Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: June 19, 2016
Let me use this space first of all to offer personal thanks on behalf of my family for all of your kind wishes of sympathy and promised prayers shared with us this past week. The death of our beloved mother, Mrs. Lettie Deas Counce, was a blessed event, inasmuch as she had suffered so greatly from the ravages of Alzheimer’s Disease for the last eight-plus years. Yet of course the death of any parent is a sad time for the children – and in mama’s case the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, step-grandchildren, god-children, nieces, nephews, in-laws, friends and countless acquaintances. She truly tried to be loving and friendly to everyone.
Since she donated her body to science, we didn’t need to plan an immediate funeral. We have now decided to celebrate a Memorial Mass with visiting afterwards on Tuesday evening, June 28, at 6 pm here at the Cathedral. Yes, it’s for my family and mama’s friends most of all. Yet as far as I’m concerned, one’s Parish family is just that, family, so if you’d like to come please do so!
As I sit down to write these words, still another sadness is overwhelming all of us. The senseless, vicious murder of 49 people in an Orlando nightclub by a self-professed Muslim terrorist has rightly shocked the world. Pope Francis himself was quick to admit being “horrified” in dismay, as I hope we all were.
I’m not going to venture into the politics of gun control or the war on Islamic terrorism. There’ll be countless debates over these and all related issues at every international, national, state and local level. I also think that too-exclusive, almost prurient focus on the dead and wounded and their families is perhaps not wise. Victims of crime, persecution and prejudice deserve not exploitation, but sympathy and assistance, especially in the face of their innocence and the capriciousness of fate which brought them to encounter this monstrosity. They did not choose the destruction they encountered.
What is preoccupying my prayer over all of this is how necessary it is for everyone to rediscover something that the Church has known for two millennia now. We must in the face of inexplicable and especially of evil things turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we consider His person and teachings, we should notice right away some consistent and dominant themes. These help believers – like us – realize who He is and what He wishes of us. While across religious lines there can be a lot of debate – some of it healthy – over who Jesus was and what He wants, in the final analysis there are some rather un-arguable truths.
Many of Jesus Christ’s most basic and still most profound priorities are found in the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-10), and indeed in the rest of His Sermon on the Mount found in the next three chapters of Matthew. If taken to heart and even more importantly lived-out, His words map out a guide to thought and behavior for us, showing us how to live out consistent values, realize true love in our often-loveless world, and obtain the blessings of God’s grace.
Can we discern from them, then, how to think and act? Jesus calls us to love everyone. Period. Even enemies and those who think differently than we do. He challenges us to be just, punishing only wicked deeds and not seeking revenge or evil means to achieve good. He bids us be non-violent, accepting suffering but not sin. He commands us not be hurtful, valuing life. And we are to help people who are in need, even if they do not deserve it. As Bill Hybels, a Protestant minister, once said in his book Becoming a Contagious Christian: “You’ve never locked eyes with another human being who isn’t valuable to God.” In both His teachings and indeed every facet of His life, Jesus clearly wanted everyone to know that all people – every life, every soul — matter.
This is why we should, before being distracted by other ideologies and issues involved – by guns, Islam, mental illness, homosexuality, politics and so on – we first make sure we’re rooted in Jesus’ basic principles of loving God and neighbor (see Lk 10:27). It’s what I’m trying to do personally in my spiritual life at this time, I hope you are too.
Yours in Him,
