What Does No Greater Love Look Like?

10-10-2021Pastor's LetterFr. John Bonavitacola

Dear Friends,

The great Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” Indeed! Being a Catholic Christian in today’s world can make you feel like someone who is driving a model T Ford on the freeway. But our faith is timeless. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the reality of the Church:

"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany I looked for the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom. But they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I had never any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom." Albert Einstein

In a recent column, Dennis Prager asked, “Who would hide a Jew if Nazis took over America?” For the column he consulted Sam and Pearl Oliner, two professors of sociology at California State University at Humboldt, who were the authors of one of the most highly regarded works on altruism, “The Altruistic Personality.” The book was the product of the Oliners’ lifetime of study of non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. Prager asked them the question: “Knowing all you now know about who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, if you had to return as a Jew to Poland and you could knock on the door of only one person in the hope that they would rescue you, would you knock on the door of a Polish lawyer, a Polish doctor, a Polish artist or a Polish priest?”

Without hesitation, they responded, “Polish priest.”

That got me thinking, “would I hide a Jew if it came to that again?” The question really gets to the heart of our values and integrity. I think of all those who could have hid Jews during WWII but did not. I am sure they had their reasons: I don't want to put my family in jeopardy, I could lose my job and then what, after all it’s against the law to hide Jews and many other reasons.

Maybe they justified it in their heads but afterwards how did they live with themselves? How much anger did they have to live with, mostly directed at self? Or did they just cave and think “well they had it coming”?

But for Christians those reasons fall flat in light of the complete self-giving of Jesus and his insistence that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. I for one, would not want to live with the knowledge that I failed to take up my cross in the most extreme circumstance.

In light of so many attacks on the teachings of our Faith, how strong are you really? How willing are you to the “odd” one in a society that increasingly belittles Gospel values? How deep does your integrity go? How much conviction do you have? Where is the line that you won’t cross? While it is true, we only really know if we have the courage of our convictions when they are tested, it helps to make a decision before the circumstances ever arise.

So, if Nazis took over America, would your Jewish friends or neighbors, if they only had one door to knock on in hopes of being rescued, would it be your door?

Love, Fr. John B.

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