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Growing Older in Grace Summary of Presentation at St. Bonaventure on
1945 photo
Military and Seminary Days Since my picture in uniform was used to advertise this talk I had better say a few words about my military career. It lasted 33 months from 1943 to 1945. I left the service at the age of 21. I served in two battles in the South Pacific as a member of the 37th Infantry Division of the 6th Army. I joined my unit as a replacement in the fall of 1943 while they were on the island of Guadalcanal which was then pacified having been taken earlier that year by our troops. The first battle was the taking of Bougainville in the Solomon Islands; the second battle was the invasion of the Philippines. I waded ashore at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon. I thought of the priesthood during my time overseas and began to take steps in the direction soon after I was mustered out of the service. Many influences guided me to the priesthood. One was a group of soldiers who prayed the rosary every evening after the evening meal. Another were books I read that inspired a young Catholic man who had not attended Catholic school nor served at the altar. I entered in 1946. Our class graduated from the Junior Seminary in 1948. We attended St. John’s Major Seminary in Camarillo, California which was run at the time by priests of the Vincentian Order. Good men! I was one of several returning service men who entered at the same time and were ultimate ordained for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on May 5th of 1954 at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral . My first assignment was in Oxnard. After eight years I was sent to the San Fernando Valley. Ultimately I designated pastor of St. Lucy Parish in Long Beach. In 1975 I was changed to St. Irenaeus Parish in Cypress, California. I was there as pastor until 1993. After that I came to St. Bonaventure. I “retired” in 1999. Illness At the very time of my retirement I came down with severe spinal stenosis, a very painful ailment that made it very difficult to move and to sleep. Within two months I was on an operating table at Hoag Hospital. After the operation I had no more pain but the ravages continued for several months including a brief case of clinical depression. I was ready to return to Sunday Mass by February of 2000. Enough about me!
Fun Quiz Let’s see how good your memory is or how old you really are! There are 24 items. Can you remember? Head light dimmer switches on the floor of your car If you remember more than 20, don’t tell your age!
What This Talk Is Not About It is not about health measures such as drinking 8 ounces of
water 6 times a day.
Examples Of How Not To View Death Some refuse to acknowledge death; they will not talk about it in any way Some curse God for a short life and an early death Some take their own lives when suffering comes, e.g. Ernest Hemmingway Author Nora Ephron’s suggestion regarding older age is “Get used to it” as though there were no God offering anything better.
World Views Everyone operates from a World View. It is one’s sense of how the world works, especially in regard to himself. The Christian World View is that (1) God created everything that is out of nothing. God is the supreme creator. (2) Mankind fell under Adam and Eve. (3) God redeemed the world and all people by the crucifixion of death for us on the cross of Calvary. This is the Christian world view and it is held widely. But there are others. Marxism sees (1) creation as a given without a creator. (2) it sees the "fall" as the ownership of private property and (3) the remedy of the ills of private property in terms of bloody revolution. Individual lives have no value. People live at the discretion of the all-powerful state. Earthly paradise is classless society. They also believe in the inevitability of history in the direction of socialism and communism. We think of communism as a Soviet experiment, but it continues in China, North Korea, Cuba and elsewhere in the world. It is an idea that will not die. You have but to look at the pervasive socialism of Europe today that many in our country admire so much. Planned Parenthood sees (1) creation in a Darwinian model, i.e. it is self-generating without the intervention of an intelligent designer. Margaret Sanger was a dedicated Darwinist who saw utopian progress as evolutionary in Darwinian terms. (2) She saw the great evil in world as the rise of Christian morality and the remedy in (3) total sexual freedom. This would lead to an earthly paradise without religion or the idea of God.
Personal Thoughts Moral Relativism is rampant in the educated world. It says that "I am my own judge of right and wrong. I do not need a god or a church to instruct me". Moral Relativism is an easy excuse for immoral behavior. Just look around. The use of the term “personal savior” is a least confusing. Jesus indeed is the savior and there something very personal about the relationship. The problem is that the term has been co-opted to mean that a person goes to Jesus directly without the intermediation of church or sacrament. We would do well not to use the term.
Scripture 1. “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.” (Ecclesiastes 3) This famous passages reminds us that God in in charge from birth to death. All is in His providential hands. 2. “Even to your old age I am the same, even when your hair is gray I will bear you; It is I who have done this, I who will continue, and I who will carry you to safety.” (Isaiah 46:4) What do you think “carry you to safety” means? 3. “So we are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8) Our real home is after this life. 4. “My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose. I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, (for) that is far better.” (Philippians 1:20-23) Very much like the previous passage. 5. “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-11) The place to start thinking of God’s relationship with us is love not power or sovereignty.
Early Christian Writer “What an honor, what happiness to depart joyfully from this world, to go forth in glory from the anguish and pain, in one moment to close the eyes that looked on the world of men and in the next to open them at once to look on God and Christ! The speed of this joyous departure! You are suddenly withdrawn from earth to find yourself in the kingdom of heaven.” (From a treatise to Fortunatus by St. Cyprian of Carthage, bishop and martyr, +258) This third century saint could have written this yesterday. It is the constant faith of Christians.
Jews In Vatican II On 28 October 1965 the Second Vatican Council issued Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. In it we find these words: “As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation, nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading. Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle (St. Paul). In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Zephaniah 3:9) “Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.” “Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.” Testimony Of St. Paul “I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not become wise (in) your own estimation: a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob; and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." In respect to the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but in respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:25-29) Paul is saying that due to the “hardening” of the children of Israel he went to the Non-Jewish or Gentile world. One led providentially to the other yet God still holds the Jewish people dear.
If I Had My Life To Live Over If I had my life to live over, I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax, I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and cotton candy. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I'm one of those people who lived sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, And if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, Instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have. If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies. Attributed to Nadine Stair
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