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The Cross And The Covenant
BY FR. JEREMY MILLER, O.P.
I am writing this on a sunny
weekend, the first sun-drenched
weekend North Georgia has had in
months. Just as the mood of the
weather can change from somber rain to
shiny warmth, so the mood of Covenant
and Cross can change from last week’s
tones of broken Covenant and exile to
affirming closeness.
Jeremiah comes into our hearing
again, not in the tones of last week’s
gloomy prediction of seventy years of
exiled isolation, but with the “good
news” that a loving covenant partner,
God, will reclaim and remake His
Covenant by writing His message, not
on tablets of stone, but deeply in our
hearts. “I will be their God and they
shall be my people.”
Something resonates deeply within
Drug Scenes
our hearts when we hear a story. Good
news always becomes better news when
it can be captured in a story. This week
I would like to tell you three short
stories, in the first two of which I was
recently involved, and the third is the
story of stories.
Last Sunday I was invited to a home
by a family I count special and one for
whom I sense I am special. In this deep
bond between us, I think they sensed I
needed some lifting up from burdens I
was bearing, and they were right. We sat
around their dinner table and it came
time for a very lovely moment. The
father took a book of biblical stories,
adapted in its language to children, and
read the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of
Isaac. Ray, Chris, Dorothea and Monica
followed his words closely. Then the
parents questioned them on what this
story meant, what God was telling them
through the story, and what it meant
for Abraham to believe God with his
whole heart and soul.
After that was finished, we then cut
out magazine pictures of people and
situations to pray for and wrote out
little prayers which were placed in a
prayer jug to be used during the week.
It struck me powerfully how close a
religious covenant this family enjoyed,
how much they brought into a family
circle what was heard in very adult
language earlier that morning. The
power for me was WHO was speaking
this good news.” The parents were
speaking to their children in ways many
parents do not or cannot, and they were
placing important words of God deeply
in their hearts.
My second story is also a message of
“good news,” spoken by one who cared,
and shared with me to remind me that
One who really matters cares, a God
who loves me and you. I will share with
you the content of the story. It came
originally from Bishop Topel, an
extraordinary man of God, which he
wrote in the Lent of 1976 and I share
with you in the Lent of 1979.
“The greatest human joy in this
world, bar none, is knowing and loving
someone worth knowing and loving, and
being loved in return. Everyone who has
experienced such human love knows
(Continued on Page 6)
SIXTH IN A SERIES
What Lent
Means To Me
BY MICHAEL MOTES
The drowsing earth awakens, as
abruptly minute signs of the
long-awaited Spring surface from the
frozen ground. Physically, the Earth is
renewed and spiritually her inhabitants
are rejuvenated as the Message grows
louder from the parish pulpit.
It is Lent and the mauve meandering
of the forty days mingles with the
additional hues of opening buds and
beckoning blossoms of the daintiest
patterns and shades.
It is a time of personal sacrifice and
dieting becomes easier as favorite
candies are abandoned and the cookie
jar remains empty.
It is the wondrous exploration of the
emerging garden seen through the eyes
of an almost three-year-old and Daddy’s
supervision as she carefully picks
Spring’s first flower or delicately lifts
the shrouding mulch in search of
erupting tulips.
It is the excitement of the older girls
of the household as seasonal finery is
admired and the search for just the right
Easter dress begins.
It is the quiet trip to the cemetery
and the memories of past holidays
shared with one who is no longer with us
- the planting of a dogwood to shade
the hallowed spot.
Lent is the family - together, loving,'
exploring and sharing.
He looks at the chock full
appointment book open before him.
Mondays are always the worst. And this
one begins with her. That awful young
woman with her pestering outpouring of
non-existing problems. Not exactly a
physican’s dream.
She begins, as always, with a fling at
family history. Her mother-in-law’s visit
has not helped. Her husband’s boss is
still a perennial unreformed rascal and
headaches keep her
from sleeping. Her
nerves are shot.
She needs
something.
Something.
He reaches for
the physican’s
most powerful tool
- his prescription
pad. She takes the
illegible scribble
and is gone. He’s
ready for the next patient. She’s on her
way to the druggist.
A drug addict is a guy you meet on
10th Street. He has long hair and he
calls you “man.” His army jacket hasn’t
seen the washer in months and his glassy
eyes fix on nothing as he hungerily
hunts the needle, nourishing the throb
that never goes away.
He steals to shoot. Sometimes he
kills. He stalks gas stations and liquor
stores. He sells what he steals, he sells
what he owns. He sells his friends. He
even sells himself - anything for that
next high, that next shot of angel dust
bestowing the heavenly calm. He is sick
with no hospital to help and no will to
want one. He is on his way to a violent
early grave.
But a drug addict is also found in
Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. She has
never been to 10th Street. She buys in
Rich’s and sports the flair of seasonal
fashion. She has her dream house and a
good backhand across court. Her once a
week maid keeps her manicured hands
young and visibly presentable.
She never steals. Prescription in hand,
she buys her drugs at retail prices in
Eckerds. There the 10th Street
difference stops. The same hunger
haunts, the same throb of need
persecutes. The addiction is the same.
She wakes to sunny mornings that
offer no promise until that first pill
deadens the ache. Ritalin or Eskatrol
soothes the blur and raises the energy
level to normal. Now she can face those
enormous every day chores. She can
cook and clean and switch on Phil
Donahue. Or her day bursts upon her
like the Atlanta 500 and she reaches for
the slow down touch to tranquilize her
racing reactions. Valium or Librium will
do it.
Uppers and downers - they crutch her
through the day.
Drug addiction and street people are
not synonymous. We think they are.
Criminals and the jobless army of
shiftless hobos get full credit for
supporting this billion dollar disease. It
strikes terror without discrimination.
And it is too often dispensed by
prescription in the same way. Enough
tranquilizers were legitimately sold last
year throughout the country to dose
every man, woman and child six times
over. Some they helped, others they
destroyed.
The addict on 10th Street, petrified
with pain, will suffer his lonely agony in
jails and institutions before a merciful
death beckons. Our suburban addict,
desperate and longing for help, will ruin
countless family lives in her journey to a
final solution.
Separated by distance and status, two
lonely, never to meet addicts, are united
in a disease that offers no mercy.
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, March 29,1979 $5 Per Year
Thousands Will Volunteer Time
IT WONT BE QUITE AS SIMPLE as a “Drive-In
Check-Up,” but there will be little inconvenience as
metro residents by the hordes will turn out the week
of April 2 for free medical examinations at a variety of
area locations, including St. Joseph’s Hospital. The fee
for optional blood chemistry examinations will be the
only expense involved.
To Make Health Fair A Success
Hundreds of organizations and
thousands of volunteers are pulling
together to make the Health Fair a
success on April 2 through 8. WSB
Television and Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Georgia/Atlanta are
sponsoring this project which is the
most comprehensive effort ever to
provide the Atlanta community with
extensive health screening and
preventive health education.
During the week, free screening
centers will be set up at six to ten sites
per day throughout the Atlanta area to
provide basic testing which will involve
blood pressure, vision, anemia, height
and weight, blood chemistry,
counselling and referral. The free testing
available at any one site may represent
between $75 and $150 of testing
received through a private physician or
clinic. The only charge will be $6 for an
optional blood chemistry test.
The screenings in the different
metropolitan Atlanta communities will
be made possible through a major
coordinating effort involving medical,
non-medical and various other
community organizations.
The American Red Cross is
coordinating the Health Fair under the
auspices of the National Health
Screening Council for Volunteer
Organizations, Inc., in Washington, D.
C. Also making full commitments to the
project are the Northern District Dental
Society, the Atlanta Ophthomological
Society, the American Cancer Society
and the Sickle Cell Foundation of
Georgia, Inc.
Many students and faculty from
thirteen regional nursing schools will be
on hand the week of the Health Fair to
help with the screenings. Also hundreds
of Kiwanians, Lions, Optimists, hospital
auxilians and other volunteers will give
their time and energy. , Fifty-four
community leaders are opening their
gymnasiums, mall space, fellowship
halls, meeting rooms and cafeterias so
that their communities can take
advantage of this opportunity for free
screening and counselling.
The health screenings are not meant
to replace a yearly physical by a
physician, nor are to be considered
diagnostic, but are a preventive health
measure and an opportunity for a>
person to learn more about his own
health and to become aware of specific
health problems that may have been
unknown or unsuspected.
WSB Television Vice President and
General Manager Don Elliot Heald
expressed his appreciaton to these
groups and individuals who are
participating in the project, and said
that “without their involvement, this
opportunity for us to learn about our
health and receive free health screening
for many diseases would simply not be
possible. WSB Television is sponsoring
the Health Fair this year because we feel
that good health insures the maximum
chance for happiness and productivity
for Atlantans.”
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Georgia/Atlanta, the nation’s largest
health coverage insurers, decided to
co-sponsor Health Fair week because it
so closely coincides with the company’s
philosophy and efforts.
St. Joseph’s Participates
Saint Joseph’s Hospital will be among the local health care facilities
participating in the Health Fair on April 2.
Among the free medical information to be compiled will be height and
weight; blood pressure check; testing for visual, speech or hearing problems;
PAP smear and breast examination, plus testing for anemia, glaucoma and
oral cancer.
Those planning to receive a medical examination at Saint Joseph’s are
requested not to eat anything after the evening meal of April 1.
A fee of $6 will be charged for a complete blood chemistry test.
WASHINGTON (NC) - Pope John
Paul II and American Church leaders
have praised the peace treaty between
Israel and Egypt as a first step toward a
comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
The pope endorsed the treaty during
his regular Sunday blessing on March
25, the day before the treaty was signed
in Washington.
Eugene Fisher, director of the
bishops’ secretariat for Catholic-Jewish
relations, said the treaty represented “a
victory for peace - not for Egypt or
Israel against each other, but for both
together.”
He said he hopes the other parties in
the Middle East can be brought into the
peace process.
Papal Encyclical - Pages 7, 8, 9
“This event is formalizing peace
between two countries after decades of
war and tension and is giving a decisive
impulse in the entire region of the
Middle East” while “respecting the
rights, the well-being of all these
populations,” the pope said.
He called on Catholics to pray for
success so that “fraternity and harmony
may return to the blessed land where
Jesus was born and lived.”
The treaty was the result of
agreements made at Camp David in
September by President Carter, Prime
Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and
President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. The
agreements appeared on the verge of
collapsing before Carter met with both
Begin and Sadat in the Middle East in
mid-March.
The United States, Egypt and Israel
hope the bilateral treaty can lead to a
comprehensive Middle East settlement,
but most Arab states have condemned
the treaty so far.
Monsignor Francis Lally, U.S.
Catholic Conference secretary for social
development and world peace, attended
the treaty signing and a related dinner at
the White House. He represented Bishop
Thomas Kelly, USCC general secretary,
who was traveling and could not attend.
Father J. Bryan Hehir, USCC associate
secretary for international justice and
peace, was also invited and unable to
attend.
“Today’s signing,” Monsignor Lally
said, “must be seen as the first step in a
long process that can lead to enduring
peace in the Middle East.
“Because it is a first step, its
importance cannot be over-emphasized;
for the same reason, it suggests that the
work of dialogue and negotiation is only
beginning,” he said. “Mingled with our
joy today must be a commitment to
patience and understanding on the long
road before us.”
In a statement released later, Bishop
Kelly said, “After so many years of
violence and unrest, patient negotiation
and unflagging determination have
brought a peace that can lead to
friendship and harmony between the
two nations.”
The American hierarchy addressed
the possibility of a treaty between
Egypt and Israel at its general meeting
in Washington last November. Bishops
described a possible treaty as “an
achievement of the highest importance”
that “provides hope that progress is
possible in the Middle East.”
“It is of the essence of diplomatic
greatness,” the bishops said, “to act
boldly and courageously in the face of
complexity and ambiguity. Camp David
is such an action and deserves our
support.”
In remarks prepared for delivery at a
Lincoln Memorial prayer service
involving Christian, Jewish and Moslem
religious figures, Holy Cross Father
Theodore Hesburgh, president of the
University of Notre Dame, called peace
“the blessed fruit of vision, courage and
generosity on the part of Sadat, Begin
and Carter.”
He said all three faiths teach that
“peace is the work of justice and that
“without justice, especially to the poor,
the homeless and the hopeless, there
will be no peace.”
Two Catholic magazines praised
Carter for his role in bringing Israel and
Egypt to a treaty.
AMERICA, a Jesuit weekly opinion
journal, said “the extraordinary
personal involvement of the president
seems to have been essential to the very
real progress toward peace made during
his stay in the Middle East.”
As the peace process is broadened,
the magazine said, “The U.S. effort at
mediation requires an almost
inexhaustible supply of patience and
understanding. Mr. Carter has not been
found wanting.”
COMMONWEAL, a bi-weekly, noted
that Carter was criticized by some
commentators for the risks involved in
his unusual personal involvement in the
negotiations.
“This particular type of
courage ... is unusual, tempered as it is
by a patience and a humility a certain
type of macho American mind is
ill-equipped to understand; a willingness
to suffer personal abuse and
inconvenience for the common good,”
the magazine said.