Remember Fitz
LETTER FROM FITZ - 2003
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"Once upon a time there was a kingdom where it was discovered that the autnmn harvest of grain was contaminated. Anyone who ate it went crazy. It was a true crisis. The barns and silos were filled with the grain. It was the only food supply available to sustain the people through the long, hard winter to come. The king summoned his advisors and told them, "We have no choice. We have to feed the poisoned grain to our people. But let us feed a few people on a different diet, so there will be among us at least a few people who know that the rest of us have gone mad."
Christmas, 2003
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Dear Friends:
The fable above comes from a European rabbi. In our country it was popularized by Rabbi Abraham Heschel. My friend and mentor, Fr. Bill Toohey, loved the story and quoted it often. It does nicely suggest that for people of conscience, fed on a 'different diet' of faith and wisdom, nourished by the prophets, the martyrs and the saints, the surrounding world must frequently seem utterly mad. Several months ago I was walking toward work, here in The Tenderloin, and came upon one of our guests from St. Anthony's. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War. (At a very tender age his promising and hopeful life was aborted by the savagery of war. He never got the help he needed to deal with his trauma. For three decades he has been medicating himself on the streets, "pushing back the darkness" with booze and drugs.) On that September morning he was standing, stiff and numb, shaking his head in dismay as he stared at the headline on the morning paper: "Bush asks $87 billion to rebuild Iraq."
It has been a year with lots of laughter and lots of tears. Indulge me as I recall some special moments.
This City of St. Francis was host to some remarkable gatherings in the first months of 2003. On three occasions, between 50,000 and 150,000 people (depending on who was counting) of all ages poured into the streets to loudly but peacefully say "yes" to peace and "no" to war.
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On June 29th my brother David's son, Shea, was one of the young people who were killed in that awful porch collapse in Chicago. I remembered William Sloane Coffin saying (when his son was killed in an accident and well-meaning friends "consoled" him with bromides about the need to accept God's will) that "God's heart was the first to break" when that young life was wiped out.
In September I went home to Chicago for the first-ever reunion of the theatre group at Notre Dame High School in Niles. Forty-some years ago I was one of the first students in the group. From 1969 to 1976.1helped direct it. A huge group of "kids" (you know, people in their 40's and older) turned out for the evening. We spent hours around the piano singing, and finally got to those Jacqes Bret lyrics which are forever etched on my heart: "If we only have love we can melt all the guns and then give the new world to our daughters and sons."
On St. Nicholas Day I joined my friends and colleagues in the Loaves & Fishes group at the Newman Center in Berkeley for our annual holiday party for our poor and homeless neighbors. As usual, it was a joyous and touching affair. We'd asked one of our guests - someone who's known too much pain and loneliness - to play Santa. (When you look at "Hoss", with his flowing white beard and rimless spectacles, you immediately think "Miracle on 34th Street", so he was a natural.) As the 2nd party of the day was winding down, several
tiny children were hugging Hoss' legs and saying, "We love you, Santa!" Later, when we were almost finished cleaning up, I went into our "back room" and found Hoss, still in his Santa costume, even though it had been almost an hour since the last child left. When I gently suggested that he needed to change so we could close up, he started to cry and said, "I just love doing this!" And then he was sobbing, and kept repeating, "This is the most wonderful thing that's happened to me all year!" I have no doubt that it was.
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So ''yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", and there is also hope and faith, mercy, tenderness, beauty, courage and love. And still - in spite of all the madness swirling around us - the unquenchable longing for a more peaceful and loving world, "somehow, some day, somewhere".
May you be blessed and graced during these holy days, and fed on a different diet during the year about to begin.
With love,
-Fitz​