Reflections

Reflections*

+In Memory of Bishop Peter Posthumus +

The Reverend Mothers Susan and Molly of St. Luke Jesuit Mission, RCC.

Tender is the heart we send in comfort. Gentle are the many prayers gathering.

Let these fill to overflowing!

Perhaps then, we shall come to better know the man

and come to fill the shoes he leaves behind in faith.

Although we have known “our dear Dominican” but a short time,

how blessed we were to share the Eucharist on 16 October.

Too weak to celebrate the Mass, nevertheless, he rose to wash our hands..

He offered the homily—a fearless message! We shall never forget.

And then he danced… fearlessly.

He smiled,

And showed us the Way,

Forward from here.

On 28 October, again we heard his voice and wept:

Beloved, I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

2 Tim 4: 6-7

Because we love him as he loved each of us, Let us keep the faith. He asked nothing more,

but surely nothing less of us.

Pax tibi.

St. Luke Jesuit Mission, RCC.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads here white sail to the ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: “There–she is gone!” “Gone where?” Gone from my sight. That is all.

Henry Van Dyke

Contemplatio from the Pilgrim’s Sanctuary

+Whosever believeth in Me shall Have the Light of Life+

Closing this Series of Reflections on Light and Darkness

In Memory of +Bishop G. Peter Posthumus, OP

The Spirit manifests in both darkness and light – in both death and in life.

As a Christian people we see in life the “end,” which is really only the beginning of an eternal life and union with God. The One who called us by name as we grew within our mother’s womb is this same Loving God who draws us back into the Mystery of himself in the passage from this mortal life into his own.

~ Fr. Michael Abair, First Reflection in Weekly Series – 10/30/07

What an altogether different close to this day than to the last. To write a final Reflection with which to close the present series has been one of the periods in my own life when words – so many read and written – do not come easily. Upon return Friday evening after an eventful evening with friends from the parochial school in which I taught at one time, I spent much time pondering the implications of this common meal as I prepared to write the final Reflection for this series. The school principal, having recently been fired sat across from a former teacher whom she was forced to fire, those few who remained on staff in distress at the new administration were present – one having just recently gotten news of pregnancy – as well as those who continue to leave by the dozens. The evening was not intended to be one of sadness and I don’t believe I would underscore the bitter over the sweet; but it was a coming together as one – past and present – in a way that elicited for many of us a great deal of emotion.

Laughter and tears were wed with sharing stories of times past and times to come. I sat in the middle of it all – for the first time since my ordination to all save one – taking it all in and already formulating the implications of this night being woven into a final reflection; transition, cycles of death and rebirth, of things ever changing and of the grace in these moments of uncertainty.

This was a soulful night were there ever to be one: the spectrum of the deepest parts of ourselves shared about a table breaking bread and toasting spirits. I left feeling overwhelmed with a host of feeling relating to the passage from darkness to light; from dying to the old and living into the new. Of All Souls, we were to one another that night souls wrapped about one another in what felt like a space of timeless in the hustle and bustle of each of our lives.

The light [bulb] within the “porch chapel” was fixed just prior to my arriving home, but this was no evening for my usual outdoor reading; too many things, too many questions bouncing back and forth in my mind from this night were present to focus my attention singularly. Even a call in the middle of the night, a post-birthday chat with a dear friend I woke from a slumber [no one keeps this Pilgrim’s hours!] would not lend itself to calm or rest this night. When I finally awoke this morning, a new day had dawned and I felt drawn to begin to write after having had more time to allow the prior evenings events to sink in and to apply to what would be my final Reflection in a Series for the week.

But it seemed the Spirit would hold me in silence as the words echoed throughout my home with a message on my answering machine that rendered me speechless. Bishop Peter Posthumus had passed away this morning. Death – the reality of it, the impact of its implicit part of our human nature; each of those aspects I held in prayerful reflection and put to writing were now a Reality for me, and on this very day. I was met with my own words and “he’s in a better place now,” was not enough for me either per my own pastoral criticism of clichés. I wasn’t dealing with a theological puzzle to put together this morning, however: I was staring into the face of the very thing my words – nor series of Reflections as to this aspect of the human condition- will never render comprehensible. The application of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass being also the Table of Thanksgiving…..these thoughts of the night prior coming nicely together with every “i” dotted – NONE of this came into my mind or moved my heart in the face of this very immediate Reality.

“All Souls Day,” the gathering of the faithful in witness of those who have gone before us bearing the seal of Jesus Christ upon the heart, to these members of the Cloud of Witnesses is our attention drawn and our prayer directed in both our mourning and our celebration of the lives of each. Returning home yesterday afternoon from substituting from the School whose past/present staff I would later gather with in the evening, the Roman Mass for the children had been a moving liturgical testament to both the solemnity and the celebratory marking this day. But what of a beloved Shepard of my own faith community – a man whose interfaith spirit resonated so deeply with my own – what of the notice of his passing; of his ascension into that very Mystery at the core of my heart this week? To speak of the Cloud of Witnesses and to experience very personally the altogether cloudiness of trying to grasp light in the darkness, life in the death of one so beloved are, two radically different experiences.

The death of +Peter Posthumus does not render the work of the theologian dismissive; to do so would be dismissive of one of +Peter’s greatest gifts as we celebrate the history of one of the most learned men in our Reformed Catholic Tradition. What the impact of his passing does incite, is a movement which is at the heart of any authentic theology: a movement of the mind to the heart. The theologian – and insofar as we “study God” by living into his call to ministry we are all theologians – is nothing if he/she does not derive the hand written text from the God-written heart. It is only in being able to taste and see – to experience in our very depths God’s love for us- that we can stand before the altar of God and share with all the faithful the message of his Word.

+Peter’s keen ability to encapsulate the scholar, the priest for all people and the prophet of those most on the fringes of the institutional “Church,”is a model of Christian integration to which we all must strive. Blessed with so many gifts, and self-less in the distribution of all that the Spirit had graced him with, the life and the death of Bishop Peter Posthumus are a challenge to be faithful as the Church where all are welcome. In his passage unto life eternal is a challenge as well: as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – we are challenged to work tirelessly to create the kind of world envisioned by this prophetic brother on earth as it is in heaven!

Just a short while ago I was honored to write for the Pax-Press a piece recalling +Peter’s itinerary upon his last visitation. Those who knew the Bishop well, or were aware of the deterioration of his health, were saddened by what was understood as most likely his last visitation amongst friends in the RCC. This was also a time of great joy for so many who had come to know and love the +Peter. A Shepard, Father, and friend; Bishop Posthumus embodied the charism of the Reformed Catholic Church: We are one Family in Christ and ALL are Welcome! His visitation enlivened the faithful with the reminder that to live the Christian faith in this way is de facto to embark upon a journey with many challenges, but all the more with radical resilience in the face of injustice.

I lament that I did not have the same history that many in the RCC hold; as a newly ordained priest, many bearing the Office of the Episcopate were somewhat unknown to me. +Peter, long before my decision to enter the RCC captivated me by no more than a picture; a Bishop with a Rainbow necklace shimmering in its spectrum of colors, a man committed to interfaith and ecumenical works, reaching out; this Rainbow, in hindsight meant so much more to me than my initial association of the RCC’s position on GLBT persons in the ministry of the Church. Tradition speaks of the Rainbow as a sign of the peace which God shares with the broken, of his covenant unbroken and of the splendor of his spirit in the stories of the Old Testament. +Peter’s life was a new testament to each of these things in our own day and in our own Church.

The words with which I closed the article on the Bishop’s visitation read as: “We celebrate in thankfulness the continued fruits of his ministry and we look with joy to the harvest, borne of his vision, which continues to enliven so many of us in the Church today. Until the Bishop’s next visitation, we – who have come to understand what it really means to be family through him – embrace him and look forward to the day when we shall be together again.” I recall the emotions that came over me with those words – to the day when we shall be together again – knowing in my heart what these words were to symbolize. And indeed, we do look forward to that day when we shall be together again. God grant us the courage and the strength of +Peter whose life was a light to us all; shining now perpetually and gracing us with a spirit that will never die.

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