This week, we are celebrating Pentecost.  The Church teaches that this is the day the Church was founded.  This brings back a lot of memories.  One of the most difficult times of my life was when I left home to go to college in Boston.  Until then, I had lived in a very Catholic environment, including 12 years of Catholic school.  I was not surprised to find atheists and agnostics in a secular college, but I was shocked at how many there were, and at the number who were malicious, attacking the Church.  The first one I met was arguing in a public forum that the Church did not exist until several hundred years after Christ died.  I took up the debate with him but did not convince him.

Another reason why I was so shocked was that many of the atheists were among the best and the brightest — certainly much brighter than I was.  I had naively assumed that God had spread His gifts more thoroughly among His faithful.  Later on, I read the autobiography of Dr Richard Feynman, the Nobel laurate who chaired the commission of why the space shuttle Challenger blew up on takeoff.  He was a non-malicious atheist and one of the brightest men in the world who was very successful.  His private life was not the most refined and he made no excuses about it.  It was thus that I found Jesus saying in the Bible, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt 5:454), and I had to yield to His way and hidden Wisdom.  Blessed be God and blessed be His holy Name!!!

A third reason why I was shocked was that the three priests in our Newman Club chaplaincy were having their own doubts of faith and failed to support me in my faith.  It was a terrifying time as I struggled to keep my faith.  We have all seen in our lives people who have not supported us in ways that they had an obligation to do so.  I ask that each of you spend a few moments in quite prayer for those who have failed us and may have passed on already and be in special need of prayer.  But moving on to the “other side of the coin”, let us continue and spend a few more moments of prayer, in tremendous joy and gratitude, for those who have been faithful and guided us, especially in view of Mission 225, Saint Junipero Serra, Fr Lasuen, and our own local clergy.

VP for Spirituality

Dennis