June 4, 2007

There was nothing unusual about the novices’ Saturday night vigil this week, although many of you might find it so. There is something other-worldly about being in the chapel at 2:30 AM, singing and praying the psalms, interspersed with times of silence. Since it was Trinity Sunday, the Office of Readings was particularly beautiful and profound.

It is not unusual for us here in Newark to hear the screeching of tires in the middle of the night as kids in our neighborhood play a game of chase with stolen cars. The level of mischief and drug-dealing is blatant enough during the day, but at night it is another world of unbelievable chaos, danger, and sin.

It did strike me as a little unusual, however, this past Saturday night when the screeching of tires, the sounding of a crashing car, and a jeering crowd was taking place during the chanting of our night office, just on the other side of the friary wall. If you imagine yourself watching the Mass on EWTN and then switching to a gangster movie and then having the two channels suddenly mix together on your television screen, you get the feel of the CFR life at times. It is the experience of two very contrasting worlds colliding.

What we experience at times in a more dramatic fashion is something that every Christian must also expect to experience in some fashion. We are in the world, but not of the world. We are at times consoled at God’s presence in the world, and at times distressed at how evil humanity can be. The problem of evil in a reverse sort of way actually proves the existence of God; without Him the human race certainly would have self-destructed long ago. As chaotic as it can seem at times, the Holy Spirit continues to renew the face of the earth. As low as humanity can sink at times, Christ has entered into those depths and reminds us from within, “Take courage. I have overcome the world.”

Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR

Most Blessed Sacrament Friary, Newark, NJ

_____________________________________________