Yesterday I was saddened to hear of the passing of Cardinal Avery Dulles, with whom I literally had a nodding acquaintance. Later in the day I heard of the passing of famous pin-up girl, Bettie Page.
This morning, in a juxtaposition worthy of Our Lady of Vilnius, the two noteworthies each command half of the same obituary page in the print version of The New York Times.
Yes, gentle reader, this is kind of how it looked. These are the photos that illustrated each obit.
And this is the setting where I imagine their meeting of the minds:
And in my imagination, Cardinal Dulles sits across the table from Bettie Page, now modestly attired in a trenchcoat. They are sipping coffee or tea from paper cups and talking quietly and earnestly. Dorothy Day is walking across the room to join them. Avery Dulles is wearing the same bemused smile we see in the photograph.
Our Lady of Vilnius is the place where I could see most clearly that we all have our places in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In it's shabby display of history accumulated rather than preserved, it provided a setting for all possibilities, a place where no work of the Holy Spirit would be too surprising.
Let us pray for the motley crew of souls who departed this earth yesterday, so much like us. And let us ask them to help our community and its unique spiritual heritage survive.