10 May 2018 - Thursday of the 6th week of Easter - John 16:16-20

  Jesus tells his disciples: "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.”  They don’t understand what he is talking about.  They murmur amongst themselves.  At the end of today’s reading, Jesus is still very enigmatic, saying: “You will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices;  you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”  The disciples had no idea of where their journey was headed, of what conflicting emotions would be breaking through their hearts. 

    I thought of a person of faith whom we commemorate today.  Walker Percy is one of our great Catholic philosophers and thinkers of the 20th century. When Percy was a child, his father and grandfather committed suicide and his mom died in a tragic car accident, a possible suicide as well. After their deaths, he and his brothers were raised in Greenville, Mississippi by the famous Mississippi Delta Percy family, members of the extended family of his deceased father.  I actually taught at Greenville High School for four years where Walker Percy and the acclaimed Civil War historian Shelby Foote were classmates. After going to medical school, Percy contracted tuberculosis while performing an autopsy. During his recovery, he read a lot of philosophy and made the decision to convert to Catholicism - reminds me a bit of the conversation of Ignatius of Loyola who had a conversion prompted by spiritual readings he undertook while convalescing from battle injuries.   Percy turned to writing both philosophy and fiction.  The Moviegoer, the unexpected winner of the National Book Award in 1960, is one of my favorite books.  I have read it numerous times and hope to read it again sometime soon.  Here is a great quote from this remarkable book: “What is the nature of the search? you ask. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” I think of how we are all on a search for something in our lives, whether we are disciples of Christ or whether we are members of another faith tradition or no religion at all.  If you have not read it, I highly recommend The Moviegoer.