Archbishop Dolan's Thought for the Week

October 14, 2008 - Year of St. Paul

Dear Friends united in love and service of Jesus Christ and His Church:

A wise priest, my pastor growing-up, once told me, “Tim, you’ll know you’re getting old when you enjoy autumn more than the other seasons.”

Well, don’t tell anybody, but I guess I’m there!

This is my seventh fall in Wisconsin, and I bask in the crisp air, royal blue skies, bracing breezes and symphony of colors. It’s as if nature is resisting the onslaught of winter; wanting to preserve the life and growth of spring and summer. Nature will lose this battle -- although win us some time to at least get ready for the ice and snow -- but will win the war, because spring will again triumph.

Autumn also preaches about the providence of a loving God who tenderly orders the precision of the universe. The symphony of nature is so uplifting that one wants to give the Cosmic Conductor a standing ovation! The dance of nature moving gingerly from summer to winter is so hypnotic that we want the Divine Choreographer to come out for a curtain call!

Our lives are seasonal, too, aren’t they? We are always in flux. Because fall is a transitional time, it can serve as a reflection of the movements in our lives:
       birth and death;
       work and unemployment;
       health to sickness;
       love to loneliness;
       grace or sin;
       hope or despair;
       settled-in or “on the move” ;
       prosperity or recession;
       peace or war.

But we have a paradox, don’t we? Yes, nature is always in flux, but we also know there is a rock, a stability, a reliability, an anchor that gives nature and the seasons an order and predictability. So, while autumn tells us that nature is in transition, it also hints at the eternal law at the core of reality.

So it is with our lives. They go up-and-down, they are in flux. At times there are shattering changes in our lives. But, at the deepest level of reality and meaning, we discover a firm foundation, an “unmoved-mover,” an immutable base: a loving, caring, omniscient, omnipotent, providential God.

Fall showcases a tree that is transfigured before our eyes, but it remains a tree.

Life is a series of changes. The servant of God, Cardinal John Henry Newman, observed, “In the next life it will not be so, but here, to live is to change, and to live long is to change often.”

Yet, like that work of art, a tree in autumn, life maintains a constant identity, a reliable rooting, in the Lord and in Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

Enjoy the Cathedral of fall!

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

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