readings: Isaiah 35, 1-6, 10 (again beautiful); Psalm 146; James 5, 7-10; Matthew 11, 2-11

Isaiah: Again today’s selection from this marvelous book put together some 8 hundred years before Christ presents a dream and a vision of a day of peace and happiness.  To emphasize the beauty we will split the reading again, the first part read by Margarita; the second by her daughter Ashley.

How to Give Sight, Give Life

In Utah there is a ranch which specializes in equine therapy for young people.  Equine therapy uses horses to help people & kids find themselves and level out. 

A family who are really good friends of mine visited the ranch some years ago to check out if it might be a good place for one of their children to get settled in life.  One afternoon some staff people took them down to the barn to look at the horses.  Now the wife in her childhood had done some riding and was pretty confident around horses, which the staff apparently picked up.

Consequently, one of the women staff members offered her a bridle and asked her if she thought she could bridle a wild mustang they had just brought in.  "Sure," she said, and off she went to bridle the mustang.  Three staff members climbed up and sat on the fence to watch her.  Inside she was saying to herself that she would be firm and brave, remembering that she had once broken her arm with a horse. 

Using all her skill, determination, and bravery she tried and tried to bridle that mustang, for probably over an hour.  It was even beginning to get dark.  But she was determined she would prove she could do it all by herself.  Finally, with darkness setting in she took the bridle, handed it back to the staff, and feeling defeated said she could think of no other way to bridle that mustang.

The staff asked, "Are you sure you have tried every possibility?"  "Yes," she replied, "Everything. "I think there may be still another possibility," the staff said.  "What?" my friend asked.  "You could have asked for help."

Isaiah says this morning that some day the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf be cleared.  That evening in that coral in Utah, my friend saw and heard in a new way.

There are two pieces to this dynamic.  One, am I aware that I am blind and deaf, and need the help of community?  We are all blind and deaf.  Secondly, am I aware that I have to help others see and hear better?  Or I am less a person? 

One of the hardest things for me to do is to ask for help.  It is partly pride, but also good Jesuit training.  I’ve been trained to think and act independently.  I can almost learn Spanish or Italian without asking for help.  However, ever try to learn to work a computer without asking for help?  I have had to ask Rosemary a million times how to do things.  Humbling.  And eye opening.

The staff members sitting on that fence were helping my friend to see and hear.  It is even their profession, a privilege and a call really.  Teachers are helping others to see, parents do it.   Like I mentioned the first Sunday of Advent, flight attendants do it with their hospitality, like happened to Rosemary & me coming out of Hilton Head. 

A paradox in all this is that when I help another to see or hear better, I receive the same gift.

My friends never did work with the ranch in Utah, and their child grew up and leveled out.

How are you helping the person next to you to see & hear better?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-12-16.mp3

Readings: Isaiah 11, 1-10; Psalm 72; Romans 15, 4-9; Matthew 3, 1-12

Isaiah: Once in a while in the course of our church calendar year we get a special selection.  Isaiah’s vision is one of those specials.  Read it and watch out for heart ache.  I imagine one of our ancestors centuries ago dreaming and coming up with this vision.  Later, another of our ancestors writes it down. 

To emphasize how special it is, Emily will read the vision, after her mom Julie has read the introduction.

What is Your Dream?

In the late 60’s I spent four years in Toronto studying theology before I finally got ordained a priest in ’71.  At the beginning of my second year a new class of about 35 Jesuit priest students came in and one of the new guys got the room next to mine on the third floor.  He was unique: he was blind.

His name was Larry and he was also a cheese head and a Jesuit brother, meaning he was not going to be ordained a priest. Brothers are Jesuits who do all sorts of works, just not saying Mass.

Larry had spent a few years teaching at a Jesuit boarding high school in Prairie du Chien, WS.  During his time there, a number of Jesuits & others had encouraged Larry to looking into moving from being a brother to getting on track to get ordained a priest.  Trouble was, blind people did not get ordained. 

When Larry arrived at our college in the fall of my second year, he had been given permission to try studying theology, the subject necessary for ordination.  Consequently, he was studying on condition.  You do okay, you continue.  You don’t do well, you stay a brother.  Guess what: he did fine and all of us made him a project.  We wanted him to succeed.

After his first year, which was successful, the provincial in WS asked Rome if he could be ordained.  Rome’s response, "No."  After his second equally successful year, they asked Rome.  "No, and don’t ask again.  Blind people don’t get ordained."  After his third year, his provincial asked again.  "Yes," they said.

He was ecstatic.  We were ecstatic. 

The fall of his fourth year, this same second Sunday of Advent in the chapel of our college his class was getting ordained deacons, which is done before getting ordained priest in the spring.  The reading of that Sunday was exactly the same Isaiah reading as this morning, the dream of peace reading.  Larry was chosen to read the Isaiah dream passage–in braille.

That whole chapel was all in tears.  It was one of the special moments of my life.

Larry is still working as a Jesuit priest in Omaha or Milwaukee.  I even used to bring him down to help with retreats I ran at the retreat center I directed in Grand Coteau, LA.  We have not been in touch in probably about ten years.  I have to call him.

My friend Larry had a dream.  Our ancestor Isaiah had a dream. 

I would suggest that to be fully alive we have to have a dream.  Dreams fill me with energy, enthusiasm, and life.  Ideally my dream will also give life to others. Larry’s dream to get ordained gave life to all 100 plus of us Jesuits in that big house.  Isaiah’s dream, while unrealistic, can still energize me into creating peace in some small human way.

What must it be like to not have a dream? 

What is your dream?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-12-09.mp3