Google Earth Pictorial: Nativity Parish
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I’m very tired today. It comes from two weeks of hurrying and not much time to sit. My original plan was to be patient with visa applications in D.C. (possibly staying 5-6 days rather than 2) and then move slowly across the central part of the States back to St. Louis.

Instead, I moved south with two days of 8-hour drives these past two days and 3 more 8-hour dives ahead. It is a bit of a sacrifice. Sacrifice is a funny word. It is so overused and misused that when one needs to use it, one usually needs to look at the context to understand what is going on. It literally means “to make holy” but it is often used to mean “give something up.”

Usually, one makes sacrifice because he/she believes in the cause for which the sacrifice is given. This is context for which I am using the word. I have given up some of my own comfort in order to see my brother, Chuck. But it is not the same sacrifice he has made. He is an officer in the United States Army who has spent the larger part of the last year and half in Iraq.

I’m going to assume that my readership follows the same percentage of American’s who disagree with the presence of the US military in Iraq. I’m not writing to persuade anyone either way over that decision, but I do admire what my brother has done.  He is willing to sacrifice much more than a couple 8-hour drives. He is willing to sacrifice his comfort, his time with his family, his safety, and his very life. Not necessarily for any political affiliation or interests, but for the belief that his role in the military is part of a system that preserves and protects the very best that life can give for his wife, family and nation. 

My visit occurs on the day that the United States honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man who also was willing to sacrifice. His willingness to courageously stand up against injustice and give a voice to those oppressed by discrimination cost him his life, but the cost brought life to millions of others who now have hope and respect for their inherent dignity. His sacrifice was heroic. 

So as I start to nod off after morning Mass at Nativity parish in Brandon, Florida, I think about sacrifice. I live in a culture where giving something up is frowned upon. “Having it all” means having it all. One does not need to give up possessions, sex, food, drugs. If it feels good, you should do it. What happens to people in this kind of culture is sad. They can have everything they want, but end up with nothing to live for.  

And maybe that is the thing. It isn’t that possessions, sex, food, and drugs are bad, but these things don’t give a human being a any reason to live for. They don’t give us a purpose. But once we have found a purpose, or rather a purpose has found us, we are willing to sacrifice for it. Life becomes worth living only the possibility that we would freely lose it..  At the same time, sacrifice isn’t good in and of itself. I could endure 8-hour drives every day, I could get shot at, or I could be assassinated but if there is no purpose behind the sacrifice, the loss is just that, a loss.  

Visiting my brother is worth the sacrifice. I won’t be able to see him or his family for over a year. The time we spend together is brief, but it is important. It makes life worth living. My reflections today do not focus much on Mass at Nativity parish, but if you have downloaded Google Earth, you can view my pictorial by clicking here. Nativity parish is under reconstruction but daily Mass was held in the chapel.

I have put all of the chapel’s Stations of the Cross in this pictorial. I noticed them because they were predominantly blue (like Church of the Resurrection from January 7, 2007) but these were actually Stations of the Cross, not Stations of the Resurrection. The creativity in expressing the moments and mysteries of faith never cease to amaze me. Happy MLK day.