VOICE
OF MANY ANGELS Years ago, a Johns Hopkins professor gave a group of graduate students this assignment: Go to the slums. Take 200 boys, between the ages of 12 and 16, and investigate their background and environment. Then predict their chances for the future. The students, after consulting social statistics, talking to the boys and compiling much data, concluded that 90 percent of the boys would spend some time in jail. Twenty-five years later, another group of graduate students was given the job of testing the prediction. They went back to the same area. Some of the boys -by then men-were still there, a few had died, some had moved away, but they got in touch with 180 of the original 200. They found that only four of the group had ever been sent to jail. Why was it that these men, who had lived in a breeding place of crime, had such a surprisingly good record? The researchers were continually told: “Well, there was a teacher . . . .” They pressed further and found that in 75 percent of the cases it was the same woman. The researchers went to this teacher, now living in a home for retired teachers. How had she exerted this remarkable influence over that group of children? Could she give them any reason why these boys should have remembered her? “No,” she said, “no, I really couldn't.” And then, thinking back over the years, she said musingly, more to herself than to her questioners: “I loved those boys . . . .” Yesterday the Kutztown Area Historical Society dedicated a room in the 1892 Public School Building where Mildred Corrigan had taught sixth grade. During the afternoon many stories were told, not only about Mildred, but about beloved teachers who taught more by how they lived than by what they said. More than history or math or grammar, they were life-lessons that shaped our behavior forever. Not all teachers were able to change lives in positive ways, and not all students were able to be transformed constructively, but the potential to change the world was always there. Words are seeds, and we never know into what soil they will be sown or how they will germinate and be nourished. After his resurrection, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. Just as the pilgrims on the road to Emmaus were able to recognize the risen Jesus, not by his conversation, but by the act of breaking bread, so Peter and the disciples knew it was Jesus because his word was backed by results. Our lives can be transformed in a moment, in a chance encounter, in the twinkling of an eye. But a lifetime can go into the preparation for that moment. In the film, Finding Forrester, William Forrester is a reclusive Pulitzer Prize winning author, who never published a second book. He spends several decades sequestered in his top-floor Bronx apartment monitoring the changes in the world through his window and his three television sets. Forrester, played by Sean Connery, is Godlike. At least some would imagine God that wayCall-wise and all-knowing, remote from the world, observing it but not interacting it with it. A God who performed some miracles a few thousand years ago, but what has he done since? But then an exceptionally gifted, but underachieving Black sixteen-year-old breaks into his apartment and the latent chemistry begins to work through their interaction, catalyzing both their lives. What hasn’t happened in a lifetime, happens over night. We can live an entire lifetime for one transforming moment that redeems our entire existence and gives meaning to our walk in the sun. To live for that moment of metamorphosis when we are changed and when we can change the life of another person for the better justifies our existence. After my brother died I came across some audio tapes that Bob had recorded. They were his thoughts for a sermon he had intended to preach. Bob had studied for the priesthood and had graduated from seminary, but decided not to take holy orders. He became a high school principal instead. His thoughts on one of those tapes were about angels, about people who had come into his life at various times, spoken a word of encouragement or did a kind deed unexpectedly, or were simply there in a moment of despair and loneliness. They were his angels, and he began to see more and more of their presence as his life ebbed away. We all have our angel stories to tell: the mysterious stranger who shows up in a time of crisis to comfort and help, and then is gone; the sudden and inexplicable healing; the gift that offers hope in a time of despair; the bringers of rainbows when we seem abandoned and forsaken. We are angels to each other, emissaries of God whose words of encouragement and hope, whose acts of love, and whose presence in times of need represent the presence of Christ. We may not realize the influence we have on each other, and we may live an entire life for that redeeming moment when one little word, one little deed will change the world. This is why we need to value community; we do not exist in isolation, but in symbiosis. Last week I talked about the Gaia Principle, how the earth was a living organism affected by the interaction of all life forms. But the universe is also a living soul, infused with the Spirit of God that is in all things. The divine that is in you resonates with the divine that is in me, and collectively, whether organized through religion or the church or some other agency can become the manifestation of God’s presence in the world. The universe is a sacred community as Teilhard de Chardin describes it and in the sacred community love changes those who love as well as those who are loved. The prophet John, in his celestial vision of the last days, wrote: “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, >Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, >To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”’ A Hallelujah Chorus of all Creation praising God. The voice of many angels is the collective goodness of all people, in many ways and at many times making a positive impact upon the world so that at the end of time the Christ Spirit is universally acclaimed and all Creation acknowledges that Love is indeed supreme. Go out and change the world by caring for it and for other humans. Let your acts of love honor your Creator and the reason for your being. Let your voice be one of many angels. Harry Serio |
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