A joyful witness to life and peace

In the midst of a bitter political campaign in the US that sees people failing to respect their opponents, presenting half-truths as proofs, and weaponizing issues, it might be useful to recall a young man of 24 years who died on August 31, 1982 – John Leary.

I met John a few times, mostly when visiting Haley House in Boston when I was a grad student at Boston College. He always came across as a joyful committed young man. He is, in my estimation, a real hero for our times.

Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org

Born and raised in a Connecticut Catholic family, he came to Boston to study at Harvard, but he found himself working with the poor, sometimes sharing his room with them. He was an important part of the Haley House community which serves the poor.

John was also an advocate for peace, speaking out as well as protesting and being arrested two times at a Boston weapons lab.

He lived the seamless garment, also being arrested once at an abortion clinic.

He worked at the Pax Christi Center for Conscience and War with Gordon Zahn. He embodied the love of the poor, the advocacy of a seamless garment of life, and a nonviolent life. He lived the seamless garment of life.

But he was essentially a man of God. He used to pray the Jesus prayer as he jogged. He died, jogging home from the Pax Christi Center to Haley House – probably with the words of the Jesus prayer on his lips.

In the midst of all the hype of an election year, I think we ought to look to John, a man of faith and integrity. The issue is whether we are faithful to Christ Jesus and respond to Christ hidden in the poor and abandoned – from the drunk to the unborn child, from the immigrant to the battered woman, from the abandoned elderly to those who lack the food and medicine for a dignified life.

This demands not just a vote; it demands a commitment to encounter the other as sister or brother, to love our enemies as persons (even when we despise what they say or do), to be with those on the margins – not just with our words, but with our lives.

We are not all going to do this in the same way. For some it will be caring for elderly parents or children with special needs in the home. For some it will mean responding to persons with COVID-19 as a medical professional or as a friend who brings food. For some it will mean going out on the streets (observing protocols of biosecurity, of course) to advocate to immigrants or for black lives threatened by a culture and structure of racism and loathing of the stranger.

But, we ought to do this with love and joy – because we find ourselves rooted in a God of love – who has mercy on sinners, including ourselves.

John Leary exuded joy and peace. May he intercede for us in these dark times. And may we pray the Jesus prayer that he loved so much:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”