{"id":25161,"date":"2009-12-13T16:52:16","date_gmt":"2009-12-13T20:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/12\/remembering-avery-dulles-befor\/"},"modified":"2009-12-13T16:52:16","modified_gmt":"2009-12-13T20:52:16","slug":"remembering-avery-dulles-befor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/12\/remembering-avery-dulles-befor\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Avery Dulles before God"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"University<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday, about 50 friends of Avery Cardinal Dulles met at
\nFordham University Church to remember him before God on the occasion of his first anniversary of death.<\/p>\n

Sister Anne-Marie Kirmse,
\nO.P., the Cardinal’s friend and administrative assistant, gathered us for Mass
\ncelebrated by Jesuit Father Joseph McShane with the homily delivered by Jesuit
\nFather Joseph Leinhard. There were 17 concelebrants; three of whom were secular
\npriests (friends of Dulles’) and the balance were old Jesuits. Five of the
\nCardinal’s Fairfield County Communio group (myself included) were present as the faithful remnant. As
\nwas recognized, we all miss the Cardinal’s wisdom, affection and much
\nunderstated humor.<\/p>\n

In his homily Father Leinhard focused our attention on the
\nmoment by recalling Saint Augustine’s 9th<\/sup> book of the Confessions<\/i> where Augustine tells us of his mother’s passing
\nunto eternal life. In between her various states of consciousness and
\nunconsciousness Monica came to a see life anew. She called her sons together
\ntelling them when she died to bury her body anywhere <\/span>but<\/i> to remember her before the Lord, wherever they may be.
\nAs for Monica, so for Avery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Avery<\/a><\/p>\n

Why remember? Our thinking of Cardinal Dulles
\nis, as Fr. Leinhard said, wholly different than what went before. Remembering
\nAvery before God is not quite the same as reminding God who Avery was, just in
\ncase God may have forgotten. What is important about Avery is not his
\nprestigious family, his education, his conversion to Catholicism, his entrance
\ninto the Society of Jesus nor his ordination to the priesthood, not even his
\nministry as a theologian nor his acceptance of the dignity of the Cardinalate.
\nWhat is important about Avery is encapsulated in the motto he assumed with the
\ncoat of arms when given the cardinal’s hat by Pope John Paul II, <\/span>Scio
\nCui Credidi<\/i>, I know whom I have believed.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Cardinal<\/a><\/p>\n

The
\nreading from 2 Timothy 1 can be taken as Saint Paul’s last will and testament
\nas it is his answer to a question of belief: Christ has resurrected from the
\ndead and I have preached his gospel. For both Saint Paul and Cardinal Dulles
\ntheir lives deeply changed in making an act of faith in Christ for Christ
\nbecame the key to all understanding. 
\n<\/span>In Dulles’ <\/span>Craft of Theology<\/i>,
\nthe last sentence of chapter 1 speaks to his belief in Christ where he recounts
\na vision of Christ in which we look past the “now” and look to Christ as the
\ncenter of all things.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the altar of the Lord we pray for the dead following
\nthe ancient Christian practice. In the Roman Canon of the Mass we pray that the
\nLord will remember “those who have gone before us marked with the sign of
\nfaith” granting them the blessedness (happiness) of light and peace. Our
\nliturgical prayer places hope in our hearts that those who sleep in the Lord
\nwill have the victory over sin and death. Our confidence relies on the sign of
\nfaith received in baptism, that which marks each person not with a pious sign <\/span>but<\/i> with indelible mark.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our remembrance of Avery and of
\nevery one of our beloved dead therefore, is brought home in the consideration
\nthat not to remember is to consign our family and friends to oblivion is awful.
\nThe Christian proposal is <\/span>lux perpetua<\/i>: light for the blind, peace for the will.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eternal rest grant unto
\nAvery Cardinal Dulles, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his
\nsoul and the souls of the faithful departed rest in rest. Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dulles'<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A sentimental
\nremembrance of Cardinal Dulles was the hanging of a cardinal’s red hat and
\ntassels. No longer given by the Pope to cardinals, the red hat is occasionally
\nmade for a cardinal and hung in his church by his family and friends. In New York’s Saint Patrick’s
\nCathedral there are 4 cardinal hats hanging (but none since Cardinal Spellmen
\nare hanging there). The Archdiocese of Chicago did the same for Cardinal Joseph
\nBernardin back in 1997. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, about 50 friends of Avery Cardinal Dulles met at Fordham University Church to remember him before God on the occasion of his first anniversary of death. Sister Anne-Marie Kirmse, O.P., the Cardinal’s friend and administrative assistant, gathered us for Mass celebrated by Jesuit Father Joseph McShane with the homily delivered by Jesuit Father Joseph … Continue reading Remembering Avery Dulles before God<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1736],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}