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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1964
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SftVINO GtOtGIA'S 71 NOtTMHN COUNTICS
Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News
PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan
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ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew
{Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
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Easter 1964
“By dying he overcame our
death; by rising he restored
our life.” Easter is upon us
once again with all its exhi
laration of mystery and glory
and joy. It is the day of mean
ing to Christians; the day that
finally ties everything to
gether, that gives every fact
of Christ’s person and life
its accurate meaning. As St,
Paul pointed out centuries
ago, our whole faith in Christ
can be summed up as a res
ponse to the resurrection.
Christ’s resurrection is the
absolute, once and for all,
overthrow of everything natu
ral and normal by God’s jea
lous love, Simeon prophesied,
when he held the divine Child
in his arms, that he was des
tined to be “a sign that shall
be contradicted.” Christ’s
whole passage through this
world was a contradiction of
everything that was merely
human and therefore stained
and mediocre. Riches he de
spised in favor of poverty and
power in favor of meekness.
He was the fulfillment of the
prophecies and those who had
suffered endless torment to
preserve the prophecies re
jected him. He faced the law
of Rome, the proudest legacy
of that proud empire, and
Rome’s governor decreed: “I
find no fault in this man;
therefore, I will chastise
him.*’
Christ’s crowning paradox
is the resurrection. Normal
ly, we first pass through life
and end in death and that, so
far as the visible world is con
cerned, is the end of us. Christ
contradicts what appeared to
be reasonable; He reversed
the process. He died, and then
began life in new freshness
and vigor. He made a living
fact out of what could other
wise have seemed moral rhe
toric: “Unless the grain of
mustard seed fall into the
earth and die, it remains
alone. But if it die, it brings
forth much fruit.’’ And: “He
who loses his life will save
it.” The resurrection is not a
matter of snatching victory
from the jaws of defeat. It is
a brand new re-definition of
what “victory” and “defeat” jTS
really mean. The cross was ^
not defeat. It was, in spite of
appearances, a definitive vic
tory over man’s enemies.
Christ’s resurrection is the
proof positive of that victory.
Easter is a feast of mission.
Christ’s mission was fully
achieved, consummated, when
he took back his life. The mis
sion of every Christian is in
corporated into the mission of
Christ at Easter. This is why
Easter has traditionally been
the feast of Baptism, the tak
ing on of Christ’s life and
work. The real significance of
th e mission that belongs
to us as Christ’s members is
only clear in the light of His
example.
Easter recalls the funda
mental opposition between
what it means to be a Chris
tian and what will always re
main the stained and mediocre
standards of the merely natu
ral world-in us andaroundus.
There is an unalterable con
tradiction between what it and
we mean by victory and de- 'n\
feat, success and failure, se- v/
curity and fear. Like the world
that awaited Christ’s glory on
Easter, our world also de
pends on us for its hope of
salvation. Our mission is one
with His: to save and heal the
society in which we live, the
men who are our brothers.
LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW
GEORGIA PINES
Milledgeville Chapel
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
It must have been an unusal sight for visitors
as they drove into the grounds of the State Hospi
tal at Milledgeville to see forty priests standing
in front of the newly constructed Chapel of All
Faiths. The occasion was the dedication of the
Catholic section of the Chapel by the Most Rev.
Thomas J. McDonough, the Bishop of Savannah,
Georgia.
Gray clouds began to gather and rain was
in the offing, but the weather in no way darkened
the spirits of the clergy and laity who gathered
to witness this historic event.
THE CEREMONY began outside the Chapel.
Bishop McDonough invoked the Blessings and the
Litany was begun by Father George James of
Columbus, Georgia. The procession then moved
into the Chapel and following the liturgical
prayers. Mass was offered by the Bishop.
Priests from every section of
the state were present. The
various religious orders work
ing in both the Archdiocese of
Atlanta and the Diocese of Sav
annah were represented. Mon-
signor Cassidy of Atlanta,
Monsignor McDonald, Mons
ignor Toomey of Savannah,
Monsignor Sheehan of Macon,
along with Monsignor Bourkeof
Augusta walked in the procession immediately be
fore the Bishop
TO SOME of the priests present, the Chapel
was the fufillment of a long hoped-for project.
Often times saying Mass in a make-shift chapel #
the priests longed for the day when the Blessed
Sacrament would be reserved in a home of its
own on the hospital grounds. Monsignor Cassidy
had served as pastor for a number of years in
Milledgeville. So did Monsignor King of Atlanta,
and Monsignor Toomey of Savannah. The present
pastor of Milledgeville, and Catholic Chaplain at
the hospital is Father Joseph F. Ware. To these
men the day had an added significance -one with
real meaning.
The idea of a Chapel at the hospital was born
after former Governor Vandiver and his wife,
Betty, visited the state institution. Committees
were appointed and members of every faith were
called upon to contribute to the facility.
THE IDEA materialized just a month ago when
the Chapel was formally opened. Although, I know,
this description is inadequate it serves to des
cribe the building by saying it is in the shape of
a T. The center section holds a large sanctuary
and the left and right wings serve as the Jewish
and Catholic chapels.
The Chapel is complete in every way. Colonial
in design, the pews are constructed of wood
with ends painted in white. The Altar is white
marble and the sanctuary iscarpetedin a light
green. A sacristy, confessional and organ
complete the furnishings.
AT THE close of the ceremony, Father Ware
introduced Bishop McDonough to the congregation
The Bishop paid tribute to those whose vision
had made possible the erection of the Chapel.
Then the Bishop told how this chapel comple
ments the hospital where great strides are being
made in mental health.
The Catholic Chapel is dedicated to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. (When Father Ware announced
this fact it drew no small wonder from the clergy
present, for with the good Father's devotion to
Saint Patrick it must have been a trying deci
sion to have made).
AS THE Ceremony was finished the rain be
gan to fall. Making use of the dispensation grant
ed for Saint Joseph’s Day, I lit up a cigar on my
way home. Smoking as I drove along 1 could not
but help think that in our days when some are
crying for "seperation of church and state”,
what a wonderful tribute to the
people of Georgia who contributed to erect a
House of God on state owned property.
GEORGES ROUAULT
Significance Of Pain
BY FR. LEONARD F X. MAYHEW
The modern French Catholic artist, Georges
Rouault, created as his master work a series of
fifty-eight prints under the title "Miserere”
("take pity on us"). They exemplify almost
perfectly one aspect of the passion and death of
Christ. The series of prints takes the measure
of tragic life on earth and illuminates it at every
point with the image of the tortured and mur
dered Savior. The first print is of the face of
Christ. Then, almost as in a motion picture,
this is followed with other views of the suffer
ings of Christ. Next the artist takes us into the
world. The figure of Christ changes into that of
a condemned criminal, a shipwrecked sailor, the
victims of war, the lonely and the half-mad. The
current runs back and forth, with shattering in
sight, between the pain of Christ and the pain of
his brothers in the twentieth century.
ONE OF the most moving of
Rouault's pictures is "Christ
Mocked by the Soldiers." Christ
is seated, almost naked, be
tween two brutish louts who spit
and scream into his face. The
contrast between the Savior and
the soldiers is absolute, without
being melodramatic. The figure
of Christ is possessed of com
plete calm and profound dignity. An impression of
tremendous sensit.vity flows from the strong,
cleanliness of his face and body. He is a man who
has tasted every suffering and has not succumbed
to it. The blotched, sensuous and stupid faces of
the soldiers form an insane kind of halo around
his head.
No human thought can exhaust the meaning of
the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Its truth
is too great and too complex for any complete
analysis. The principal significance it has for
us and for the world is preserved and dramatized
in the liturgy of Holy Week.
ONE ASPECT of the meaning of the Passion is
presented masterfully in the works of Georges
Rouault. He has grasped the peculiar significance
of the pain voluntarily accepted by Christ for a
century as Involved with pain and death as our
own has been. The Christ he depicts, precisely
because He is divine, presents also a human ideal.
The very perfection of his humanity makes him far
more sensitive than the ordinary man. He is able to
escape no detail of his agony. At the same time, he
is never drawn down to the level of his brutal tor
mentors. He stands, at least in that sense, above
the storm. He pities, never shares, the very venom
that seeks his destruction.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
GOOD FRIDA Y
Darkness
And Light
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
The darkness of Good Friday has often perp
lexed the Christian. Here Christ hangs on the
cross in desolation and the light of day leaves
the earth with mankind seemingly abandoned. Yet
such was not the case. Before redemption there
had to be the Cross.
Without the Cross
there could be no
liberation.
Sometimes God
sends darkness, not
as a punishment, but
as a trial; and that
is good. He often
seems to withdraw
Himself from us, but
only seems. He does
this for several reasons.
To see if we love Him enough to seek Him
To show us our weakness.
To show us that we have nowhere else to go
but to Him.
To give us a chance to do penancefor our sins.
To give us a chance to do penance for the sins
of others.
To turn us over to the enemy, as He did with
Job, testing our trust in Him.
To give us a chance to win light for other souls
by bearing the darkness of our own.
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
And for many other reasons. God permits our
baffled hopes to cling to us like ice on an air
plane's wings, so that the sun of His love can
thaw us out. A mother will withdraw herself
from her child to make the child walk to her on
legs that will be sturdy because of the trial.
God sends us sickness, sadness, sorrow and
shame. He seems to withdraw Himself and leave
us in darkness, but all the time He is holding
out His arms to lead us into them.
The reason for this is that the problems
exist on our level, not on God's level. God takes
a wider view than we do and sees purposes that
we do not see. Put it this way. We take a pile
of white powder and a pile of black powder.
We mix them together. We get a heap of gray
powder. What makes it gray? Our level of obser
vation. To us it looks gray. But to a microbe
in the powder it does not look gray at all. The
microbe feels that he is surrounded on all sides
by black and white mountains. To the microbe’s
eye there is no such thing as gray powder.
There are only black and white mountains. From
God’s level of observation difficulties may be a
blending to our own good. To us, on our level
of observation our microbe eyes see only barr
iers and obstacles.
From God's point of view the Crucifixion was
the most important thing in history. From
Longinus’ point of view it was only a wasted
afternoon.
In the darkness we can do either one of two
things: we can yield to despair; we can trust
God all the more. We can yield to despair; this
is the response of the worldling, the indifferen-
tist, the atheist, the man who lives for this world
alone, the man who cries out, “Why has God for
saken me?”, when he has forsaken God, the man
who, like the canary, will not sing if the cage
is covered.
Or we can trust God all the more when dark
ness fails. Trust is the response of the Catholic.
The Catholic knows that God can guide us by a
light in the dark, if He so wishes; or by a hand
clasp in the dark, if He so wishes. The Catholic
knows that nothing can separate him from the
love of God.
"What then shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, distress or famine?
Danger, persecution or the sword? For lam sure
that neither death nor life; nor angels nor princi
palities nor powers; nor height nor depth nor any
other creature shall separate us from the love
of God." (Romans, 8:38)
The Catholic knows that there is comfort in the
picture of Christ hanging on the cross seemingly
forsaken. In the trials which God has sent us, is
sending us, and will continue to send us, we may
feel that we are abandoned. But we can draw
strength and comfort from this, that Christ in the
darkness still trusted and sang a hymn of hope.