Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Markers

In our culture, two birthdays have special meaning. Call them marker birthdays if you like. My first one was on July 5, 1966, when I become a legal adult. (People today, of course, become legal adults three years earlier, able to do all sorts of things except drink legally). The second happened this year, when I turned 65 and officially became a “senior citizen,” eligible for medicare and a whole range of senior discounts.

Both my marker birthdays were pretty tame. When I turned 21, I was at a Jesuit seminary in Minnesota. I know I was sober because we seminarians had no access to liquor. Except for the Mass wine in the sacristy, alcohol was kept in a locked cabinet in the priests’ recreation room, and the nearest bar was a two-mile walk down the highway but none of us had any money to buy a drink even if we went there.

When I turned 65, I opened some very nice cards from a number of friends and relatives, and I had drinks and dinner with my Marquette Jesuit community. I also took time to write down three wishes I have for my future. Here they are.

First, I’d like to be like my dad, who stayed engaged with the people and things around him, and who read his medical journals until almost the day he died.

Second, I’d like to be like my mother, who, as she grew older, became more willing to say what she thought and felt — without giving offense but also without being apologetic.

Finally, and most importantly, when there are no more birthdays left for me, I hope that even though I know I will not have lived a perfect life by any stretch of the imagination, God will welcome me to eternity as a friend despite all my warts and shortcomings. And if that happens, what more could I wish for?