|
IN THIS ISSUE
From the President
|
Dear Cusans, Paul the Apostle, whom we honor in this year of St. Paul, the Jubilee ending on June 29th, 2009, inspires us daily. When he wrote his letter to the Romans, he put into words what we all want to live by, namely to have the Spirit within us so that "we can cry out ‘Abba, Father'" like his own son and be "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory (8:15-17)." The first part of that glory comes through how we live and how we suffer. It's the glory of Fr. John Harvey who at the age of ninety manages to say a 5:30 Mass in the morning during the week here in New York and who, each weekend, takes a bus from the Port Authority of New York to Allentown, Pa, where he picks up his car and drives to Springfield, Pa, just outside of Philadelphia, so that he can celebrate Sunday Mass there for the Parishioners. Having, at the bequest of Cardinal Cook, founded "Courage," an organization to help people with homosexual orientations to live chaste lives, Fr Harvey now comes to New York each week to act as its consultant. He takes the subway to go to the office and has, according to himself, found the humility to ask people to carry his brief case down and up the stairs of the subway. When a generous New Yorker obliges, Fr. Harvey promises to say some Hail Mary's for them, often getting the response, "Thanks, Father, I need them." Active and dependent, Fr. Harvey is not unlike those Cusans, who are dependent on others because of their disabilities and who offer these disabilities to God in prayer for the good of His Church. Then there's the glory of Mary Rose Weichert who is in a nursing home in Baltimore, very much confined to her bed. She has many "cracks" in her face, as I once, very young, said of my grandmother. But somehow those cracks become beautiful when she smiles at my greeting and asks "Are you still in New York?" Mary is 104 years old. She wonders why God does not want to take her home and shrugs her shoulders in resignation. This acceptance of what she cannot change is not unlike the acceptance that you Cusans give as regards your disabilities. Your disabilities can have their own pains and inhibitions which, over the years, can, I presume, become more difficult to bear. What was an easy movement from wheel chair to chair lift becomes a more difficult to maneuver as your arms and legs weaken. Leaving a message with someone, and not having the person call back is, if you are like me, a frustrating experience. Seeking clarification about a bill, and being given a run-a-round is not just an aggravation but a frustration of one of our basic inclinations: to find out what is true! In fact, whenever any of our basic inclinations are frustrated be they for love and affection or just plain fairness we suffer. Very often such suffering goes unnoticed or seems so little that we are left to bear it alone. It is at those moments when the glory of which Paul speaks fades into oblivion. The dull reality of not being able to get out of where we are sets in and we find it difficult to believe and hope in something better to come. Looking out at the trees as the Wintry winds strip them of their reds, golds and browns, we might well sense that we are being stripped as well. Thankfully, even the great St. Paul was not unfamiliar with this feeling. In fact he connects what is happening in nature to what is happening in us when he writes, "We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now and not only that we ourselves, who have the fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:22-23)." There is something positive in Paul's view. He likens these groanings to the labor pains of a woman. Despite her suffering she has the hope of giving birth to her child. There is hope for us too in our suffering. For in hope, Paul writes, "we are saved." It is not that we see the good coming, "For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance (Romans 8:24-25) ." We wait with endurance. It's the courage of "long suffering." And for you who have that courage, I give you my thanks for it is an example to me. Your long endurance of suffering is also a witness of the Spirit of God within you. For Paul writes, "In the same way the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness: for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings (Romans 8:26)." So while physically alone, we are not alone, Christ's spirit is with us; so while suffering, we are not without hope. How else could Fr. Harvey keep going at ninety and say he is optimistic about the future? (He was speaking of the election.) And how else could Mary Rose Weichert change from a shrug of her shoulders to a smile on her face when she is greeted? Why else is Mary Rose Weichert so devout when she receives Holy Communion or the Anointing of the Sick? I believe that they, in the midst of all their sufferings, have the same kind of love that Paul had when he wrote, "What will separate us form the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril of the sword....No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. ‘For I am convinced that neither death, not life, not angels, nor principalities, not present things, nor future things, no powers, no height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans. 8:35-39)." So it is the warmth of Christ's love that carries us through our Winter of suffering. And it is in the midst of Winter that we celebrate Christ's birth. Should we let that birth be not only in the manger but also in our souls, we can have hope. Now when Spring comes and we look at the blossoming trees we can believe even more deeply that just as Christ rose from the dead so will we. Let us then, dear Cusans, pray for one another – it's now moving from Easter season to summer– that we may be like the faithful soul's in purgatory, longing to see the face of God and believing that "if indeed we share in his sufferings" we will also "share in his glory."
|
|
Home Who We Are Cusa Blog Caregivers Inspiration Membership Friends of Cusa The Cusan Gallery |
|
|
