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PAGE 11—The Georgia Bulletin, September 1,1983
An Unexpected Encounter
BY SUZANNE E. ELSESSER
I had read about the Vietnam Memorial in Washington,
D.C., how its design provoked strong reactions in people.
Some thought it a fitting tribute and others a horrible
disrespect. Feeling curious, I went to see it.
But I was not prepared for the powerful experience this
visit would involve.
The cab stopped at the edge of the famed Washington
Mall, the great expanse of grass, trees and paths that
extends from the steps of the Capitol, past the
Washington monument, to the foot of the Lincoln
Memorial. The cab driver pointed and said, “It’s over
there.”
I could see nothing. But he assured me that if I walked
straight ahead I’d find it. Soon a dirt path appeared.
Evidently it gets muddy when it rains because the path
soon became a series of wooden planks and then, finally,
large flat stones set side by side.
As I walked I became aware of other people walking in
the same direction. Then suddenly I saw the memorial.
At each end it is only a few inches high, but as one
moves along, the lines of the monument flow with the
landscaped hill behind it. Gradually the monument
becomes more than double the height of anyone standing
in front of it.
The path leads before the face of the monument,
almost as though part of the memorial itself.
The surface is highly polished dark gray marble, nearly
black. On it the names of the men and women who lost
their lives in Vietnam are engraved. Their names are
clustered under the year of their death.
But it is the people viewing the names who offer the
real tribute, the real memorial. It was through them that I
had an unexpected encounter with God that day.
The Vietnam Memorial is different from other
memorials that honor the more distant past, for the names
carved into it are the names of the sons, daughters,
husbands, grandchildren, neighbors and friends of the
people one meets there — people who come to visit, to
weep, to remember.
I watched while a trim man in his late 30s stood alone
before one of the names. His eyes were serious, his body
total'y still. His thoughts might have been back at the
scene of a battle. He reached out and touched the stone
for a few seconds. Then slowly he let his hand return to
his side. Was it the name of a friend? I wondered. Was it
someone he’d laughed and cried with? Maybe he’d prayed
with him too. Was it someone he’d watched die?
Down the path an older couple with gray hair held
hands as they stood together before one of the names. She
placed the small bunch of daisies underneath the row of
names and returned to stand with her husband. The bright
yellow and white of the flowers contrasted vividly with
the dark stone.
“Here it is,” a woman called out, and the two children
who had wandered ahead returned to stand beside her.
They photographed the carved names, but said little.
A SINGLE ROSE adorns a section of the
Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. Like many
flowers that dot the long stark monument, it
Scripture tells how Jesus reminded his followers that he
would be present in the hungry people they encountered,
the sorrowing people they comforted. In Scripture we
hear how Jesus reminded his followers that they needed
to be open to his presence in unexpected places; that they
could recognize him in their brothers and sisters.
To me that day in Washington, God made his enduring
presence felt through the sorrows and hungers of those
who stood nearby me. I was reminded of God — my
attention was turned toward God — by the faces, the
hands and the silences of the people who stood before this
simple, yet forceful, remembrance of someone they loved.
probably was left there by a friend or loved one
as a remembrance of one of the people enscribed
nearby. (NC Photo by Bob Strawn)
God's
Presence In Ou
r World
BY FATHER JOHN CASTELOT
Is God present in our crazy, mixed-up world? Does he
care about it at all, or has he abandoned it to its own
self-destructive devices?
From cover to cover the Bible practically shouts the
answer: God has bound himself to our universe and in a
special'way to human beings: “And the fidelity of the
Lord endures forever.” (Psalm 117:2)
Still, people’s questions are understandable; those
questions are asked in every age. “My tears are my food
day and night, as they say to me day after day, ‘Where is
your God?”’
Those troubled words of the psalmist are followed by
an expression of calm assurance: “Why are you downcast,
0 my soul? Why do you sigh within me? Hope in God!
For I shall again be thanking him in the presence of my
savior and my God.” (Pslam 42:3,6)
By the very act of creating, God committed himself,
not just to humanity but to the whole universe. “The
Lord’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and all who
dwell in it.” (Psalm 24:1)
The creation accounts, while not blow-by-blow
accounts of how the universe came into being, are positive
statements of the fact that the universe is the creative act
of a loving God.
God’s act of creation was not a cold, uninvolved
capricious display of power. It involved him very
personally. Significantly he is said to have created by his
“word”: ‘.‘Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’” (Genesis
1:3) This act initiated a dialogue, a meaningful
relationship, a commitment.
That relationship was sealed in an astonishing way
when the world through whom all things came into being
“became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” (John
1:14)
The deeply personal nature of the relationship is
expressed with unmistakable clarity by the statement:
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
(John 3:16) Talk about a personal involvement!
And the creative word made flesh reassures us: “And
know that I am with you always, until the end of the
world!” (Matthew 28:20)
Far from abandoning the world, God is intimately
present to it and passionately involved in its history. In his
own mysterious way he is guiding it to a glorious destiny.
The whole message of the Book of Revelation is one of
hope and encouragement, bidding us look forward to the
day when God will cap the whole creative process by
fashioning “new heavens and a new earth.” (Revelation
21:1) This will be a marvelous transformation.
True, this is a long and often painful process. The
biblical authors very realistically recognize this fact. Along
with their unshakable conviction that God has grand plans -Ay
for his universe, they realize what is involved in carrying
them out:
As St. Paul in Romans 8 puts it so aptly: “I consider
the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared
with the glory to be revealed in us ... Yes, we know that
all creation groans and is in agony even until now. Not
only that, but we ourselves, although we have the spirit as
first fruits, groan inwardly as we await the redemption of
our bodies.”
Paul concludes: “In hope we are saved. But hope is not
hope if its object is seen . . . And hoping for what we
cannot see means awaiting it with patient endurance.”
(Romans 8:18-19; 22-25)
Discussion Points
• If someone told you he felt that God
wasn’t really interested in him, how would
you respond?
• Why is the man in Father David
O’Rourke’s story so discouraged about
finding God in his life?
• What approach does Father O’Rourke
take in trying to help the man?
• Why did Suzanne Elsesser describe her
experience as an experience of God while
visiting the Vietnam Memorial in
Washington, D.C.?
And Questions
• After reading Ms. Elsesser’s story, where
would you say people sometimes find God?
• In Neil Parent’s article, what was the
priest’s reaction when he saw a fellow
Christian executed?
• What advice does Parent give to
individuals who are searching for God’s
presence in their lives?
• How does Father John Castelot indicate
God’s enduring interest in and commitment
to the human race?
