Faith in adversity

I finally found the time to read a book given to me by a friend. The book True Compass is the posthumous memoir of the late US Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy which came out more than a year ago, underscoring the underlying theme of faith that becomes Kennedy’s anchor during the most difficult moments of his life. The book inevitably describes how the US version of “The Royal Family” survived the many tragedies they endured. Some people even say it was actually a “curse” that befell the most famous American family.

In his book, Ted Kennedy openly talks about the assassination of his brothers Jack (whom he describes as almost like a second father) and Bobby one after the other as the darkest moments in his life, admitting that, “…months and years after Bobby’s death, I tried to stay ahead of the darkness. I drove my car at high speeds; I relentlessly worked myself to the bone in the Senate… I sometimes drove my capacity for liquor to the limit.”

But perhaps more than the assassination of his famous brothers, the one that haunted Ted the most (and cost him his presidential bid) was the Chappaquiddick tragedy that killed Mary Jo Kopechne, and for which atonement has become a never-ending process. The incident “haunts me every day of my life,” he admits — but it was his faith that became his “lifesaver.” “It has given me strength and purpose during the greatest challenges I have faced, the roughest roads I have traveled,” he reveals in his book.

While Kennedy suffered “alienation” from the Catholic Church because of his support of abortion, the “Last American Prince” never lost his Catholic faith. One could even say that the sufferings he went through only served to strengthen his belief in God, much like a drowning man who would cling to the last vestiges of hope even when all seemed to be lost.

But actually it was the strength of his mother, Rose Kennedy, a devout Catholic (who died at the age of 104) whom Ted Kennedy acknowledged as the one single person who “sustained us in the saddest times by her strong faith in God, which was the greatest gift she gave us.”

When his daughter Kara was struggling with cancer and was being treated at a hospital, Kennedy would go alone to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston and kneel down in deep prayer asking for help from his Creator. Fr. Charles Creedon, who delivered the opening prayer at Kennedy’s funeral in the same church, described the late US Senator as a very religious man who would ask him for spiritual guidance during the darkest episodes of his life. And when Ted himself was stricken with cancer and already too frail to go to church, Creedon would travel to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port to give the Senator communion — a sign that Catholics recognize as a singular manifestation of one’s faith in God. 

When a man is faced by the greatest adversity and misfortune, one’s belief in God would either diminish or become even stronger; either you cling to the Lord or choose to repudiate Him as you struggle for survival and your very life. This is probably what happened to Chilean miner Mario Sepulveda as he described the ordeal that he and the 32 others who were trapped for two months went through: “I have been with God and I have been with the devil . . . I seized the hand of God. I always knew God would set us free,” he said.

It would have been so easy for the Chilean miners to lose hope and give in to panic and despair as they lay trapped 2,300 feet under the ground, as the hours turned into days and the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, it almost seemed certain they would be written off as literally being buried alive. But like Ted Kennedy, it was their deep faith in God that saw them through as they all prayed for deliverance. 

And as the whole world now has come to know, it was their enduring faith in the Almighty that sustained them, their hopes kept alive by prayers as the men turned a section of the pit into a makeshift chapel where they constantly prayed. No doubt the eventual presence of their families and the knowledge that the people of Chile (70 percent of whom are Catholics) were praying for their safety kept their spirits strong and their hopes alive.

Just how deeply ingrained their faith had become could be seen at how the men knelt in thanksgiving the minute they set foot on higher ground once more, before embracing their wives and loved ones. As one goes through accounts of the rescue and those of us who watched it live on CNN, we were all struck by a particular description of a camera attached to the top of the rescue capsule that captured a blindingly white light piercing through the darkness as it approached the surface — reminiscent of the white light described by people who have gone through a “near death experience.”

When one finally comes to terms with his inevitable demise, it is really what you have done during your lifetime — whether good or bad — that will ultimately judge where you will go. In the end, it is your faith that will make you ready to accept the line in the Lord’s prayer: “Thy will be done.”

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