Paul Bothwell, may he rest in peace.

PAUL BOTHWELL, MARCH, 1941 - JULY, 2016

Paul Bothwell      1941-2016

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be.”

From my homily at the funeral Mass:   We all share our condolences with Ellie, with Bob and John and Don and all of Paul’s relatives and friends.   We praise God for this opportunity to be together in our sorrow....   

When Paul and I were both in middle school, Paul and his family moved to Horace Avenue in Abington just a stone’s throw from where I had lived since birth.    We attended the parochial school here at Our Lady Help of Christians and after graduation went to different high schools, Paul to LaSalle College High School and myself to St. Joseph’s Prep.   But during that time we rode our bikes around town, played some rough games of ball on a nearby vacant lot and listened to many a Phillies game while playing cards together.  We also enjoyed getting into trouble with other boys in the eighth grade.   On one particularly beautiful spring day we refused to return to class after noon recess. Paul and I got a special audience with the eighth grade nun after that prank.  Later while in high school there was joy-riding with an older friend who had a car.  

But in public we appeared more pious when serving Mass together in the auditorium structure where we gathered before this Church was built.  Despite the different obligations of our high schools, we continued serving Mass together.   As a younger kid I had other friends in my immediate neighborhood but they were Lutherans, Episcopalians and Presbyterians.   In those days I was not sure that I could count on them.   But Father Shallow could count on Paul and me to serve Mass and we could count on each other.  No one was surprised that we entered seminary at the same time, myself to the Jesuit novitiate and Paul to St. Charles to prepare for our continued service in the Church.   Despite our separate ways later in life --God leading us along different paths, Paul to a loving marriage-- service in the Church dominated the life paths that we each chose,  Paul and his dear wife Ellie fulfilling their service in all of the local parishes wherever they lived.....

When they returned here to Philadelphia last year I did not imagine that Paul’s time with us would be so short.  I looked forward to having them visit me at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville and even to going to a baseball game with them.  These things never happened.   But it did happen that the two of them became well known as a strong and faithful couple at Simpson House willing to help others and to assist in contributing to that faith community just as they had done wherever they lived.....

All of us, Ellie and his brothers and other relatives especially, have memories of Paul.    And we hold on to these memories today as a way of consoling us in our grief at the loss of a husband, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, a friend whom we loved.   We want, also, to consider how GOD remembers Paul, Paul’s own service on the altar, Paul’s own study and practice of prayer and of faith,  Paul’s generous sharing of life and service with Ellie,  Paul’s care for those in his family and for others.   These memories, even when some detail is lost can console us.   But in God’s heart these memories are vivid and strong, lively detailed images united with the images of God’s Son Jesus.   As God raises Jesus from the dead, so, too, God’s life-giving memory raises Paul to be with his Lord Jesus.  

Sunny California

No ID needed

I spent my walk time walking through the Presidio Park instead of across this famous bridge.

Facade of St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco

These towers are not unlike some planning renditions for the towers on the 

Church of the Gesu in Philadelphia.   The upper story there was never built.

The Mission Church of Saint Clare of Assisi, Santa Clara University

Campus decor includes hundreds of rose bushes and very many older Fan Palms

Flowers for the Living at Precious Blood Convent Shillington, PA

Sunday Altar at Precious Blood Convent 

(Nathan, the altar server, happy to pose!)

Years ago I said prayers at a church service for the funeral of an older woman whose husband flooded the church with a dozen banks of flowers like these.    But this one bank of flowers was created this weekend by sister sacristan.  She framed it beautifully for a sister celebrating her Jubilee.   The jubilarian, while sick and near death herself, got to enjoy this display in the company of her community.

Pink sky at night, retreatants' delight July 2, 2016

Looking Southwest

Looking Northeast

Say goodbye to the thunder clouds

Looking toward Reading from the east wing, July 1, 8 PM

Mars and the Moon over Jesuit Center June 15, 9:20 PM

My camera identifies the moon as nearly full.   Not quite the truth! But Mars will look as bright to us as it does here at the time of the full moon in a few days.

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A PROSTITUTE WASHES AND ANOINTS THE FEET OF JESUS (Luke 7)

The gospel reading today is a dinner table story.    Such stories resonate with us because of our familiarity with such settings.  For families the dinner table is at least a semi-formal place where certain kinds of behavior are expected.   My brother who was raising three sons set some minimum standards.    Forbidden at the table were motor noises; forbidden were sweeping gestures delivering food to the mouth like airplanes.   At least there was a minimum of formality. 

(After Mass today in a nearby parish the three brothers who served Mass told me that they were not allowed to express their impatience at table if the food was not there when they arrived.   Forbidden were chants such as “We want food, we want food.”)

In today’s reading Jesus takes his place among other guests invited to the dinner table of a Pharisee named Simon.  ….. Simon knows that Jesus is no ordinary traveling rabbi.  Simon has heard stories of his healing miracles and stories of crowds gathering around him to listen to his preaching.  Simon will be paying attention to what Jesus has to say.   It is likely that there would be conversation about religion and scripture...   

(Once as a guest myself, a Jesuit priest at an unfamiliar table, I was teased with the story about the three things that God does not know: how many rosaries the Dominicans have said; how many orders of Franciscans there are and thirdly what the Jesuits are thinking.   I did not feel as free to speak my mind knowing that my host might think that God had not helped me form my opinion.)

……A woman who has heard Jesus preach about God’s love is 

inspired to approach him and enters the dining room. She has guts and she quickly places herself at his feet.  He looks back at her and allows her to wash and anoint his feet.    The conversation stops; Simon, the host, and the other guests are embarrassed that Jesus lets this woman touch his feet, in fact bathe them with her tears and anoint them.  Simon knows she is a sinner and Jesus knows this, too, whether through some special insight or because he has seen her before.

 Jesus uses the incident to talk about how the woman has been forgiven.  Jesus apparently already has told her about God’s mercy and God’s love for her.  Yes, her sins are many but she has found forgiveness and the sign of her love for God is expressed by her tears and her anointing of Jesus’ feet.   Jesus implies that this woman known as a sinner, now loves God more than others like Simon who is known as a righteous person.  “So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

Dinner is over.  Everyone has gone home and prepares for a night’s rest:   for his part Simon is puzzled about Jesus who on his own claims to have a mission from God to forgive sins.   For her part the sinful woman rejoices that God loves her and forgives her and Jesus, as he does each evening, gives thanks to his Father: this evening for the good food and conversation, for the washing and anointing of his feet but most of all for the mission given him by his Father to show the sinful woman and us as well how much we are loved and freed from our sins.