“The high might of the Trinity is our father, and the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our mother, and the great love of the Trinity is our Lord.”
- St. Julian of Norwich
After celebrating the 8:00 AM Mass on Memorial Day I took a six-mile run on the Montour Trail. It was great to see everybody out bicycling, fishing, walking and running. Even the sounds of gunfire on the rifle range sounded good this Memorial Day! I had received many invitations for picnics, pool parties and parades. However, sometimes I prefer the down-time and the quiet to take in the higher meaning of the day, namely to remember the great sacrifices of those who served our nation, to bless them and their families and honor the heroism given for America’s freedom. While I was running (albeit keeping a slower pace since my surgery), there was a man bicycling with three little girls towed behind in a small carriage. I thought to myself that to tow one is work, to tow two is a chore, but to tow three is love! Seeing this sight reminded me of the family of God, a Trinity of Love.
Any holiday would be incomplete without a visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor to see Mom. As I walked down the corridor of the hall leading to her unit called “Our Lady of Perpetual Help," I was met by three staff members who frantically told me the news, “Mrs. Jones is missing.” We reconnoitered each room and closet, on the inside and outside of the nursing home. Even the Mother Superior, Sr. Judy Merideth, was searching high and low for Mom. We looked in such places as the greenhouse, the laundry room, the doctors’ offices, therapy rooms, residents’ rooms and lavatories. There were even sisters searching the halls on their motorized scooters.
I went to the second floor accompanied by Brandy, an RN who told me many good stories about Mom. There were security and maintenance men who diligently searched the hillsides around the area in 90 degree heat. Volunteers went through the cars in the parking lot that surrounded the building. Familiar faces and strangers alike went through the outlying areas of the home to look for her, remembering that she wore the patriotic colors of the day: red, white and blue. I even looked in the reconciliation rooms in the chapel, and even Bishop Zubik’s dad, Stanley, helped in the search. This would be one Memorial Day I would not soon forget.
All I could think of was that I hoped Mom was someplace in the cool air-conditioned home after the holiday picnic lunch was over, and not in the oppressive heat of the outdoors. I went up to the choir loft in the chapel, which was sweltering, to hear the residents praying the rosary below. As they prayed, I thought of Blessed Charles de Foucauld who said, “At times of sadness, say your rosary.” I thought about Jesus, who was lost from His own parents, only to be found in the Temple, and also the story of the one lost sheep, one lost coin, and one lost son (Luke 15). Then I thought about what it might be like to have a missing child or even a pet. But in this case it was a missing mother, who, due to her dementia was defenseless and helpless.
I found consolation as I listened to God’s people praying and I joined them in a decade of the rosary in the hope that, through the intercession of the Blessed Mother Mary, Sr. Jean Jugan, the founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor, St. Joseph, our Patron and St. Anthony, Mom would be found.
After a long two and a half hour pursuit I was ready to make a missing persons report with the police to broaden the scope of the search before the nighttime darkness set in. I went back into the chapel to pray for the third time. Upon coming out, I looked at the picture of Pope Benedict XVI and Bishop Zubik and heard the good news that Mom had been found. She had scampered down Benton Avenue only to take an abrupt fall at the corner of Benton and Parviss Street, near the Rite-Aid (almost 3/10 of a mile from Little Sisters). Paramedics were called and she was on her way to Allegheny General Hospital.
Along with our Pastoral Associate, Jim Crable, I flew down to AGH as fast as any ambulance could travel. There I learned that she had been given a CAT scan. She had lacerations on her face and hands, as well as a broken nose. Through puffy and swollen eyes, she spotted me and exclaimed, “Richard, my son! I’m glad you’re here to see me!” I immediately took out my pastoral care book and anointed her with the Sacrament of the Sick. The Chaplain of the Little Sisters, Fr. John A. Geinzer, soon descended upon the room, making the sign of the cross over her forehead and shoulders.
My sister, Patty and her husband Chuck, who had been celebrating their 34th wedding anniversary, arrived and their presence was a great relief to me. They stayed there with Mom until she was moved into a room. As I stood in the emergency room witnessing trauma after trauma on this holiday weekend, I thought to myself that accidents and tragedies occur irrespective of the day. As I stood at the triage desk, I read a sign offering an interpreter for those who spoke various languages: Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew. I said to the intake person, “You are missing one from your list—the one for those who cannot speak at all, and such is the case with Mom.”
On April 29, the Little Sisters of the Poor celebrated their 140th Anniversary with a Mass of Thanksgiving. I was happy to see a picture in the Pittsburgh Catholic last week of residents of the Little Sisters of the Poor along with Bishop Winter celebrating that anniversary. One of the residents in the picture was Mom. A parishioner laminated that picture for me and it is hanging on our refrigerator now. Our prayers were answered, and Mom is back where she belongs in the home of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
On this Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity, we recall the words of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy 4: 39-40 to the Israelite people, “You must keep God’s statutes and commandments, which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land, which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.” As Moses reminded the Israelites that God had chosen them for a special mission and destiny, so too, Jesus gives the Great Commission to his disciples on the mountain where he had summoned them to make disciples of all the nations, wherever they went and to baptize them in the fullness of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28: 16-20).
