Bearing Faithful Witness
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor 13:4-7, RSVCE)
These beautiful and consoling words were written by St. Paul to an early Christian community that was struggling to remain faithful while suffering from external threats and internal divisions. This has been a hallmark of faithful discipleship from the earliest days of the Church.
In our own day each of us, individually and collectively, experiences the same tensions and the same frustrations in bearing faithful witness to the Gospel of Jesus. We know that we live in times of contest and conflict and that good people, even in the household of faith, often struggle to find common cause.
St. Paul’s words also remind us that we must not be defined by our conflicts but rather by our vocation to love which is the only path that will lead us to eternal union with God.
Sycamore Trust seeks to fulfill its mission as members of the Notre Dame community by sharing in the mission of our beloved university to bring the fullness of the Gospel to every aspect of human learning at the service of the authentic and inviolable dignity of every human being. Times of crisis and trial remind us that love, as it is so marvelously described by St. Paul, must animate all that we do. Recent events that we have followed have made this point so evidently clear to us.
The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, a uniquely qualified legal scholar and jurist, a devoted wife and mother, a woman of profound Catholic faith and a beloved member of the Notre Dame community, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court is a cause of exceeding joy for us at Sycamore Trust. We unite with believers and non-believers who have followed her career and who fervently hope that she will be confirmed as a member of the nation’s highest court.
We are also keenly aware that in close proximity to the moving ceremony in the Rose Garden formally announcing her nomination, several persons have subsequently tested positive for the Covid-19 virus, including the President of the United States and the First Lady, Donald and Melania Trump, and our own Notre Dame president, Rev John I. Jenkins, CSC.
It is in this spirit of sacrificial love that we invite all who share in our mission to unite with us in prayer for the speedy and full recovery of these and all who continue to suffer from the coronavirus and all its consequent effects in terms of health, welfare and wellbeing.
We turn to Notre Dame, Our Mother, with humility and with confidence, and ask her to direct us always to Jesus, her Son, who strengthens and reconciles all who are willing to surrender to His merciful love.
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