July 18, 2005
I just returned from a beautiful time of hermitage retreat near Hudson, New York, where there were so many signs of God’s presence and majesty – beautiful sunsets, clear starry nights, and the Catskill Mountains in the distance. In Newark, I’m back to a grayish haze in place of glorious sunsets, streetlights in place of the starry heavens, and run-down tenements in place of the mountains. My experience of road signs in New Jersey has not been very positive thus far (whose has?!) and these other city signs seem just about as helpful in pointing me to the presence of God – or perhaps I need to learn to read them better.
I remember as a young friar in the South Bronx wondering how to find the Lord in the absence of any apparent beauty. Father Benedict reminded me that when I go out for a walk in the early morning hours (our neighborhoods generally don’t “wake-up” until around 10 AM anyway) to meditate on all the evident signs of the poverty and humble conditions that Christ embraced in His humanity and His crucifixion and to realize He is very present still in His suffering members.
Here in Newark we only have to step out the front door to begin the Stations of the Cross. There is a trail of blood on the sidewalk from a young man who was shot here a couple of weeks ago and was able to run about a block before he dropped. Brother Crispin and Brother Columba went to pray where the trail ended and some of the neighbors gave them the relieving news that Kenneth has survived. Some other young men expressed their appreciation that we would show concern for “a brother from the neighborhood”. Brother Crispin said that it was a meditation on Calvary walking along the path of blood of this innocent victim of random gang violence.
Even in Jesus’ time, people were asking for different signs, but He told them to learn to read the sign of Jonah, what we represent by the sign of His Cross. Christ has transformed that sign of disgrace into a sign of His grace and He can do the same in the lives of all of our suffering brothers and sisters, because He is present in them. Isn’t He beautiful?
Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
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