“The Voyage of Life”

April 18, 2024

As a child I remember my grandfather escorting me down the aisle to view Uncle George who had died.

“Gini Uncle George came from Italy as a youth, worked hard and now has completed his journey and is returning to God. As Uncle George was on a journey so am I and Gini so will you.”

No tears, just wisdom. In that moment I received the best religious lesson one can experience: “O death where is your sting?” signifying death is not the end but the beginning to Eternity.

In the Museum of National Art is Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life depicting our life’s journey in four paintings: Childhood, Youth, Manhood and Aging. It is an allegory of religious faith in which an archetypal hero floats along the River of Life.

In Cole’s picture of childhood, a golden boat emerges from a darken cave --- a mysterious earthly source --- the womb from which a joyous child reaches to the world with wonder and naivete light bathes the scene of fertile beauty as an angelic figure guides the boat forward.

Addressing childhood the renowned psychologist Carl Jung states, “in our early years, we explore the world with curiosity, innocence. It is a time of discovery, where we form the building blocks of our personalities, learning from our experiences and relationships with parents and caregivers.”

Poet Kaillash Satyarthi states, “Childhood means simplicity. To look at the world with a child’s eye --- it is very beautiful.”

Tom Stoppard would add, “If you carry your childhood with you, you never become old.”

When I studied human behavior for my dissertation, I remembered Fr. Romano Guardini saying that liturgy should be play. This caused me to study children at play and their behavior. Ah, yes how carefree they are and yes so should we be never growing old by being overly concerned with life’s concerns.

The Greek Heraclitus lauds childhood as a precious gift of life: “Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of child at play.”

Moving to Cole’s youth portrait we see the voyager confidently assume control of his boat. Oblivious of the increasing turbulence and unexpected twists in the river, he boldly strives to reach an ariel castle, emblematic of adolescence’s ambition for fame and glory.

Jung tells us, “Youth is marked by seeking our identity and pursuing our dreams. We immerse ourselves in life and career choices. It's a period of self- discovery and self-expression.”

Aristotle points out, “Good habits in youth make all the difference. It is a time of development of character and learning what we are supposed to be.”

In Italian we have the proverb, “Chi dorme con cani si che svelgia con pulsi,” “He who sleeps with dogs wakes with fleas.” It is a wise proverb I learned when going through my youth. Those proverbs were a time of developing sound ideals, one being picking good friends and avoiding bad ones.

Nature’s fury, evil demons, and self-doubt threatened the Voyager in the next painting of manhood. It shows the helm of the boat is gone and the Voyager has lost control of his life. The Angel looks down from the clouds as he whirls toward violent rapids and bear fractured rocks. Only divine intervention, Cole suggests, can save the Voyager from a tragic fate.

In evaluating middle-aged Jung describes it as the “pivotal phrase of reevaluating one’s life. Many individuals encounter feelings of restlessness, questioning their achievements, relationships, and their true purpose. This stage often leads to a period of self -reflection and self- exploration.”

Jung believes that midlife isn't a negative experience; it is an opportunity for growth and transformation. It's a time when we take stock of our lives, confront our mortality, and make important decisions about the future. For some, it is a turning point that leads to personal development and an authentic pursuit of happiness. As he writes, “Midlife is the time to let go of our over dominant ego and to contemplate the deeper significance of human existence. We are reminded that entering midlife often triggers a search for a deeper meaning in life.”

In the last painting of old age, the stream of life has reached the ocean of eternity where the Voyager floats abroad his broken weathered vessel. All signs of nature and corporal existence are cast aside by the guarding Angel, whom he sees for the first time, directing his gaze towards a beckoning soft light emerging from the parting clouds revealing the vision of eternal life.

Jung states, “Old age is a time of reflection on wisdom and is potentially a spiritual awakening. We accumulate a lifetime of experiences and knowledge. Jung saw this stage as a time for integration, where we embrace all aspects of our personalities, including its shadow side. We begin to understand the interconnectedness of life and face the reality of mortality with grace and acceptance.”

Jung concludes the four stages can help us navigate life's journey more consciously. It can be life changing, an opportunity to reinvent ourselves, reconnect with our authentic selves, and embark on a path that aligns more closely with our values and aspirations. It is a time of transformation and personal growth.

Heraclius would remind us, “Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.” Ah yes, to remain young at heart.

Cole would remind us in his allegory of faith that in old age it is not time to let our eyes cast downward but to see an angel’s light in the heavens and look upward to the new life of eternity.

Romano Guardini, addressing old age, tells us, “Wisdom is insight into things as they are, and is acquired only when one is near the end. It cannot be taught; each must learn it for himself or herself through their own folly and out of the bitterness of their own end. It is the understanding of the relationship of the particular to the whole, and this understanding is achieved only when the whole comes into view -- that is to say, at the end. It is the sense of what is important and unimportant, of proportion, of what is ultimately rewarding, and it is to be gained only when it is too late to change anything, but when there is still time for forgiveness, for contrition and for leaving everything in God's hands. Of this nature is the true faith of old people. Their attitude grows very simple, one might almost say childlike. Childishness is the form of something which can be very beautiful. Childness, like first childhood, feels that all is one, that everything is under protection, that all will be well. Such faith is broad, understanding, tolerant. It is the old age of experience to the fullest -- when it has humor in it. It is a wonderful thing, the humor of a religious person who carries everything into the boundless love of God, including the inadequate, the strange, the queer, who hopes for a solution when reason and effort can do no more, and who discerns a purpose where earnestness and zeal have long since given up hope of finding one.”

“Trust Under Fire”

April 12, 2024

In life what is especially essential for creating unity, enduring love, and maintaining self-confidence? The virtue of trust is the answer. When it thrives so does all human activity.

Wall Street’s bestselling author Stephen Covey goes to the heart of trust’s role in our life observing, “It is the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships together.”

It has been said that if you want to destroy a nation, plant distrust among its citizens. Nothing divides them more than skepticism and not knowing what or who to trust. Twisting the truth and using it to split a person’s allegiances is a deadly poison capable of causing massive devastation. On the contrary trust contains commitment, faithfulness, and loyalty, the human glue that preserves humanity par excellence.

Anton Chekhov further addresses the scourge of distrust in saying, “You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.” How true, life can become meaningless when people no longer have a sense of camaraderie due to disbelief and mistrust.

George MacDonald observes how trust and love complement each other, “To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”

How often has love been lauded as the most valued virtue of virtues? Often overlooked, love needs trust to maintain its effectiveness. True love is founded on an I-thou relationship creating mutuality. For an endearing affinity to remain strong requires commitment and total trust in another. Relationships by their nature require endless maintenance of trust and never be taken for granted.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe points to self-trust as the best means for living life as it should be lived in telling us, “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

Today, preserving democracy has become the center of our attention. In Greek “demo” means people and “cracy” means strength, thus the strength of the people is the core of democracy. It must be added that mutual trust is the heart and soul of that strength. In unity we stand and in distrust we fall. Most important: “In God We Trust.”

“Wisdom Defending Democracy”

April 8, 2024

Frustrated over today’s politics? An antidote for this is studying wise principles statesmen, philosophers, and Christ conceived for maintaining a wholesome civilization. Take for example Pericles, who developed Athenian democracy making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. Interestingly, the Greek meaning for democracy is demo meaning people and cracy meaning strength.

Another great statesman is Solon known for responding to the Athenian conflict between the landed aristocracy and peasantry. His economic reforms, known as the “shaking off of burdens,” dealt with one of the immediate causes of a horrific crisis: debt. All debts were cancelled, enslaved debtors freed, and borrowing on the security of the person forbidden. Solon is credited with empowering the poor through equal rights.

Solon was a poet whose fragments of his poetry contain insight into his thinking.

“Often the wicked prosper, while the righteous starve.

Yet I would never exchange my state for theirs,

My virtue for their gold. For mine endures,

While riches change their owner every day.

(Fragment 15)

Justice, though slow, is sure.

(Fragment 13)

In great affairs you cannot please all parties.

(Fragment 7)

To the mass of people, I gave the power they needed.

Neither degrading them, nor giving them too much rein:

For those who already possessed great power and wealth

I saw to it that their interests were not harmed.

I stood guard with a broad shield before both parties.”

These are soul searching examples of treating all levels of society equally and justly. Add to this the wisdom of philosophers championing the common good and Christ who died for it and we possess the time-proven principles of successful democracy.

Another example of this wisdom is from Seneca who counters avarice, which he considers the scourge of government, with the virtue of contentment. “A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”

Socrates counters self-conceded politicians by reminding them, “To know is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of knowledge.”

And Christ’s law of love is the epitome of excellent governing, “Treat others as you would have them treat you.”

Studying the wise mores of the centuries is one way to counter our frustration over dysfunctional government. It is the light beyond the tunnel filled with wisdom, hopefulness, and morality.

It is easy to view politics as an evil lacking a moral conscience and to fret. Or we can study and apply time-proven wisdom needed to remedy it. We can shake our head in frustration or employ our thinking powers for rectifying postmodern disorder.

“Defusing the Weaponization of Religion”

March 22, 2024

It protects us from vice and promotes goodness. Martyrs have given their blood defending it, believers have left homes to spread it, and wise minds have studied its mysteries throughout the centuries.

Enough words cannot be found to describe the beauty of religion in moving us from our mundane world into a spiritual wonderworld.

Religion means to pull together, to be intertwined with God. Like anything divinely precious it is forever fighting for its existence which raises the question, “What might be most detrimental to its existence today?

The stoic Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca gives us one answer. “Religion is regarded by the common people as a true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”

It is no exaggeration to say that religion is being tainted by a lust for political gain by those who claim to be allies of God doing God’s will. They boast being God’s battle weapon again a country gone wrong. How do we decipher this claim?

The Dalai Lama gives us one way in stating, “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

As simple as this sounds it goes to the heart of authenticity. Authenticity is acting in accordance with one’s true self, behaving in sync with one’s values, beliefs, motives, and personality dispositions. How, then, does kindness apply to those claiming to be defenders of religion?

The word kindness implies disposition: to be well disposed to God, to others, the world and towards self. Ill disposition on the other hand can lead to war, corruption, violence, untruthfulness, and employing inuendo warfare. Worse, it can cause hardheartedness that contends I and only I am right.

One of God’s most precious gifts is conscience, empowering our center that prompts us to choose good over evil. It causes us to check how true we are to ourselves and others urging us to examine the heart’s disposition and ask, “Is it filled with egotism, hardheartedness, and one-sidedness? Or is it, as kindness suggests, being well-disposed to others and seeking the wisest means for dialoguing and promoting unity? Is it to be employed as weapons of war or for being a peacemaker?”

Christianity is based on Christ who died for love for us and the desire to create peaceful loving communities. Fighting for this principle is right, but most important for fighting for the right reasons.

“Don’t Forget to Say Thank You”

March 20, 2024

“Gratitude is one of the strongest and most transformative states of being. It shifts your perspective from lack of abundance to allow you to focus on the good in your life which in turn puts more goodness into your reality.”

“Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all others.”

These salient quotes of Jan Sincero and Cicero alert us to a virtue needed for our prosperous-centered times. For example, Sincero implores us to be thankful for blessed abundance and goodness and equally important how to go through a truly satisfying life. Heartfelt giving generates heartfelt joy.

Some time ago I ran into a homeless person in critical condition at Washington, DC’s mall that exemplifies goodness we repeatedly experience. Detecting she needed immediate help, I called 911. Within minutes, DC paramedics from the fire department arrived and checked her vital signs. They decided to call a hospital ambulance to have her examined further. Both medical responders were housed blocks away and yet within minutes they were on the scene. Both were examples of caring par excellence.

One of the blessings we enjoy is the wealth of care institutes that are at our service. When we shop among shelves stacked with varieties of food, survey thriving farms, enjoy homes with running water, heat and air conditioning, and recount comforts we enjoy, the numbers are overwhelming.

No doubt there are those who barely survive. But even here we can find a myriad of charitable institutions serving them. Not a year passes in which new helping institutions are created for the needy.

There is an old saying, “The more you get, the more you want.”  It is easy to overlook our blessings, to increase our personal needs and forget to say, “Enough for now, thank you.” 

Eckhard Tolle adds, “It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.” Tolle reminds us to transcend our mundane world and to enter into God’s caring world, to leave our narrow secular world and to move our hearts upward and experience God’s life on earth.

We have the choice of embracing the materialism of the marketplace and commercial world of goods urging us to get it now do not deny yourself or we can contemplate the abundance we enjoy, thank God and share our blessings with the less fortunate.

“A Right and Wrong Disposition”

March 14, 2024

Slandering, backbiting, unbecoming language, vicious infighting, belittling, falsifying, and opinions without evidence are on the rise. Not a day passes in which atrocious rhetoric, contentiousness, and irrationality course through the media. There is the saying, “Unity without verity is no better than conspiracy,” and “In unity we stand, in division we fall.” What is behind our ominous times?

One answer is to get behind erratic behavior and examine its causes. What exactly is prompting it?

A number of those responsible for causing it are usually in positions of power and are utilizing the influence of the media to expand power. Presently the media enjoys wide ranging freedom and thrives on titillating stories, especially those of powerful people. This can be to our advantage but also can be to our disadvantage depending on how it is used.

Another reason people hold on to power is the support of admirers. Some great has-been athletes continue to play despite the pain because of the roar of the crowd. And too, it is difficult to take a back seat when having sat in the front row. This being true, what should be the ultimate driving moral force for dealing with power?

Foremost is our conscience that dictates good and avoiding evil, the desirable and undesirable.

Often overlooked is the disposition of the heart and to ask, “How often is the true purpose of power and its God-given moral responsibilities contemplated? Is the question ever raised, “Is this really life’s ultimate and most important thing in it?”

I live in Washington D.C. and have experienced powerful people in exalted positions filling the pages of our newspapers and television daily. Most are gone now, and many have been forgotten. Life is fickle, it tends to jump to the latest and quickly passes over the past. It doesn’t stand still for long in lauding those who were.

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the wisdom to seek the true realities of life. These realities consist in contributing to the common good and serving others rather than oneself, being a gentleman and gentlewoman rather than a rude person, and a person of noble character concerned for the proper and avoiding the improper.

Everyone eventually passes on no matter what their role in this life. But what does not pass on and lives forever is the memory of the values they left us.

“Maintaining Optimism”

March 7, 2024

“The more troubled the world becomes, the more important it becomes to be optimistic. And the more deeply we need to root our optimism. When we cannot reasonably base it on the w things are going, we know we have to base it in the ultimate reality of God. We know it has to be radical.”

The advice on optimism is from Beatrice Bruneau’s book Radial Optimism.

What is optimism and how can we best generate it?

Optimism is a spirit, the faith that leads to achievement generated by hope and confidence. It is a heart stimulant that is energizing and containing the conviction all will turn out well.

William James points to the antithesis of optimism in stating, “Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.”

Colum McCann would add, “I'm not interested in blind optimism, but I'm interested in optimism that is hard-won, that takes on darkness and then says, ‘This is not enough.’” How true, a fighting spirit is required for maintaining optimism.

As courageous as the spirit behind optimism may be, it can be much weaker than we suppose. How often have we experienced a formidable team filled with optimism wither, or witness it revert to cynicism. How then keep it strong?

Enter Beatrice Bruteau again who points us to basing our optimism on the reality of God. And how might this be spelled out?

St. Augustine states that the spirit’s health depends on its relation to truth, to the good and the holy. If this is destroyed it is sickened.

The antithesis of truth is falsehood and deception that deflate the spirit of goodness and darken it. They also go against the Ten Commands and the commandment of love. In Italian, the proverb La Providdenza di Dio non manca mai translates as “God’s providence never fails us.” It reminds us to look at the bigger picture of life and to turn to God to see it. Equally important, it reminds us we are not alone in our struggle to maintain optimism, we have a divine partner.

An inspiring definition of patience is “Do not allow anything break your spirit.” No doubt today’s news is often bleak. We have the option of letting it overcome our joyfulness or to fight a hard-fought battle needed to keep alive and well.

“A Blessed Blackout”

March 5, 2024

“Beautiful mass this evening. I felt as if we were transported to another time. Thank you.”

The beauty alluded to was a total blackout during mass, no lights, no music, and dead mikes.

One way to envision liturgy is a time to be transported from the world’s phenomena into divine time. Church doors symbolize leaving the busy world outside and entering a sacred temple. This is difficult for many people because they are continuously employing  activity to avoid loneliness or stillness. Craving Ersatz entertainment often rules their lives. A good example of this craving became apparent when the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. was constructed.

When first proposed, the Vietnam Committee was outraged because it did not reflect America’s suffering. Its designer Maya Lin defended it, maintaining the monument was not envisioned as a political statement on war but as a sanctuary for people who lost someone in the war. Her design consisted of a V-shaped wall gradually descending below the earth to free people and to be alone with their loved ones. The memorial was to be a quiet temple, not a thunderous glorification of war.

When visitors visit the memorial, they quietly and reverently process down into walls of plaques filled with names of fallen soldiers often hesitating to offer a silent prayer.

The word monastery means alone, to be drawn away from the world for religious purposes, to be “all there” with God.

I remember the story of a person who visited Sicily’s Cathedral during mass. He was astonished at the attention of those attending who just gazed toward the altar, no movement, just quiet tranquility.

On Amtrak trains there is a car strictly for silence. It is a joy to experience because it allows a person to gaze out the window with no distractions and to drink in the lovely scenery.

The people I spoke with after the blackout seemed so delighted and joyful. Why? Because there was a moment to black out all commotion and enter into another time, a heavenly time.

Molto adagio in music connotes very slow and expressive. This allows its listeners to become absorbed in leisurely soothing melodies. So is the purpose of liturgy meant to engross our soul. We must wonder if the beautiful experience of the backout echoed a longing to be quietly engrossed with God, to go down into the earth to be with a divine beloved.

“Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World Has Arrived”

February 29, 2024

Confused by postmodern phenomena? Take, for example, the biological advance in the discovery of the structure of DNA. We can now take an early-stage embryo and edit a child’s traits. Want a child with altered DNA that will protect against horrific Huntington’s disease or sickle cell anemia and what was impossible before is now possible.

These breakthroughs are the tip of an iceberg filled with unimaginable possibilities. But as we know an iceberg sunk the so-called unsinkable Titanic. How then do we avoid possible disasters?

To begin, we must start with ourselves and our center the conscience that is responsible for decision making. As free beings we have the liberty of choosing to go one way or the other. Choices also create a crisis mode. When we hear the word crisis it often is negatively seen. Actually, it connotes the positive meaning of a crossroads offering us options.

Today we live in an age of unimagined crossroads creating the option of accepting scientific breakthroughs as progress or taking the road of questioning what is true progress.

In 1979, the National Council of Churches, the Synagogue Council of America, and the U.S. Catholic Conference wrote President Jimmy Carter about a lack of ethical concerns over DNA. Will engineering DNA be usurped by industry and used for monetary purposes or will the primary concern be serving those in need? Will it generate inequity between the wealthy who can afford its use or the poor? And too, are we entering into a Frankenstein age?

These concerns call for the principle of thoughtful long-range planning. In the gospels Christ commends the military commander for taking note of the enemy army. If it is overwhelming, he will negotiate rather than do battle: an example of prudently looking afar.

Whenever there are exciting breakthroughs and the possibility of economic gain there is the temptation of developing greedy markets. Sometimes overlooks the impact on the future.

Yet another critical crossroad in scientific progress is moral ethics. God blessed us with freedom that comes with the responsibility of employing God’s wisdom. Moral ethics contain spirituality that is imperative for guiding critical decision making. By its nature it transcends worldly thinking and creates Godly discernment.

When faced with postmodern challenges, we can throw up our hands and opt out of confronting them, or we can roll up our sleeves and seek modern-day wisdom to cope with them. The song “We have only begun” reminds us here we have entered the new age of the unthinkable.

“Life’s Journey”

February 26, 2024

Want a good meditation on our journey through life? Voyage of Life by American artist Robert Coles is where to begin. His picturesque paintings of Childhood, Youth, Manhood and Old Age depict a voyager traveling in boat on a river through the mid-19th-century American wilderness. In each painting a guardian angel accompanies the voyager. As a child and youth, the boy sails smoothly through an idyllic forest and bright sky toward the dream world of a shining castle. In adulthood the voyager prays for safety through rough waters. Finally, as an old man the guardian angel guides him across dark waters to eternity.

The four paintings portray our life journey. In a youthful dream world there are few worries, everything is new and exciting. Then comes adulthood with the price of struggling through turbulent difficulties, and in old age we face the reality of life’s journey ending.

Facing the reality of aging can be difficult. How we pine for our zestful youth. In adulthood we work with the sweat of our brow to achieve and prosper. And when faced with the end of our journey how we hang on for dear life. But then there is the realization we can’t stop the clock and wisdom sets in prompting to ask, “What should constitute a meaningful journey?”

Former President Jimmy Carter gives us an excellent reflection to ponder. He tells us, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”

I think we can concur whatever our purpose in life, our age or its rough journey, its goal is to improve our life and the life of those around us, to be an example of making a meaningful difference for the common good.

Interestingly Coles includes an accompanying guarding angel in his paintings prompting us to think of a spiritual voyage.

In Jesus Cristus author Fr. Romano Guardini defines the purpose of Christ’s journey. He starts with the question, “Well who exactly was Christ?” He answers “Perhaps, we may express it with the words He passed by. The form and shape of Jesus’ Being is a passage.” He has come from the Father and now he returns to the Father.”

So too is our life, a passage that does not stop with time but leads to the Father and eternal joy.

“Right and Wrong Rhetoric”

February 22, 2024

The Greek meaning for rhetoric is the art of oratory and speaking in public eloquently and effectively.

As art, it is a human creative skill that fills our imagination.

Humanly speaking, rhetoric is the art of speech and a power of sound. In this context it is envisioned as a beautiful instrument able to bring music to our ears.

Spiritually speaking, rhetoric is a gift of God that comes with a moral sense of duty. In ancient Greek civilization performing a duty for the common good was cherished as a prized virtue.

Plato saw rhetoric as the art of ruling the mind. In this definition we denote a possible misuse of rhetoric, the possession of power over another’s mind. Today this possible abuse is increasingly evident in ways the media’s power is employed to psychologically manipulate us and too it is often based on greed and power seeking.

On the Supreme Court a frieze lauds the esteemed law maker Solon who wisely governed Athens. He especially championed equality and urged citizens to work together to make it a thriving civilization. He was also incredibly wise in understanding what could destroy it. He writes “Our City will not perish by the degree of Zeus and the counsel of the gods immoral. . .. But its citizens themselves in their folly to ruin it by avarice.”

Avarice not only denotes greed but amassing power at any cost. Stories of corruptive power abound in the history of people selling their soul for a moment in the sun. Worse are those who sold out their countries and those dependent on upright leadership.

Rhetoric, like anything precious, is a power requiring responsibility. When it is guided by a moral compass its powers are miraculous. When, however, it is manipulated for selfish reasons it spells disaster.

Solon’s wisdom and the Scriptures are filled with warnings against avarice repeatedly. This leaves us to ask, “How might we counter this best?” In Scripture Christ promises, “He who loses his life for me, will find it.” In the Psalms God desires a humble heart not sacrifices of animals - not what I can get but what I can give.

Today we have the choice of being matter of fact about the daily bombardment of Ersatz rhetoric or to treat it as harmful to our psychological well-being and morality, to overlook its damaging influence or to ban it.

“Hope Abounds”

February 19, 2024

When we review synonyms for despair, they fit a disposition many of us experience: gloom, depression, and hopelessness.

Atrocious wars, innocent people killed, especially children, increased violence in our streets, religious and political dividedness, corruption, and hardness of heart are bringers of gloom. These culprits create undesirable disorder and without order peace of mind is impossible.

Hope comes from the Latin Spes meaning to be forward looking. Despair contains the word Spes but when prefaced with de, it translates nothing to look forward to.

Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and natural philosopher reminds us throughout time we were meant to be forward looking. “Hope,” he points out is “the pilar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a walking man.” Pliny envisions hope as a pilar supporting joyfulness. Take for example two people falling in love and dreaming of a cheerful home life. Optimism is the spirit driving their dreams.

I ministered to many parents who have had a wayward child. As difficult as he or she was they never gave up hope or quit trying. Often, they were rewarded with a peaceful outcome.

Most importantly hope is the basis for desiring eternal happiness. Aristotle calls hope a walking dream and we can add the dream of eternity.

When we look at scientific breakthroughs are they not the result of scientists who labored under the dream of creating a more hopeful life? Are not all impressive achievements founded on hope for the better?

Fyodor Dostoevsky reminds us, “To live without Hope is to cease to live.” When we cannot see light beyond the tunnel there is darkness and without light life ceases to exist.

Albert Eistein speaks of how to maintain a hopeful spirit. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

The sociologist Francis Bacon would follow this by telling us “A prudent question is one half wisdom,” and we can add wisdom is our best means for conquering hopelessness by getting to its bottom.

How do we see hope ultimately? Do we ever envision it as a God given spirit aimed at achieving future goodness? Is this not the virtue God bestowed on us to keep us forward looking and to continuously desire a more perfect life?

Hope leaves us with two options: to opt for optimism or to let ourselves be sunken into hopelessness; to succumb to it or to embrace ascetism that inspires us to work at continuously striving for a more proper life.

“Obsession with Aging”

February 14, 2024

It is a fact that billions of dollars are spent annually to stay youthful looking. Is this expensive craze realistic? Is it folly that clouds the hard truth? How wise is it to be in a frenzy over aging? On the other hand, how can it be seen as an asset rather than a deficiency?

When my grandparents and parents aged, they exuded elderly wisdom. For them, their life was not an aging journey, but a journey filled with priceless lessons they prized.

My grandfather was a sewer contractor and, in his day, dug trenches and laid clay tiles for carrying water. His hands were like concrete, and his face was ruddy from working outdoors. At eighty he and my grandmother were examples of inspirational character. Never did they speak of age or did they allow me to speak of it. As my grandfather left home with his mattock, spade and pick he was like a soldier off to battle.

My dad was a Chicago fireman who often would fight fires throughout the night and then he went to another job the next morning. He went gray, but it did not bother him or my mother because both had work to do, an example of duty over comfort.

When we look deeply into the lives of today’s elderly men and woman of character, they symbolize dedicated sacrifice and are models of realism. Gray hair and slowing down were less concerning to them than self-concerns.

An emphasis on youthfulness, hiding wrinkles, tightening waste lines, and dyeing hair have been part of life forever. It is about feeling good about ourselves. As true as this is it is also true that time never stops.

Many people age beautifully because they are free from the obsession of setting the clock back --- they know their present place in life and have accepted it. They have stopped looking at themselves in the mirror and now look deeper into what life’s realistic expectations are.

Peggy Lee would often sing about life’s journey and repeat the refrain, “Is this all there is to life,” a song of uncertainties about life’s purpose.

It is easy to age and say, “Is this all there is about life,” to look askance at it and focus on its regrets or on the other hand to envision it as a blessed gift of God. The choice is ours: to dwell on life’s disappointments or to be thankful for it, to be obsessed over aging or to be freed of it.

“Man’s Best Friend”

February 12, 2024

His trademark was a joyful bounce whenever we met. As he aged, he never lost his bounce.

Although we knew my sister’s dog Magee was old and declining, his recent passing hurt, a comforting soulmate was no longer around to greet us.

Josh Billings once said, “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.” 

Kinky Friedman would add, “Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.

How true is the observation of Robert Wagner, “A dog will teach you unconditional love. If you can have that in your life, things won't be too bad.”

Why is love so beautifully attributed to dogs?

St. Francis would say that God’s animals are a blessing of God’s love. In the Canticle of Daniel we pray, the Lord bless all God’s works: “You dolphins and water creatures, you birds, all you beasts, wild and tame. The Canticle is a profound reflection God’s reverence of nature.

Dogs, like all God’s animals are sacred because of God’s love in creating them.

Billy Graham felt “God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he'll be there.”

President Harry S. Truman who knew well unfriendly politics of Washington, D.C. said, “You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.”

When we add to Truman’s advice politics in general spawns extreme judgementalism Eckhart Tolle would remind us of a unique canine virtue, “When a dog looks at you, the dog is not thinking what kind of a person you are.”

Some time back, the Women’s Museum in Washington, D.C. hosted an exhibition on the Virgin Mary. In it was a portrait of St. Luke who was close to Mary. He is working at his desk surrounded by medical books. Below him sits a dog symbolizing Mary’s exceptional gift of faith. No matter the sword that had pierced her heart and difficult times, she never lost faith in Christ and his mission.

We must wonder if God blessing us with animals is a divine message teaching us to reverence all God’s creatures, both human beings, and those of another species. Is this prompting us to see the whole picture of the universe?

Thank you Macgee for the beautiful memories of being a loving, faithful dog, and your gift to us.

“Revenge is Mine Says the Lord.”

February 8, 2024

As I watched jets retaliate for the deaths of three American soldiers while also retaliating against Houthis, and then viewed Israel’s attack against Hamas I thought, “We are in an age of revenge like never before.” Never before have we been able to view brutal daily revenge in the media. Never before have we experienced images of violence, devastating destruction and experience men, women, and children who were brutalized.

Salient quotes on revenge remind us of its psychological, physical, and spiritual damage.

Douglas Horton warns, “While seeking revenge, dig two graves --- one for yourself.”

Jeremy Taylor points out, “Revenge . . . is like a rolling stone, which, when a man has forced uphill will return upon him with a greater violence and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.”

Coretta Scott King cries, “Revenge and retaliation always perpetuate the cycle of anger, fear and violence.”

Francis Bacon warns, “A man that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green.”

On the other hand, Josh Billings says, “There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”

Marcus Aurelius concurs, “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”?

How do we control revenge from destroying us humanly and spiritually?

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches fraternal correction is an essential part of love. In retaliation loving fraternity must not fall by the wayside. Even though we may wish to crucify a contemptible person, he or she is our sibling. The first rule of justice is we are created by God to be responsible beings for each other. God meant us to be social beings, not recluses. As Christ died for us, we are created to practice the principle of living for the human and spiritual good of another. Difficult? Most certainly and St. Paul tells why.

To be “redeemed,” and to adhere to Christ, means that within the “old” man in us there is also the beginning of a “new” man. But the old man remains with his urges and inclinations, good and bad. Two centers are now active, two men are contending with each other. Often the good man is overcome by the old. In the psalms the psalmist tells us that psalms addressing revenge are reminders that revenge is imbedded within humankind, the old man --- original sin and Cain’s revenge lies dormant within all of us.

It is easy to say, “Retaliation is the only way to stop the enemy and teach it a lesson. When retaliation turns to savage brutality it is never justifiable and often comes back to haunt us.

History teaches better ways to avoid revenge exist that create the true person in us for which God created us. Time-proven examples of reconciliation exist leaving us the choice to embrace the old man or new man in us.

“Befriending Loneliness”

February 1, 2024

Though our need to connect is innate, many of us frequently feel alone. Loneliness is the state of distress or discomfort that results when one perceives a gap between one’s desires for social connection and actual experiences of it. Even some people who are surrounded by others throughout the day—or are in a long-lasting marriage— still experience a deep and pervasive loneliness.

Loneliness is a sure sign of age causing emotional suffering. One of the most difficult things to experience is it hitting us suddenly and feeling a lack of companionship, being left out, and empty. This is especially true as our growing number of significant others dwindles. My two best friends are dead, as are most of my classmates. How I miss our conversations and picking up the phone and talking with them.

Loneliness can set in also when problems mount and we feel we have no one to turn to.

As my mother was losing old friends, she would say, “Gene this goes with the territory of aging.” As much as she was realistic, we need not succumb to that territory. Other territories await exploration. Loneliness is an opportunity to update and discard undesirable routines. It is especially a time to think of others fighting the same old battle of loneliness.

An essential element in dialogue is pedagogic prudence, meaning to put ourselves in the shoes of others, and practice fraternal camaraderie. Lonely people in search of support are around us perpetually. One support Pope Francis would encourage us to employ is touching them with our human touch. To accomplish this is to reach out --- get out of our self --- and to exude a warm understanding smile that says, “I feel what you are enduring.” No giving advice, just touching another lonely soul with understanding kindness.

Christ was forever healing the lonely who were cast aside by society. He not only touched them physically but with a caring heart especially and suddenly a healing bright world opened up to them. In doing so Christ gave us a model to imitate --- using Christ like human touch that transports a person into an elevated sphere deplete of loneliness.

Life offers us a choice when dealing with loneliness. We can bemoan it and feel sorry for ourselves or see it as an opportunity to create a new province for ourselves and especially others. All it takes is embracing an “outreach mode,” and reaching out with a warm caring smile to another in need of consolation that says, “I am one with you. Let us walk together” --- a proven way to combat our own loneliness while enabling another to do the same.

“A Call for Postmodern Courage”

January 29, 2024

“Last but by no means least, courage --- moral courage, the courage of one’s convictions, the courage to see things through. The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the old-age struggle --- the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.”

These sage words of General Douglas MacArthur apply to our age in need of postmodern courage leading us to ask, what is the essence of courage?

The renowned philosopher Josef Pieper states, “Courage is a strong activity of the soul, i.e., it is a vigorous grasping of and clinging to the good. It is only from this stoutheartedness that we get the strength to support the physical and spiritual suffering of injury and death. Courage is something we can and must work at and the work begins with defining and redefining the good that is and around us.”

The essence of courage is the good, a first principle of life. Plato tells us, “Good is a perfect, eternal, and changeless Form, existing outside of space and time.” It is a God-given sense, a desire for the best possible in life.

Note how MacArthur focuses on the voice of conscience, a voice desiring the good creating the a Divine First Principle.

As Pieper directs us to courage being a strong activity of the soul, so too, does MacArthur sagely remark that our soul faces an age-old struggle in doing what is right. What are some of these struggles?

Emile Durkheim, a pioneer in the field of sociology, points out there is a limit to the amount of deviant behavior a community can afford to recognize. As behavior worsens, the community adjusts to its standards so that conduct once thought reprehensible is no longer deemed so. Expectations are lowered to the point that behavior once considered abnormal is now seen as normal, hence the struggle to maintain high standards.

St. Thomas Aquinas adds another foe of courage is pusillanimity, “the falling short of that which we can do because we refuse to tend to that which empowers us to do it.” Hence, the struggle to maintain willpower.

The historian Arnold Toynbee sounds an alarm for our times. “A young nation is confronted with a challenge for which it finds a successful response. And if it continues to make the same once successful response to the new challenge, it will inevitably suffer a decline and eventful failure. As we begin the last decades of our century, the United States faces such a challenge.” Hence the challenge to our God-given gift of entrepreneurism and creativity the antithesis of true progress.

Today we have a choice, to champion the good no matter the cost or to refuse to tend to that which empowers us to produce it.

“Looking Aging in the Eye”

January 22, 2024

“Like a great Bordeaux, you just keep getting better with age!!”

“You don’t look a day over 60.”

“You will outlive us all.”

Every time I have a birthday friends see me having stopped the clock when it comes to aging.

I believe most of us desire to give a blind eye to growing old and we still like to relive the day when we were in our prime. This is natural but does not face the reality that life goes through stages, and no one is exempt from aging. More importantly, aging is no time to close our eyes to it, but to marvel at life’s valuable and blessed lessons and to be truly realistic about life.

Most of life is lived under pressure and hustle bustle daily chores. But as in autumn, when the leaves fall from the trees, our aging view expands, and we become conscious of wider space, it allows us to realize how life is more profound than imagined. As we look deeper into the benefits of aging, we learn the urgency and tensions of daily life tend to slacken as we tell ourselves “Been there and done it before, don’t get excited.”  And too, aging spawns a sense of detachment, reducing the urge to amass goods. As my mother would say, “It is time to give things away, not hold onto to them.” It is an opportunity to release our hold on “stuff” and what is no longer meaningful as it was and to enjoy the freedom it creates.

A danger in aging is capitulating to its transitoriness and having no more future to look forward to. On the contrary, it is an opportunity to cast aside the dreamy aloofness of childhood and renounce the endless demands of youth, to be an exemplary adult, ensuring a healthy future for others. It can also be a moment of humor seeing through life’s nonsensical and transcendent side and how generations come and go.

Wisdom is a precious gift of aging prompting us to say, “I have seen it all and now have an expanded understanding of life’s limitations and possibilities, to know others will experience the same challenges we experienced because that is life.

Aging gives us time for forgiveness, for contrition and leaving everything in God’s hands. It enables us to think about eternity, to dream of being with our Creator God.

Undoubtably, aging comes with health problems, and loneliness. If we reflect on its possibilities of deeper wisdom and understanding, an opportunity to put our life in better order, and deeper faith in God our Creator, its light filled merits far outweigh its dark side.

As long as we have our senses, we have the choice to age gracefully or gracelessly.

“Asceticism for Our Times”

January 16, 2024

As I watched disturbing news reports, I wondered how anyone can psychologically get out from under this ominous experience.

Modern age ideology gives us a good place to answer this. It is an age that sees ascetism as out of date and an intrusion to freedom we treasure. The slogan “Give me freedom or death” captures our love affair with it.

Sociologists find we are a freedom-centered country but once we obtain it, we don’t know what to do with it nor comprehend its responsibilities.

Even though we don’t hear much about ascetism, it contains an amazing spirit needed to cope with disturbing news. Why emphasize this? It is because ascetism contains the principle that only one who masters himself or herself can master the disturbing challenges confronting us. It prompts us to get ourselves in order first before combating external problems: to become disciplined, to censure out, if necessary, to control undesirable urges and to reassess values.

The Greek word asceticism is asekesis meaning to properly direct our life.

When we study why unwelcome news is disturbing our peace, we learn it is because something is out of order. Peace denotes order that in turn connotes harmony and tranquility. It is a gift a loving caring God bestows on to live joyfully. As harmony in music lifts the soul and generates an elevating spirit so does asceticism produce this spirit. “Life is now in better order, this is the way it I should, if only I had done this earlier,” we tell ourselves. Thomas Merton would further add, “Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”

Human nature is often fraught with addictions, ingrained unhealthy habits, prejudices, selfish egotism, and fears of dying to self. We admit these undesirable faults, but when it comes to changing them, we learn quickly how change is difficult and how strong is the desire to cling to life the way it is. Like riding a wild horse, we are often thrown to the ground when attempting to tame ourselves.

Ascetism is a blessed virtue that offers us a choice between conquering self, or allowing our self to be conquered.

“Treasuring Silence”

January 11, 2024

“There was a wise old owl that sat in a tree,

The more he heard the less he spoke,

The less he spoke the more he heard,

Why can’t we be like that wise old owl.”

Our wise old owl raises a fundamental question, “What makes silence so significant?”

The Latin word for silence is silens, meaning to be still, quiet or at rest. Stillness is the tranquility of inner life, the quiet at the depths of its hidden streams. It is a collected, total presence and being ‘all there,’ receptive alert, ready. It is when the soul abandoned the restlessness of purposeful activity.

In German Wahrnehmen means the reception of truth. Through silence we are enabled to behold the truth, consume it, and make it one within us.

Kahlil Gibran description of silence captures its overwhelming pleasure: “But now I have learned to listen to silence, to hear its choirs singing the song of ages, chanting the hymns of space and disclosing the secrets of eternity.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh speaks of a postmodern malaise that is forever threatening silence’s beauty: “We seem so frightened of being alone that we never let it happen . . .We choke the space with continuous music, chatter, and companionship to which we do not even listen. It is simply there to fill space. When the noise stops there is no inner music to take its place.”

In Power and Responsibility author Romano Guardini concurs with Lindbergh and suggests what is needed to safeguard silence: “First, we must try to rediscover something of what is called the contemplative attitude, actually experience it ourselves, not just talk about it interestingly. All around us we see activity, organization, operations of every possible type, but what directs them? An innerness no longer really at home within itself, which thinks, judges, acts from the surface, guided by mere intellect, utility, and the impulses of power, property, and pleasure. An ‘interiority’ too superficial to contact the truth lying at life’s center, which no longer reaches the essential and everlasting, but remains somewhere just under the skin-level of the provisional and the fortuitous. . .Before all else, then, man’s depth must be reawakened. His life must again include times, his day moments of stillness in which he collects himself, spreads out before his heart the problems which have stirred him during the day. In a word, man must learn again to meditate and to pray. He must become all there opening his mind and heart wide to some word of piety or wisdom, of ethical honor, whether he takes it from Scripture or Plato, from Goethe or Jeremias Gotthelf.”

Losing our contemplative edge suggests a critical question, “Is there an alarming correlation between a growing number of disturbed people and their inability to cultivate silence? Is our age’s emphasis on perpetual motion and commotion eroding our quality of life? Is today’s existence losing its lifegiving depth?”