Dear Graduates of Chaminade and Kellenberg Memorial,
Greetings for downtown Des Moines, Iowa, where it is currently a sultry 87 degrees Fahrenheit, with thunderstorms predicted for the next couple of days as the air grows thicker and more oppressive by the minute. I’m here for a week-long National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in mid June, and, since I have some Sunday-afternoon down time, I figured I’d get to work on the July Magnificat reflection.
Today’s heat and humidity are harbingers, as we all know, of the kind of weather we can expect for most of the summer, especially if we are spending it in the New York metropolitan area. Today’s heat and humidity also bring to mind a theme I have been considering for the past several weeks: We need to turn down the heat in our civil and even in our Church discourse. We need to lower the temperature. We need to let cooler heads prevail.
I’m actually returning to a theme about which I have written several times in these monthly reflections. I am deeply saddened by the divisions that are tearing apart the fabric of our country, even the fabric of our own Church. I am acutely aware of these divisions because I use social media extensively to promote vocations to religious life and to the priesthood. Consequently, my Facebook, Instagram, and X feeds are filled with people of all political, theological, and ecclesial persuasions expressing disdain for those whom they consider their ideological opponents, even their “enemies.” Too often, diatribe replaces dialogue, and trash talk replaces civil discourse. Not infrequently, I hear the same kind of tribalism among my students, as they divide the world into “us” and “them,” the “good guys” and the “bad guys.” And, if I were to take a break from writing right now, and turn on the news (Admittedly, I am a news junkie.), I would almost certainly see the same kind of tribalism boiling over in our city streets.
We need to lower the temperature. But how? I wish I knew the answer to that question.
Perhaps we need to start small. On the plane ride to Des Moines yesterday, I started reading Hope: An Invitation, by Sister Josephine Garrett, CSFN. In that book, Sister Josephine insists that growing in hope hinges on trusting God, which, in turn, requires us to surrender control, since, ultimately, it’s God who is in control anyway. Just what does trusting God look like? Sister Josephine offers many suggestions, but one in particular especially caught my attention:
It looks like doing more listening than talking in your marriage and taking a chance on your spouse in that part of your marriage where you have been overly dominant, controlling, or domineering. It looks like being the first to apologize because both of you are wrong, and not revoking your apology if you do not hear what you want to hear after you have made it. You hope that cleaning up your side of the street, and making that first apology, surrendering the outcome, will bear fruit in the relationship.
I would be quick to point out that Sister Josephine’s advice applies to religious life as much as it does to married life. Only recently, I had to push myself to apologize to a fellow Brother when I really didn’t want to. Ultimately, I did so because I thought I would be a hypocrite not to. I often preach about reconciliation and unity. Well, I guess I figured it was time to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.
You might ask, “If I am consistently turning down the heat, if I am always lowering the temperature, don’t I run the risk of watering down the truth? Doesn’t moderation expose us to the danger of being wishy-washy? Doesn’t the Book of Revelation emphatically declare, ‘So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I will spit you out of my mouth’ (Revelation 3:16)?”
Good questions! Might I suggest that we turn up the heat on ourselves, rather than on others? Let the fire of God’s love – the blazing fire of God’s love – burn away our hatreds and hostilities, our impatience and our intolerance, our own impurities and imperfections. May we emerge from the furnace of God’s love like gold tested in fire. May we indeed be on fire with God’s love – with love for God and for God’s people – all of them, even the people we don’t particularly like.
That, I would suggest, is real fire, a fire that needs no tempering. That is the fire that just might cauterize our wounds and heal the many divisions among us.
On behalf of all my Marianist Brothers,
Bro. Stephen
