The Vietnam War, the American War, the Second Indochina War from 1959-75 changed me.
That war killed my brother on February 18, 1968. PFC Lukas Ventline, 23, was among more than 58,000 other Americans killed, let alone the wounded, and, so many more noncombatants.
Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the Parish Peace Accords to declare a cease fire, U.S. personnel were withdrawn wihin sixty days, and American prisoners of war were released in as many days.
It slipped by unnocticed this past Sunday, I imagine, by most Americans.
But, trauma that hits home has a way of waking one up. It awakened me to the truth that war is not the answer.
Truth is like that. It has to be paid attention.
It grows like it did for Father George Zabelka, the chaplain who blessed the Hiroshima bomb. He regretted blessing that bomb. That truth awakened him to Jesus' plea to love one's enemies. Zabelka didn't get that message earlier.
Love is the answer. War is not.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, named a bishop in Detroit, MI., in 1968, is in Vietnam currently through Friday marking the anniversary there.
He is a remarkable human being and follower of Jesus.
Only a profound conversion can prevent war by all of us.
Leaders in the front will cause peace to reign. Yet, they refuse.
Gumbleton is a pacifist pastor who was born in 1920 in Detroit.
He was challenged by priests in the peace movement to conclude that the Vietnam War was wrong.
It was.
Gumbleton, now in his early 80s, says the the Gospels cry out to us for peace.
They do.
He knows.
Gumbleton is a student of the Scriptures. He prays them, and, reads them regularly, daily, as much as he swims daily to maintain wellness and stay slim.
He cites Nelson Mandela and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as models of peace.
Mandela morphed from a violent revolutionary and emerged from prison as a mended man who said he had to forgive those who imprisoned him. Otherwise, admitted Mandela, he would still be imprisoned in his own heart.
Love is nonviolence.
It can change the world.
That may sound crazy and have people calling pacifist pastor's like Gumbleton, among others, crazy also.
Yet, nonviolence is the radical thought of Jesus.
The 1983 U.S. Catholic Bishops' Challenge to Peace condemned nuclear war, and, having and using them.
A disciple of Jesus and Pope John the XXIII's Vatican II -- a revolutionary council of worldwide bishops from '62-65 -- Thomas Gumbleton was a canon law student in Rome at that time.
A peace-making man since then, he's spoken up for human rights among all, including gays, and more. He founded Pax Christi, USA, and was president of Bread for the World, a Christian citizens movement to press for legislation to feed the hungry.
We were in El Salvador together in the late '80s. He met with leaders in that civil strife in efforts to stop the violence. Jesuit priests and their aides were murdered in the dark of night a few days after we left.
Vietnam changed me mostly, however. I could never view enough movies on Vietnam to address my unhealed wound, and, the haunting demise of my oldest brother.
Gumbleton treks across the globe working for peace.
His homilies are posted at http://www.nathcath.org.
He returns Friday from Vietnam.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Truth
It finds us.
Truth is like that.
Over time, truth emerges and I have to faithfully follow it.
That was true for Ghandi.
For George Zabelka, the Catholic chaplain, who blessed the bomb blasting Hiroshima, also.
Over time, the truth discovered him and Jesus' mandate to love enemies was clear to him and his trek.
It was as though Zabelka heard for the first time that call of the Lord.
He had to change.
He followed the truth.
Lessons in life are like that.
For Restless Heart, a movie about Saint Augustine, truth about Christianity emerged from his mother's prayers, and his conversion from his false beliefs.
Truth sets one free.
It does.
How we need it.
Truth is like that.
Over time, truth emerges and I have to faithfully follow it.
That was true for Ghandi.
For George Zabelka, the Catholic chaplain, who blessed the bomb blasting Hiroshima, also.
Over time, the truth discovered him and Jesus' mandate to love enemies was clear to him and his trek.
It was as though Zabelka heard for the first time that call of the Lord.
He had to change.
He followed the truth.
Lessons in life are like that.
For Restless Heart, a movie about Saint Augustine, truth about Christianity emerged from his mother's prayers, and his conversion from his false beliefs.
Truth sets one free.
It does.
How we need it.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
This Sunday's Sermon
When I least expect them, they're there.
And, little did I think that she or he would make all the difference in the world.
Only thing is, I took her or him for granted.
You got to be kidding, I'd say, who does he think he is?
Unique, different for sure, unassuming, even considered to small for life's challenges.
So . . .
I remember playing football in high school on Detroit's east side.
Because I wanted to be included and part of the popular group of guys, I decided to attend regular practices. Even though I missed much of the summer's double sessions because I needed to work at the ice cream parlor, and scrub grace markers for Fred Shultz who was across from Forest Lawn Cemetary on Van Dyke near McNichols, and, rigth next store to the soda jerk job, it was all convenient.
The scrubbing of marker's job was a hand-me-down from my oldest brother who died in Vietnam later in 1968. Butch outgrew that job and now worked at the Jefferson Chrysler Plant near downtown Detroit.
We were up for a championship game one year, I recall.
Or, were we?
We beat every team in the league.
But, we'd have to beat the same team we played twice and won, for the crown.
The coach reminded us to practice hard and often.
Don't take that team for granted, he warned.
Well, we did.
And, were the coaches and his aides, upset with us.
And, with the refererees.
Both coaches were thrown out of the game after angrily challenging the ref.
And, the youngest assistant took charge. He had to.
Who does he think he is, one player asked.
Press them, he shouted.
My team refused his direction.
At first, we complied.
Later, we let up.
And, lost by a few points.
Decades later I'm still haunted: Don't take any prophet for granted.
Listen up!
And, little did I think that she or he would make all the difference in the world.
Only thing is, I took her or him for granted.
You got to be kidding, I'd say, who does he think he is?
Unique, different for sure, unassuming, even considered to small for life's challenges.
So . . .
I remember playing football in high school on Detroit's east side.
Because I wanted to be included and part of the popular group of guys, I decided to attend regular practices. Even though I missed much of the summer's double sessions because I needed to work at the ice cream parlor, and scrub grace markers for Fred Shultz who was across from Forest Lawn Cemetary on Van Dyke near McNichols, and, rigth next store to the soda jerk job, it was all convenient.
The scrubbing of marker's job was a hand-me-down from my oldest brother who died in Vietnam later in 1968. Butch outgrew that job and now worked at the Jefferson Chrysler Plant near downtown Detroit.
We were up for a championship game one year, I recall.
Or, were we?
We beat every team in the league.
But, we'd have to beat the same team we played twice and won, for the crown.
The coach reminded us to practice hard and often.
Don't take that team for granted, he warned.
Well, we did.
And, were the coaches and his aides, upset with us.
And, with the refererees.
Both coaches were thrown out of the game after angrily challenging the ref.
And, the youngest assistant took charge. He had to.
Who does he think he is, one player asked.
Press them, he shouted.
My team refused his direction.
At first, we complied.
Later, we let up.
And, lost by a few points.
Decades later I'm still haunted: Don't take any prophet for granted.
Listen up!
Friday, January 25, 2013
"Give me chastity and continence, but not yet." Augustine of Hippo, Africa
"You have made us to Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."
Augustine's classic Confessions, is a love song to God who was always closer to him than his own heartbeat.
This complex saint and doctor of the church (354-430) is largely responsible for defining the theology of original sin, and orthodoxy.
His mother, Monica, prayed for his conversion for a long time.
Augustine is a significant figure in the history of Christian spirituality, according to author, Robert Ellsberg in his, All Saints.
Now, "Restless Heart - the Confessions of Augustine, is showing, January 26 at 7 pm, and January 27 at 5 pm in the AMC Star Gratiot Theatre, 35705 Gratiot (north of 15 Mile) in Clinton Township, MI.
Tickets are $10. (313) 407 2284.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
"The Measure of Love Is to Love Without Measure"
Among the great human beings, who called for conversion, holiness, and morphing until his death in 1622, was Francis de Sales.
According to Robert Ellsberg's ALL SAINTS:DAILY REFLECTIONS ON SAINTS, PROPHETS, AND WITNESSES FOR OUR TIME, St. Francis de Sales was a spiritual director and bishop who called for moderation and charity as a way to restore church vitality.
He earned a doctorate in law but chose to be a priest over a lawyer.
His feast day is celebrated today the world over in the Catholic Church.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE, a manual of devotions, is a classic book on spirituality that de Sales wrote.
His was a life of poverty and exceptional ways, founding an Order of the Visitation with a widow, Jeanne de Chantal as first superior.
He relied on alms and served Geneva from 1602 as a bishop.
During this season called, Ordinary Time, in the life of the Church, the Scriptures proclaimed at daily Mass and on Sunday are about the public ministry of Jesus. The call of his disciples, his intimate followers, is announced also in the Bible.
Doing ordinary things with love is what holiness calls Christians to be about each day. Simply that.
Nothing extraordinary is required but charity.
Loving God with one's entire heart and being, however, is required of saints, and, the faithful like ourselves.
We are called to be holy in the ordinary, mundane living each day at home, at work, at school, and, at play.
Marks of holiness and baptismal ministry include humility, tranquility, and, an ability to "let go" of attachments, causes, and more, that derail one from holiness.
Holiness aims for union with God.
Seeking God's Will in all things to follow the Creator is a clarion call today.
It is possible.
Keeping one's eyes on Christ will steer one home.
Saint Francis de Sales did it amid having so much, being so learned, yet, so saintly living in poverty.
Saints challenge us to do as much.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Fearfully, Wonderfully Made
"I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139.14
This living temple, this shell, skeleton and soul encased by God and wrapped in divince favor, grace, and, a blessing to be.
In and outside the womb of my mother.
From the start.
From the get go! Even before, the prophet, Jeremiah, notes. Before I formed you, I knew you!
At the origins of birth, and before.
People debate about at what point there's life.
It's all life.
Always life. Pure Love. Divine being. A little less than an angel!
But, what's known well, is that that DNA is marked by a Creator from time immemorial.
Life.
Life budding at the beginning.
Fearfully.
Awesomely here, or, in the womb made by God.
Standing before or swimming in mom's womb tied to a life-giving cord that feeds, fuels me for life and faith outside, soon.
Wonderfully made.
For physicians to cause no harm. To let life live. To do all she or he can do to preserve life.
Wonderful.
Wonder-filled me.
You.
Others made in God's image in and outside the womb.
Imagine that, and, get your arms around this fact, this fruitful and abundant life emerging from a DNA that must have come from the Maker from before marked and measured time as we know , created it.
This living temple, this shell, skeleton and soul encased by God and wrapped in divince favor, grace, and, a blessing to be.
In and outside the womb of my mother.
From the start.
From the get go! Even before, the prophet, Jeremiah, notes. Before I formed you, I knew you!
At the origins of birth, and before.
People debate about at what point there's life.
It's all life.
Always life. Pure Love. Divine being. A little less than an angel!
But, what's known well, is that that DNA is marked by a Creator from time immemorial.
Life.
Life budding at the beginning.
Fearfully.
Awesomely here, or, in the womb made by God.
Standing before or swimming in mom's womb tied to a life-giving cord that feeds, fuels me for life and faith outside, soon.
Wonderfully made.
For physicians to cause no harm. To let life live. To do all she or he can do to preserve life.
Wonderful.
Wonder-filled me.
You.
Others made in God's image in and outside the womb.
Imagine that, and, get your arms around this fact, this fruitful and abundant life emerging from a DNA that must have come from the Maker from before marked and measured time as we know , created it.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Dear Mr. President
Congratulations, Mr. President!
As head of the free world, your efforts to win the White House are commendable.
And, your leadership.
Thanks for steering my good ole USA!
With your latest grassroots organizing for action thrust, I hope you will incude Americans in the issues affecting us, and, the least among us.
Everyday, the unemployed are desperate.
Crime and violence surrounds a fearful people.
Drug dealers and addictions thrive amid a culture of violence, unemployment, family fracture, and more.
Our quality of life and security seems to struggle as discipline and integrity wane, it seems.
While we take life into our own hands, controlling its start and finish, experimenting with it, and, reducing its worth daily, I hope you will lead.
Does much of the fragility of life today stem from life inside the womb, Mr. President?
And, even though abortion-rights activists won an epic victory four decades ago with Roe v. Wade, they've been losing ever since, reports show.
Guttmacher, for example, notes a steady drop in the overall abortion rate to about 20 per 1,000 in 2008, from 30 per 1,000 mothers with a baby in their womb from ages 15 to 44 in 1981.
Fewer physicians seem willing to cause more harm these days. Most Americans oppose that violent and horrific procedure these days. No one seems to want to ever need such surgery.
Is one "pro-choice" to decide on wearing car seat belts?
In 1989 and 1998, the New York Times showed a shift from general acceptance of legalized abortion in the US.
Since 1973, on this day, millions of friends of life have gathered in the nation's capital to witness their respect for human life in and outside the womb.
One day this battle will triumph for the heart and soul of America.
It's a long journey home, however, for this civil rights issue, for the voiceless, vulnerable ones in the womb.
Will you walk in the struggle for justice with those who march for life this day?
Equality in and outside the womb is vital to this nation's foundation.
Family is fragile, yet, with your lead, it can be firmer for all of us limping along step by step like in Selma, and, elsewhere.
As in other struggles, light was at the end of the tunnel, and, will be for all youngsters, like we were not so long ago, at the end of the birth canal again, soon.
And, Americans will continue to walk with these parents and their babies, and, raise them up.
Each separate step inches toward morphed and mending ways to "free at last" those held hostage in the tabernacle and sanctuary of their mother's wombs.
Will you listen to women with babies in their wombs?
Will you call a summit?
Will you walk with them in their struggle to choose life?
Will you find out why they're in the situation they are?
Will you help us help walk with them and their babies to see daylight?
That's what Americans do, don't we?
We stand with, struggle with, and walk with women and men.
After all, it does take a village to raise a family in and outside the womb.
Always has.
But, something has happened recently in our cutlure.
Individualism has taken over for many, as you noted so well in your Inaugural Address.
Will you, Mr. President? Will you continue to press for the common good, what you started, what you said so well after your Oath of Office was administered?
Perhaps, our collective solidarity beyond the soul's strangling individualism these days, will see us through a new and noble nation under God once more.
In turn, a quality of life and security for all, will be retrieved, in and outside mom's womb.
For veterans, and senior citizens, for immigrants, and those devoted to climate change concerns, and children wondering how safe they are on the way to school in Detroit, Flint, and Roseville, and criminals who will take notice, and, think twice before committing violent acts.
With your heightneing restrictions on guns here in the home of the free and land of the brave, will you add more of the same to limiting abortions?
Will you?
Life's quality and sanctity are at state, you know.
A nation enveloped in fear since 9/11 is failing in confidence, courage, and passion.
Imagining ways to win the day for all merits your time and mine, coupled with that of our citizenry.
I'm grateful to you for listening.
And, for the personal and professional struggles of your Office that you've overcome collectively for the common good.
You are in my daily prayers and Mass for discernment in your daunting and unenviable task, Mr. President. Stand tall. And, walk with all of us, will you?
Sincerely Yours,
Reverend Lawrence M. Ventline, D.Min.
Director, Care of the Soul and Companions Counseling,
The All Faiths Festival (AFF) of Metropolitan Detroit,
Sacred Heart of Jesus Church
18430 Utica Road
Roseville, Michigan 48066
(586) 777 9116, Ext. 2
As head of the free world, your efforts to win the White House are commendable.
And, your leadership.
Thanks for steering my good ole USA!
With your latest grassroots organizing for action thrust, I hope you will incude Americans in the issues affecting us, and, the least among us.
Everyday, the unemployed are desperate.
Crime and violence surrounds a fearful people.
Drug dealers and addictions thrive amid a culture of violence, unemployment, family fracture, and more.
Our quality of life and security seems to struggle as discipline and integrity wane, it seems.
While we take life into our own hands, controlling its start and finish, experimenting with it, and, reducing its worth daily, I hope you will lead.
Does much of the fragility of life today stem from life inside the womb, Mr. President?
And, even though abortion-rights activists won an epic victory four decades ago with Roe v. Wade, they've been losing ever since, reports show.
Guttmacher, for example, notes a steady drop in the overall abortion rate to about 20 per 1,000 in 2008, from 30 per 1,000 mothers with a baby in their womb from ages 15 to 44 in 1981.
Fewer physicians seem willing to cause more harm these days. Most Americans oppose that violent and horrific procedure these days. No one seems to want to ever need such surgery.
Is one "pro-choice" to decide on wearing car seat belts?
In 1989 and 1998, the New York Times showed a shift from general acceptance of legalized abortion in the US.
Since 1973, on this day, millions of friends of life have gathered in the nation's capital to witness their respect for human life in and outside the womb.
One day this battle will triumph for the heart and soul of America.
It's a long journey home, however, for this civil rights issue, for the voiceless, vulnerable ones in the womb.
Will you walk in the struggle for justice with those who march for life this day?
Equality in and outside the womb is vital to this nation's foundation.
Family is fragile, yet, with your lead, it can be firmer for all of us limping along step by step like in Selma, and, elsewhere.
As in other struggles, light was at the end of the tunnel, and, will be for all youngsters, like we were not so long ago, at the end of the birth canal again, soon.
And, Americans will continue to walk with these parents and their babies, and, raise them up.
Each separate step inches toward morphed and mending ways to "free at last" those held hostage in the tabernacle and sanctuary of their mother's wombs.
Will you listen to women with babies in their wombs?
Will you call a summit?
Will you walk with them in their struggle to choose life?
Will you find out why they're in the situation they are?
Will you help us help walk with them and their babies to see daylight?
That's what Americans do, don't we?
We stand with, struggle with, and walk with women and men.
After all, it does take a village to raise a family in and outside the womb.
Always has.
But, something has happened recently in our cutlure.
Individualism has taken over for many, as you noted so well in your Inaugural Address.
Will you, Mr. President? Will you continue to press for the common good, what you started, what you said so well after your Oath of Office was administered?
Perhaps, our collective solidarity beyond the soul's strangling individualism these days, will see us through a new and noble nation under God once more.
In turn, a quality of life and security for all, will be retrieved, in and outside mom's womb.
For veterans, and senior citizens, for immigrants, and those devoted to climate change concerns, and children wondering how safe they are on the way to school in Detroit, Flint, and Roseville, and criminals who will take notice, and, think twice before committing violent acts.
With your heightneing restrictions on guns here in the home of the free and land of the brave, will you add more of the same to limiting abortions?
Will you?
Life's quality and sanctity are at state, you know.
A nation enveloped in fear since 9/11 is failing in confidence, courage, and passion.
Imagining ways to win the day for all merits your time and mine, coupled with that of our citizenry.
I'm grateful to you for listening.
And, for the personal and professional struggles of your Office that you've overcome collectively for the common good.
You are in my daily prayers and Mass for discernment in your daunting and unenviable task, Mr. President. Stand tall. And, walk with all of us, will you?
Sincerely Yours,
Reverend Lawrence M. Ventline, D.Min.
Director, Care of the Soul and Companions Counseling,
The All Faiths Festival (AFF) of Metropolitan Detroit,
Sacred Heart of Jesus Church
18430 Utica Road
Roseville, Michigan 48066
(586) 777 9116, Ext. 2
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