A True Friend - Johnnie D.

A True Friend – Johnnie D.






Dear Friends,



In Book Two of “Eve of All Hallows, The Power of The Christ”, to be published this fall, I have an “Interlude” dedicated to one of my lifelong friends, Johnnie D. I hope that John, as well as all of my friends, enjoys its message. Here goes:





John – “…He Was a Lamp Burning And Shining,

And You Found Joy in His Light…”



- Jesus, talking about John The Baptist in Jn. 5:35



It was well after midnight now, and we had all been sitting by the campfire for over three hours. Yet the hours had seemed like minutes. What do they say about being in Love, or more precisely, about being in the presence of God? The hours go by like minutes, and even an eternity in the Presence of divine Love will seem timeless, will seem like a moment. And it was the presence of God that we were all feeling now. It was a spellbound awe in the presence of the Holy, but also an awe in the light of the Gospel and its power to release the Holy into our world - an awe that must have paralleled the awe of the shepherds before the angelic Light that pierced their own night on that first Christmas.



During each of the interludes in the story, either Lawr or Johnnie D. - and sometimes Michael and myself - would go to get more wood for the fire. But it was Lawr and Johnnie really who were the watchkeepers of the fire that night. With each pause in the story they would get up, and guided only by moonlight, quickly run over to the pile of stacked wood along the side of the lake cottage.



Unlike Michael and me, when Lawr and John came back from the pile, six or seven logs all at once rested on one of their muscular shoulders - and those all wrapped within the fold of one muscular arm. Let's just leave it at this - that Michael and I couldn't do that. In any case, mostly because of the vigilance of John and Lawr, now, hours later, the blue flames of logs burned right to their core still kept a full and vibrant fire crackling and sizzling quietly in the dark - yet still with a sound that was in stark contrast to the late night silence of the forest.



It was the segments in Fr. Ted's story about the Gospel and its Power that makes me want to reminisce about the awesome witnesses to the Faith that both Johnnie D. and Michael were also to become, even by their college years – much like the great Lawrence himself (Lawr!)! Johnnie D. and Michael, like all the rest of us around that campfire, were cut to the heart by Fr. Ted's story. Very much like Lawr - and unlike me - Johnnie D. and Michael were quick to open their hearts that very night to God's Presence. In the days, weeks, and months to come, they kept in touch with Fr. Ted, each seeking through his counsel and friendship to fill their soul and spirit with more of the transforming Power and Presence of Christ. How that Power and Presence had moved them, and all of us so deeply, just from the telling of Fr. Ted's tale - a tale of the supernatural on one special night, by the light of one special fire, so long, long ago.



I have already said much about Michael – about his leadership, his sharp insight and wit, and his charisma, especially with women. But John in no way was less in stature. He was a young man gifted and graced in so many ways, and he could always rise to the challenge of matching Michael – matching him as readily in the academic arena as out there on the athletic field.



As for after that summer weekend by the lake, John would go on from our high school to the University of Maryland, and there made his bold stand for Christ. In one challenging situation after another, John would witness intrepidly to the Power and Presence of Christ alive in our lives in our own day and time. I have loved so many of the stories of witness that Johnnie D. has shared with me over the years. So many of these he still shares on the high school Antioch Retreats that we now run together as adults.



One story in particular captures so well the kind of courage for the Gospel that is so characteristic of John. It is a story that explains why to so many, including myself, it is the role and power of an Evangelist that marks and defines John's bold witness to youth in the Church today.









As John tells it, he was going to daily Mass in Lent during one of his college years in Maryland. For those daily liturgies the priest celebrant would invite the students to gather up in the sanctuary around the main altar. The celebrant also encouraged dialogue homilies each day, and after he gave his priestly reflection on the scriptures, the students could share their own insights as well.



During one of these daily dialogue sessions, a young co-ed shared something that was extremely problematic for John. And though it was a young co-ed who shared it, it could just as easily have been any one of a thousand different young men too – a thousand and more who though alive and well out there in the Church today seem to be oblivious to the central and core concepts of Christianity, God knows why!



After the priest’s sharing, the co-ed was the first to speak up from among the many students gathered around that main altar. She was reflecting in response to one of the divine pronouncement passages in John's Gospel that had just been used at Mass. These are passages where Jesus clearly claims equality with God (Jn. 5:18). In this case the passage was one where Jesus clearly applied the divine name to Himself that Yahweh had revealed to Moses (Jn. 8:58) - "...before Abraham came to be I am."



The co-ed shared quite brazenly that as far as she was concerned, Jesus had problems - or to put it bluntly, had a "God-complex" like Jeremiah and so many of the other prophets who had a "pipeline to God" mentality. "Today we know better...", she said, "...than to believe in anyone who felt that as far as getting to God was concerned, it was their way or the highway. It’s preposterous for anyone to claim exclusive and privileged access to the divine, as if their way was the only way to God."



Johnnie D. was sitting there quietly around the Table of the Lord and in the context of the Eucharist, wondering why someone who thought this way would even be at the Mass in the first place. There was a prolonged silence. It was a dramatic silence, like that silent moment in film before the attack, the eruption. Or, put in more positive light, it was the quiet moment before a great and wonderful revelation, the quiet moment before Dorothy or Lucy opens a door to a whole new and beautiful world.



John studied the face of the priest and of all the students surrounding the altar to see if anyone was going to say something. The Gospel was at stake. No one spoke. But then, as is characteristic of John, and of anyone with his kind of charisma, he boldly spoke up, “driven irresistibly by the Spirit” to do so.



Yes, St. Paul’s words are meant here literally: “driven irresistibly by the Spirit”! Johnnie D. always shares on our retreats how in that moment he could feel the anointing of the Holy Spirit come upon him with Power. Perhaps, John has often reflected with me, it was much like Mary experienced when the Power of the Most High overshadowed her. Johnnie is so adamant in his challenges to me that his experience may well have been like that of the Blessed Mother. If she is the Mother of the Church, why should what is true for her not be true for us? Why, John insists, should we not expect that what is true for her, would also be true for the Church to follow and model?



In any case, it was abundantly clear to John during this dialogue homily that the Spirit of God was powerfully anointing him. As never before my friend felt with certainty that it was the Spirit Who was about to speak His Word through John as through the Lord's chosen instrument in that moment. Like Mary, John was about to bring Christ into the world, and into that sanctuary.



There at the main altar, before the priest and all present, Johnnie D. began his response to the co-ed by quoting from the Gospel of John, both John 14:6, and then John 12:32. From John 14 he read the words of Jesus that "...I am the way, the truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but by Me.” From John 12 he read the words of Jesus, “…And I, when I am lifted up from the earth (on the Cross!), will draw all men to himself."







John shares in his talks with youth today how when he read these Words at that college Mass, they were alive and powerful, filling the sanctuary with the tangible Presence of God's Spirit. Johnnie reflects now on our retreats how he always knew the teaching of the Church - that when the Word is proclaimed at Mass, the Risen Jesus is rendered as present in the assembly as when the words of consecration are spoken over the gifts of bread and wine.



But John shares how in this moment during that dialogue homily, he knew that teaching for the first time not only with his mind, but with his heartas well. In that sanctuary that day, he could feel the Power of God's Love become present when God's Word was spoken. The Words were Spirit and Life, and God's Word spoken and proclaimed released the Holy Spirit into the whole assembly. Suddenly, Words that were living and active, and sharper than a two-edged sword, pierced to the hearts of everyone there. It was as if John's reflection upon God's Word rendered present the Spirit and Power of the Risen Christ.



What was his reflection in the light of God's Word from the Gospel of John? Johnnie D. explained that because of Jesus' Resurrection, He was "the way" that God has chosen for humanity to enter into His Life and Love. In fact, Johnnie D. himself was at the Eucharist they were now celebrating to do precisely that - enter into communion with Jesus' Life, Love, and Power. John stated boldly that the Resurrection sets Jesus and His teaching apart from the Founders of all the world’s religions. In the light of the Resurrection, Christianity and communion with Christ are God's way to enter into His own Heart, the Life and Spirit of His Son.



"But did the Resurrection really happen?" the co-ed retorted swiftly. But John too was quick to answer. What is this Eucharist, he replied, if not "the way" we enter into the Spirit of the Risen Christ, and become filled with the Love of the One Who was given up for us? "In the Eucharist", John said, "I expect to enter into union with the Risen Christ, and know in Him the Love and Spirit of the Father present in power to my life. And if you open your heart to His Risen Presence, you will experience that Power and Presence as well.”



“A personal Pentecost after all is the sign given to all of us that Jesus did rise from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus Himself said that when he would go to the Father, He would send His Spirit to us. In Eucharist, when we partake of His Body and Blood, we too are filled with the Spirit of Pentecost, and know even as the apostles did that only in Jesus do we find our way to God - only in union with Him, with His Spirit, does humanity become empowered like Christ to go to the Father as well."



There was now another kind of silence that came over that small assembly after John had finished speaking. It was a holy silence, a silence filled with the Presence of God. The priest looked at John with wonder and amazement, much as a father beaming with pride over a son who had just spoken with courage before a vast assembly. It is true too that each time John tells this story to yet another group of youth on our retreats, that same awesome silence settles over all of us. I have been on so many of those retreats, and seen this myself. Much like on that special night by the fire long ago, I too have felt with all the youth there on those retreats, that holy silence rich with God’s fire, a silence where our hearts burn with the Life and Love of the Risen Jesus - the Risen Jesus Who is present in power to us as well, alive and still with us in our own day and time.



But a final thought here is imperative. Each time Johnnie D. shares that story, like the priest in that U of M chapel, I too beam with pride over my friend. I feel so proud of him for speaking up - that he did what did, and that he did it for Jesus. I feel proud that such a man is honored to be my friend. His courage to proclaim Christ is exemplary, and so desperately needed today.













Contemporary society can be such a dark place – a dark world void of God’s Love, a world excising even the mention of God from it academic arenas and forums, from its assemblies and market places. How desperately then our society of today needs persons of courage to proclaim Christ, to proclaim that He is risen and still here in the midst of us. How desperately the world of today needs to know the Light of God’s Love as real and powerfully present to us. How desperately the world of today, tormented and terrified by its own darkness, needs to know the Power of God’s Light in the face of Evil, the Power of His Love as a real force for freedom - the freedom of a Love casting out all fear from our lives.



Yes, I feel proud that I have such a man of God for a friend, someone who has been my friend and brother since high school. I feel proud that such a man has stood with me and by me in the cause of Christ for the whole of my adult life. He is that rare friend who has especially stood by me even in the shadow of my cross. He is that rare friend who has imaged to me the unconditional love of God, even when it meant for him stepping out onto the water, and facing for me and with me the winds and waves of a storm at sea.