by Jim Sano
They pulled up back into St. Anthony’s driveway. David said, “Still a nice story, but thanks for inviting me today. It was good.”
As David was about to walk back to the office, a young man came out of the side door of the rectory. He looked to be about nineteen or twenty, slim and about 5 feet, 10 inches, with longish dark hair with some curl to it. He was wearing jeans, a black tee-shirt with an open button-down collar shirt on top.
Tom grinned, and called out, “Luke, did you get yourself something to eat?”
As Luke reached Tom and David, he was still chewing something in his mouth. “Nope.” He extended his hand to David. “How are you doing? I’m Luke.”
David liked the confidence in Luke’s voice. “Glad to meet you. I’m David.”
Luke glanced at Tom. “Ah. So, this is the guy who can’t beat an old man like you at b-ball?”
David laughed. “What?”
Tom smirked. “Meet my little brother and trouble-maker extraordinaire. Luke, tell David that I never said anything even remotely close to that.”
Luke chuckled. “Brother, you know I’d do anything for you, but you also told me lying wasn’t a good thing to do, so I am conflicted.”
“Maybe I should leave now to practice my pathetic game for next week,” David said, “Good meeting you, Luke. Tom, good seeing you today.”
Tom said, “I’m really glad you came and helped out. I’m sure it was appreciated by many.”
When David arrived back at his office, Izzie inspected him and nodded. “Mmmhmm, and it’s good to see you again today, Mr. Kelly. I hope you enjoyed your lunch today.”
Remembering the stain, David looked down at his shirt. “No, Izzie, I’m not a sloppy eater. I was just helping out a friend, at uh, at My Brother’s Table.”
Izzie’s eyes lit up with surprise and approval as her lower lip curled and she gave an approving nod.
As David entered his office, he could hear her mumbling, “Today is a good day.”
Chapter 21
Tom put his arm around Luke as they walked back into the rectory. “It’s not safe out here. There are damp nuns on the lookout for me.”
Luke curiously shook his head.
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“Can’t I visit my only brother when I want?”
Tom peered at him, knowing there was more. Luke was attending Boston University on a partial scholarship, which didn’t even cover all the high tuition, never mind the room and board, so he found different places to stay and was clearly in between.
“Do you need a place to stay?”
“That’s a very kind invitation, and I wouldn’t want you to be lonely.”
“Luke, I’m not Dad or Mom, but they aren’t here now, and I do worry about you.”
“You were on your own at my age and you didn’t worry about you, did you?”
“No, I didn’t, which is precisely why I worry about you. I thought I knew pretty much everything I needed to know at nineteen. Dad used to say to us over and over, ‘The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.’ So, imagine how much I really knew when I thought I knew everything. Noodle that one for a while. I don’t want to overprotect you or put out that fire you have. I love your passion, your curiosity, your sense of adventure, and your sense of humor. Don’t lose any of those, but try not to be swept up into a culture that is lost in terms of what life is all about and what being a man means. What we do has real effects on others and our own soul.”
Luke grabbed the other half of the sandwich he had made, and with his mouth full, said, “I know you care, and I know that you love me. I need to figure out who I am and not just try to be you.”
“You definitely don’t want to be me. Just try to follow things all the way through until you get to the truth. Even though most people don’t bother or have the courage to seek the truth, it can actually be the easiest part. Facing and following it is what a true man will do and will never regret.”
“I know. The truth will set you free, right?”
Tom nodded. “Most people I run into would like to avoid the truth because they believe they have to give something up, but once you stop resisting it, you begin to feel a tug towards it. I think Chesterton said it ‘begins a great love affair.’ Luke, I have great faith in you and know deep down you have something really special in you. I know it has been tough with Mom’s illness and losing Dad.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Okay?”
With a loving gaze, Tom said, “I’ll just worry a little.”
While Luke worked on a philosophy paper, Tom was taking care of paperwork and thinking about his homily for Sunday Mass. They played a game of chess and kept the conversation light as Luke reached checkmate after a long chase of Tom’s king. They enjoyed each other’s company, despite Luke being exactly half his brother’s age.
Luke cast Tom a serious look. “When I was a one-year-old, you were twenty times my age. When I was ten, you were less than three times my age.”
“Yes, Einstein. That is correct.”
“And now you’re only twice my age, sooo—I think that my math is telling me that we will be the same age at some point!”
Tom grinned.
“Unless you actually follow it through.” Tom got that this was Luke’s way of telling him that he understood his earlier point, that while something feels like it is true, the facts may actually be very different in life.
Tom helped Luke make up the bed in the small spare room then patted him on the back to say good night. He knew Luke would be up for many more hours, but Tom had an early morning.
Tom was up early to get ready for morning Mass. Tony Cappolla was serving again today and was running in just before the start of Mass carrying the tall crucifix. Tom, a Jesuit priest, which made him a member of the Society of Jesus that was started by Saint Ignatius, tried to always celebrate each Mass as if it were his first Mass, his only Mass, and his last Mass. Eight years of study, community life, and apostolic work helped Tom to find the deeper meaning in his role as a priest.
After Mass, Tom mustered up his courage to go over to the school to see the damage done by the sprinkler system. Angelo had everything cleaned up and moved out of the room. The school wasn’t large enough to lose a classroom, but Tom wasn’t sure how he’d be able to fix the issue. As he was scanning the room, he could feel a unique presence behind him, then heard a voice saying, “So now he comes over. Father, I will be using the church basement for my classes until we can solve this problem. It is getting too chilly out to have the children running around soaking wet.”
Tom turned around, slowly tilting his head down to look at Sister Helen. “Well, while you’re in the church, you might want to pray for a miracle since I’m not sure what else we can do right now.”
Sister Helen was a gift straight from heaven when Tom had started at St. Anthony’s four years earlier. Being a Franciscan religious, she wasn’t happy to see a Jesuit taking the helm at St. Anthony’s of all places. Nevertheless, they quickly learned they had a similar passion and approach to making the school something special again. Sister Helen was able to attract many quality teachers and let the students know they were loved and welcomed in a school that was caring, disciplined, and excelled academically. Despite the tight budget, Sister Helen brought music, art, and drama into the experience. Tom appreciated her strengths. He knew his lay elsewhere, in sports and the classics. He taught several classes a week to help each student learn about God, how much they were loved by him, and that each one of them had strengths, gifts, and a purpose in life. He knew together they were a good team.
When Tom returned to the rectory, Luke had already gone off to his classes for the day. He rolled his eyes when he noticed that Luke left his cereal bowl and spoon on the table instead of cleaning up. He lifted the bowl and saw a paper underneath with the words, “Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth, but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if n
othing had happened - Winston Churchill.” On the other side of the paper, Luke wrote, “I will stumble, but I will not hurry along. Luke.”
On the first Friday of each month, Tom ran a coffeehouse with a question-and-answer night in the church basement. He believed good teaching informed the mind but also moved the heart. The audience was mainly college students from several of the local colleges in the area, who were tired of trying to have fun by getting drunk or smoking pot and were looking for something different. The monthly Friday night gathering was fun as young men and women came in and greeted each other with a hug or a smile. Different students would take turns playing songs on a guitar, fiddle, or singing something meaningful or fun, and everyone would join in as they learned the choruses. Tom kept things friendly and comfortable for people, so they could share their faith experiences or any struggles they may have. He liked to encourage questions as they sat around in a large circle two to three deep on good nights. Luke wasn’t one to show up for these gatherings, but he wandered over tonight when he came back for the evening and sat on the steps out of sight.
A student with long bushy hair and a beard, who went by the name “Beetle” and attended periodically, raised his hand in the back of the room. He usually asked questions that were deliberately confrontational, but Tom merely treated these types of questions as opportunities because he knew that many of the students had these same questions. He’d rather they talked them out here with accurate information. “Beetle, it’s good to see you. What do you have for us tonight?”
“Father Tom, why is it that the Church has so many rules and regulations? Doesn’t seem like Jesus would operate that way. Doesn’t it just get in the way of important stuff like love and freedom?”
“That’s a great question.” He scanned the room, inviting the other students to join the conversation. “Tell me, what is a sport that you like to play or watch?”
The students called out, “Baseball. Hockey. Golf—”
“Okay. Good. Now take any one of those sports and then remove all rules of the game. Play baseball where there are no rules. You don’t have to run on the base paths. There is no limit to the number of strikes or outs. You can swing the bat at someone trying to tag you out.”
Everyone started laughing. Tom continued, “How about hockey? Sometimes it looks like there are no rules but actually, there are some. If an offensive player could just stay in the opponent’s end of the rink or you could have as many men on the ice as you wanted. Take the game of golf and say you could throw the ball as far as you wanted when out of bounds or maybe put your foot in front of the cup when your opponent is putting. It sounds kind of fun, but it wouldn’t be baseball or hockey or golf after a while. What about school? Say you studied hard and got every answer right on your test, but the teacher gave you a failing grade and then gave someone who never came to class an A? No rules. No complaints. Anything we care about, we put rules around to make the game what it is and to understand what is fair to expect.”
Beetle interjected, “Okay, but what does that have to do with all the Church rules and regulations?”
“Jesus gave the Pharisees a hard time for focusing too much on the letter of the laws too, so it is always a good question to ask.”
Beetle nodded as he scanned the room and puffed up with pride.
“But he also loved the law because of what it was. What do you think that was?”
One girl said, “The commandments?”
“Excellent, but what are the commandments?”
Another student said, “They are God’s laws.”
“Okay. Laws for whom?”
The student answered, “For us?”
“Correct. Now, do we see these laws as a loving guide to help us know and understand God’s ideas of what is healthy and good for us or are they an imposition, a set of unreasonable laws whose only intention is to stop us from having real joy and fun in life?”
The girl said, “Well, what are they again?”
“There are Ten Commandments, and no, Moses didn’t drop five of them on the way down the mountain. Jesus summed them up as two commandments of love. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.’ And a second is like it: ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Basically, God loves each one of us unconditionally and without fail. He has a loving plan for us that will always be incredibly better than our own plan, and that will give us a life of true love, true freedom, and knowing our true self. Think about laws and truth like banks of a river that give it direction and power. Without them, it just becomes a lazy lake.”
Another student said, “Father Tom, it makes sense to have rules to keep things moving along but I don’t see why we need religion to be spiritual.”
Tom respectfully asked, “So, you might say you are ‘spiritual but not religious?’”
“Yeah. That makes more sense to me and more like what Jesus would want.”
Tom asked, “How many people feel that same way?”
Most of the students raised their hands.
Tom continued, “I guess the first thing to consider is if Jesus was who He said He was. If you believe He was the Son of God, then what He actually said and did become our best guide to the right answer. Although Jesus chided the Pharisees for following the letter of the law instead of the heart of the law when someone asked him how they could love Him, Jesus said, ‘Follow my commandments,’ and said He came not to abolish the law, but ‘to fulfill it.’ Jesus was actually very religious, knowing and following His faith and the scriptures. He railed against money changers for not respecting the holy temple, and when He was in His last days with His apostles, He told Peter, ‘You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’ Jesus knew we would need community and a church to guide people in the fullness of truth. He trained the apostles to teach with authority as He had, to forgive sins as He had, to heal the sick as He had, and to celebrate the thanksgiving of the Mass through the Eucharist and in the instructions to ‘Do this in memory of me.’ The apostles were at first afraid and didn’t understand, until the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised, descended upon them, and then they were transformed, unafraid and inspired to share the good news even in the face of the agonizing death all but one of them experienced.
“When someone says they are spiritual but not religious, ask them how it’s going. If someone is religious but not spiritual, ask them how it’s going. Generally, not well nor with the fullness of what Jesus intended. Spirituality without religion or religion without spirituality provides only some of what we need, but not what Jesus has in store for us.”
A thin girl up front spoke. “What is religion then?”
“The word religion means to ‘bind back to God’ or a relationship with God. Life is all about relationships and nothing else in my mind. We start with our relationship with God. We then have a relationship with ourselves, accepting and loving the true person God created in His image, loves infinitely, and has a unique plan for. Once we get that, we can see that our purpose for being here is to offer ourselves in self-giving love to others. Religion is all about those relationships and having a place we can trust for the fullness of truth through God’s word and graces.
“Jesus said that ‘Where two or more of you are gathered,’ He will be there. We aren’t meant to be alone or to be islands unto ourselves. We are meant to know and love God, trust in His love and His plan for us, and go out and give that love to others. Religion should teach us and inspire us to have the courage to let go, trust God and be free in giving that love to others fully. Religion is about learning and passing on what we believe, how we pray and how we live for God and each other. On our own, we easily get lost or lose sight of God’s truth and replace it with our own version. Today, you can see almost forty-thousand Christian churches that all have different ideas of the truth, but God only has one version, and that is
why he gave us one holy Church to be part of and to guide us individually but also as a community of love.
“Now, what I just said is a lot of words. You have to live it and experience it to know what I mean. It can’t hurt to try it, and it can bring you to a great place if you do. Remember that God loves you enough to give you free will, but he also shows you the path to joy and happiness if you are open.”
Luke got up from the back stairs and headed out the open door and back to the rectory while the Friday night coffeehouse continued with social time and music. When people started to break up, Tom talked to each student, even if to just say hello and thank them for coming. He stayed afterward for anyone who wanted to talk one-on-one about anything, and one of the young women came to him after everyone had left. Her eyes were misty, but once she started speaking the tears streamed down her face. “Father Tom, I don’t know where to turn. I feel ashamed and scared about what has happened. I can’t tell my parents I’m pregnant. My boyfriend seemed supportive when he found out, but as the days have passed, he has become more distant, and today we had a huge fight. I’m just not ready for this. I’m too young and have nowhere to go.”
Tom put his arm around her, and she leaned forward into his consoling hug. As she regained enough of her composure, she separated and looked up into Tom’s eyes that showed no sense of judgment or disappointment, only loving concern. Tom said, “It’s Marie, right?” She nodded, and Tom continued, “Marie, why don’t you come by the rectory next door. I might have someone who can help with some options.”