APRIL 9, 2006

Beside my duties as Pastor of a parish, for the past twelve years I have also been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Duquesne University - which means I teach an elective course in the Law School. Usually, I rush back and forth from the Parish just in time to teach class, and then back to my parish duties, not spending much time on the campus of my Alma Mater except that allotted for the classroom itself. (Parking is no problem, I use the motorcycle!) One day last Spring, however, I had to have lunch with the Dean, who got held up in a meeting, so I cooled my heels by sitting on the steps of the library for about half an hour with nothing to do but watch the traffic go by. It was a beautiful day: sunny, cloudless and 55 degrees - our 3 hours of Spring for the season in Pittsburgh. During that time, I had pass by me several students, including a niece, a godchild, a couple of parishioners, as well as several of the foreign priest-students, and some faculty and staff members, many of whom at one time were schoolmates of mine at the college. Each one was on his or her way to a class or some other commitment. But each one stopped and greeted me, exchanged a few pleasantries, then moved on. I was struck by the pace of everyone.

When I was a student myself, I thought that I scurried and hurried from place to place and activity to activity. But from my perspective now as a busy parish priest who is bound by many duties, the pace of everyone I watched seemed slow, laid back, leisurely, almost indolent in comparison. Once I got over my envy and reflected on it, I realized that that is the way it should be. For one to become educated, to learn, to absorb the important ideas and expand one's horizons intellectually, there must be time. Rushing is inappropriate if one is to gain the full benefit of education.

This is Holy Week, and all of our liturgical celebrations and observances are going to be much longer than we are used to. From Palm Sunday through Holy Thursday to Good Friday to the Easter Vigil and Masses, there will be extra elements of worship that will have us in Church for extended periods. But that is as it should be. These are the High Holy Days of our Faith - the story of our complete redemption retold, re-enacted, re-lived. To rush through them would put us in danger of missing the richness, the profligate nature of God's grace and love for us. It would somehow short change what we need to learn and know and believe and integrate into our lives about our salvation.

Please attend as many of the services as you can this week, and please be patient as you participate in each of them. When we consider that those in education are willing to slow down in the short-run so they can benefit in the long-run, isn't it more critical for each of us to spend some extra time when the matter that is at hand is eternity? Happy Holy Week!