reflection for the fourth week of Lent - Knights of Columbus and Father Karl Rahner

      This week, my attention was drawn to the reflections in the Little Black Book for March 29 and March 30 that we have been using here at our parish this season of Lent.  On March 29, 1882, 140 years ago, the Connecticut state legislature officially chartered the Knights of Columbus. This made the Knights of Columbus an official organization according to the laws of the land.  Several months earlier, in October of 1881, Father Michael Joseph McGivney and male parishioners of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic church in New Haven, Connecticut had founded the organization as a fraternal mutual benefit society. In addition to focusing on charitable works, the Knights of Columbus established a life insurance program to provide for the widows and orphans of deceased members. Little did those members know that the Knight of Columbus would become such an influential organization worldwide.  

      At the time of the founding of the Knights of Columbus, an influx of new immigrants to the US had intensified a prejudicial attitude toward outsiders. Since many of the early immigrants to the US were Protestant, many viewed Catholicism as a foreign, unwelcome influence. With this in mind, Father McGivney proposed that the new society be called the Sons of Columbus. By taking the name of Christopher Columbus, who was celebrated as one the first European explorers of the “New World,” the Knights would demonstrate that Catholics, too, embraced American values. Ultimately, the group chose Knights of Columbus rather than Sons of Columbus for the sense of dignity and purpose that it conferred.

       As a priest, I have always had a close connection to the Knights of Columbus and am a big supporter of that organization.  I think of the joy the Knights of Columbus bring to our parish each Friday evening during Lent at our fish fries.  I think of all the help the Knights of Columbus of the Jackson metro area have given to the Carmelite nuns.  We are very thankful for our Knights of Columbus here at St Jude.

       For the reflection for March 30, the Little Black Book reflection upon Father Karl Rahner, a German Jesuit theologian and priest who was one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century.  Rahner was born in 1904 in the Grand Duchy of Baden in the German empire and died in Innsbruck, Austria on March 30, 1984.  Many of the documents of the Second Vatican Council were influenced by his theology and his understanding of the Catholic faith, particularly in the documents Lumen Gentium, Dei Verbum, and Gaudium et Spes.  Karl Rahner once said this: “In the midst of our lives, of our freedom and our struggles, we have to make a radical, absolute decision. And we never know when lightening will strike us out of the blue. It may be when we least expect to be asked whether we have the absolute faith and trust to say yes.” He also said this about the work of the theologian: “The task of the theologian is to explain everything through God, and to explain God as unexplainable.”

      As we continue our journey during Lent, may we give thanks for all those Catholic organizations and individuals who have had a positive influence on our journey of faith.