Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Sometimes Bad Advice

One of the old monastic writers advised people that if they wanted to be at peace in this world, they should convince themselves that they deserved all the problems and sufferings that came their way. I can’t agree with that.

In the Book of Job, the main character knew that he didn’t deserve what he was going through. His friends told him that he must have done something to deserve it. However, at the end of the Book, God tells the friends that they were wrong and should beg forgiveness for their words against Job.

No, we don’t necessarily have to think suffering and evil visit us because we deserve them. They come because this world is limited and imperfect, and we, too, are limited, imperfect, and sometimes downright wicked. Thus, sometimes our cells act up, they begin multiplying in ways they aren’t supposed to and we get cancer. Sometimes there’s more rain than the ground can handle and people are flooded out. Or sometimes mentally disturbed persons hear voices telling them to kill their neighbor or set fire to his house, and they do.

We do make bad decisions and carry around bad attitudes that can lead us to hurt others or ourselves, of course. In such cases, we might say we suffer because of our own fault. But isn’t it apparent that there exists suffering which is truly undeserved? (Torture, rape and school shootings come to mind.) As I see it, then, to think people deserve all they suffer doesn’t lead them to peace. It traps them in foolish thinking.

Your thoughts?

Knowing and Not

The breviary is a collection of psalms and reflective readings for each day of the year, used primarily by priests and religious. Last week I was happy to find several selections from the writings of St. Augustine. The following short passage, in particular, stood out for me.

Augustine wrote:[I declare and confess to you, Lord,] what I know and do not know of myself. What I know, I know because you enlighten me; what I do not know, I shall not know until my darkness becomes as noon in your sight.

I felt Augustine uncovered something we all seem tempted by, namely the desire to fully know ourselves, what motivates us and who we are in our heart of hearts. But it is an illusion to think that we can attain such awareness in this life.

Of course, we do know some things about who we are and what makes us tick. Still, from time to time something usually happens that shows us things in us we hadn’t been aware of, things good and not so good. So, like it or not, we don’t fully know ourselves — or other people, either.

But that very realization can give us the impulse to put into God’s hands all we are at any given time, all we know and all we don’t, just like Augustine did. And though we have faith that someday we will learn the full truth about ourselves, that is not for us in this life but in the next one.

For now, we must live with the fact that, as St. Paul wrote, we see vaguely as in a mirror. But all is in God’s knowing and care, nonetheless. And that may help us treat ourselves and others with more kindness, love, acceptance, respect and tolerance.

Commencement and Reunion

This weekend Marquette University High School, where I presently work, held its commencement ceremonies for the class of 2013. Last weekend Creighton Preparatory School held its fifty-year reunion for the class of 1963, of which I am a member.

The M.U.H.S. class of 2013 has fifty years until they arrive at their golden jubilee, and who knows what events will occur in those five decades or what dilemmas and decisions the years will force on them.

My Creighton Prep class of 1963 has the advantage of seeing what the past five decades have brought us and what decisions we have made. But we living members of that class have an unknown future before us, too.

One armchair philosopher observed, “Ninety per cent of life is a matter of showing up.” So, to live responsibly, whether we are members of the class of 2013, the class of 1963, any of the other classes before or after, or even if we never had the chance for a formal education, it’s still important that we “show up” for whatever life presents, good or bad.

That means meeting what comes, accepting it or trying to change it, not relying solely on our own strength but on the power of God who, as St. Paul, wrote “can do infinitely more that we could ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3).

We don’t need to do any more than that, but we owe it to ourselves and God to do no less.

Creighton Prep 2013 Commencement and Reunion of the Class of 1963

Time for Review

At the high school where I work, this is the time of Advanced Placement (AP) exams and semester tests. As students have been busy reviewing what they have learned, I found myself thinking that, as the Easter season draws to an end, I might want to do my own review of the important things that the Church has been reminding us of for the last five-plus months.

The Christmas season was all about remembering the graciousness of God’s becoming human like us. In celebrating the Christ child who was born in a stable, we saw that God was no deity-at-a-distance, but truly one of us.

Then we learned during Lent about things we might need to strengthen or change in our lives. We were presented with the calls of Christ to conversion and reconciliation and his urging us to be attentive to the needs of others.

Finally, Easter season came, when Christ appeared as the great Consoler, especially for those who have experienced any kind of death or disappointment. His rising teaches all of us that no matter what worries and fears bother us, the Resurrection of Jesus has filled the world with hope and new life.

And, when that Easter season comes to an end on the feast of Pentecost, we can remember that, just as the Holy Spirit strengthened the faith of the disciples, we can depend on the Spirit to keep fresh in our minds and hearts all the lessons we have learned from and about Christ.

The Voice We Hear

Whether in a mall or an airport, nothing catches people’s attention like hearing their name over a loudspeaker, and no matter where we are no voice is more welcome to our ears than the voice of someone we love. Jesus tells us that we — his sheep, his followers, his friends — will come to know his voice, too, and respond to it.

Of course, we hear many voices these days. They tell us to be afraid or buy lots of things or hate or ignore certain people or be lustful or cynical. But Christ’s voice speaks to us of trust, love, forgiveness, peace, courage and hope. If we hear voices that urge us to do or think other things, we need to shut our ears to those voices and listen to Christ instead.

And Jesus speaks our names as no one else can. Mary Magdalene experienced that. On Easter morning, at the tomb, she didn’t recognize Jesus; he looked like the gardener. But when he spoke her name, “Mary,” she knew right away it was Jesus. It didn’t matter how he looked, the voice told her it was her Lord.

This Easter season, let’s pray that we may hear Christ’s voice speaking words of life and calling us by our names, and let’s also ask the Holy Spirit, whose coming we will celebrate in a few short weeks, to give us the grace to follow Christ. In fact, this is a gift we can ask for every morning as we start our day, for each day we can expect to hear Christ’s voice.