To Gladden The Hearts Of Those Who Walk This Way With Us
Thank you, Gus!
Thank you!
Through your tears, you taught a nation what it means to be a loved and loving son of a loved and loving father.
You stood and pointed and shouted “That’s my dad!” (You thought you were yelling over the din and to those around you, but America – and the world – saw and understood. You taught the lesson of the Gospels: Kindness overcomes evil and good triumphs.
Thank you, Gus! For your unadulterated admiration of your father, for showing the world an real American family, for genuine tears, for daring to be so filled with youthful enthusiasm, for touching our hearts and bringing small tears to our eyes. (Weeks later, many of us still tear-up. Thank you.)
We pray you didn’t see (hopefully, you’ll never see) the snide “Talk about weird…” post of the hateful commentator who once (allegedly) proclaimed “Christianity fuels everything I write….” [We spent almost three fruitless hours researching to verify that quote, but it was probably hidden in the vitriolic morass of her screeds. If that’s her version of “Christianity,” we want no part of it!]
We had planned to write about the kindness of a former president who will be one-hundred-years old on Sunday, October 1 and, according to his grandson, has told his family “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris.” [Importantly, he shares a birthday with Michael Flynn.]
Gus, we had planned to extoll this peanut farmer who opened his Inaugural Address as the 39th President of the United States with our favorite verse in the Hebrew Scriptures:
“Here before me is the Bible used in the inauguration of our first President, in 1789, and I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me a few years ago, opened to a timeless admonition from the ancient prophet Micah:
‘He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.’” (Micah 6: 8)
With those ancient words, the 39th (and longest-living) President of the United States, who spent most of his life teaching Sunday school in his tiny hometown, brought us to our feet – cheering, clapping, shouting and hope-filled. [In 1970, in the balcony of the historic First Baptist Church of Scituate, Massachusetts, we casually opened a copy of Sacred Scripture and happened upon Micah 6:8. Those words became the foundation of our life and priesthood.)
Forget his politics. More than forty years after leaving the White House, it is the life-lessons and example of Jimmy Carter that should be remembered and memorialized in these days of political demagoguery and outright lies. In 1946 and days before marrying Rosalynn Smith, he was commissioned as a First Lieutenant upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy and began service that included time as a nuclear submariner, before – in 1953 - assuming responsibility for his family’s Plains, Georgia peanut farm after his father died of pancreatic cancer. (He served in the Navy Reserve until 1961 and left the service with the rank of lieutenant.)
A determined advocate for racial tolerance and justice, his first – 1962 – campaign for the Georgia State Senate was marred by voter fraud on the part of his own (Democratic) party chairman in Quitman County; Carter won the second – and honest – round 3,023 to 2,182.
Yet he was no political angel. In his 1970s gubernatorial campaign he openly played both sides of the street – blatantly appealing to segregationists, while seeking support of Civil Rights leaders Martin Luther King Sr. and Andrew Young and Black business leaders. Governor of Georgia (1971-1975), President of the United States (1977-1981), 2002 Nobel Peace Prize laureate – “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development” - he reported that in his youth he had been challenged by a sermon that asked “If you were arrested today for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” [Conversations with Carter. Don Richardson, Lynne Rienner Publishers. 1998]
Gus, it wasn’t his politics or his awards, but his 77-years-long marriage to Rosalynn and their quiet, nail-driving work with Habitat for Humanity that had prompted us – in these turbulent times – to write about Jimmy Carter. All that nailing was kindness.
On February 28, 2023, CBS News reported:
“In 2019, former President Jimmy Carter showed up at a Habitat for Humanity site in Nashville with a smile – and a black eye. One day earlier, Carter, then 95, had fallen and needed 14 stitches, but he kept up his commitment to the organization. It's a commitment he's held since the 1980s.
“Habitat for Humanity, which helps homeowners build homes alongside volunteers, was founded in Americus, Georgia, nearby Carter's hometown of Plains. Americus happens to be where Carter first volunteered with the organization in 1984.
“Later that year, Carter happened to walk by another Habitat building in New York City, according to the organization. He noticed there were few volunteers, so he and his wife, Rosaylnn, joined them. They brought some more volunteers with them, helping to renovate the apartment building that would house 19 families.
Since then, the former president and first lady have run The Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity. The New York City building is considered the first of the homes they've worked on – and the couple has returned to the city for builds three times, according to CBS New York.
"’He's funny and one hard worker,’" CEO of Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County Karen Haycox told CBS New York. "’He's the first on the site in the morning and very often the last one to leave at the end of the day.’"
Through your tears, Gus, you gave us the very best moment of both presidential conventions and you pushed us to grab our The New Jerusalem Bible and start counting. Counting the kindnesses of Jesus.
We had intended to go through the Four Gospels and realized that, with duplicate stories, especially in Matthew and Luke, we’d never meet our posting deadline. We determined to focus on the universally accepted “first” – the Gospel of Mark.
At the very beginning of his public life, even before curing Peter’s mother-in-law, who “was in bed and feverish,” Jesus freed the demoniac of Capernaum. That evening, after dinner (almost certainly prepared by Peter’s newly refreshed mother-in-law) and still in Peter’s home, “he cured many who were sick with diseases of one kind or another; he also drove out many devils….”
[Turn the page.]
He cured a man “suffering from a virulent skin-disease” because he – Jesus – “was willing.” Then a paralytic who was lowered through the stripped-away roof of the house where he was staying in Capernaum. He shared a meal with “tax collectors and sinners” in the home of Levi the son of Alphaeus; on the Sabbath, despite the “obstinate” disapproval of the guardians of the Old Law, he cured the withered hand of a man, knowing that to do so would cause those guardians and other religious leaders to begin “at once to plot against him, discussing how to destroy him.”
[Turn the page.]
When a storm arose and his disciples were “frightened” and had “no faith,” he calmed the “great gale and the waves[…] breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped.” A simple act of kindness for his terrified disciples.
The Gerasene demoniac, the woman with a hemorrhage (who believed “If I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved”) and the daughter of Jarius, “the president of the synagogue” whose daughter was “desperately sick.”
[Turn the page.]
When the exhausted Jesus invited his disciples to “Come away to some lonely place all by yourselves to rest awhile” and people “from every town all hurried to the place on foot” – without having packed lunches or dinners for the journey, “he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” And he fed them!
Again, he calmed a storm because his disciples were “terrified” and assured them “Courage! It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” When they landed in the territory of Gennesaret, the people “started hurrying all through the countryside and brought the sick on stretchers to wherever he was […] begging him to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched him were saved.”
[Turn the page.]
The possessed daughter of “a Syro-Phoenician” woman whose daughter was possessed. Remember that she snapped back “but little dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.” And he was called from his hunger and exhaustion to kindness, healing her daughter. In “Decapolis territory,” he healed the deaf man and, in the next paragraph, having realized that the massive crowds following him “had nothing to eat,” he declared “I feel sorry for all these people” and (miraculously) he fed them “as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of scraps left over.”
On to Bethsaida, where he “laid his hands on the blind man’s eyes… and he saw clearly; he was cured, and could see everything plainly and distinctly…”
[Turn the page.]
No. There’s thirteen more pages and a few more miracles.
We can’t get through them without running out of space.
So, Gus, please allow us to make our point.
The miracles of Jesus – the wonder of Jesus – was so simple it was overwhelmingly profound: He saw – Peter’s wife, the grieving widow of Nain whose only son had just died, the Roman centurion who, try as he might, could not disguise his anguish. He heard – “My daughter is gravely ill” and “Lord, if you will…” He felt – “His heart was moved with pity, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” And he was kind – “I feel sorry for these people. Let us feed them.”
Even on the cross, suffocating and in pains – the scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails in his hands and feet - we cannot imagine, He was kind – to the thief beside him “This day you will be with me in Paradise.”
Gus, the pure goodness of your joyous shout “That’s my Dad!” captured the hearts – dare we say “souls”? – of a nation desperate for someone who “Doth [what] the Lord requires of thee,… to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.’”
Gus, you taught a nation the qualities to vote for in all our leaders: Someone who is committed to acting justly, loving tenderly and walking humbly with their God. Someone for whom, if they are accused of being Christlike, there will be enough evidence to convict them. Some one who will see and hear and feel.
Gus, long, long ago the Swiss philosopher and poet Henri-Frederic Amiel penned an expression of caution and hope Father Roger uses immediately before the Final Blessing at every Mass. We thank you for being the embodiment of Amiel’s and Father Roger’s words:
“Life is short.
We don't have much time to gladden the hearts
of those who walk this way with us.
So, be swift to love and make haste to be kind.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel