Memory and Gratitude, by Francis X. Maier

The problem with Christians, Charles Péguy (reportedly) once said, is that they don’t believe what they believe.  It’s a clever line.  Whether he actually said it, I have no idea.  But it doesn’t matter.  Because either way, the words are true.  Until we suffer for what we believe, or have our hearts changed by the witness of others who suffer, our faith is untested and aspirational; a matter of good intentions.  Which brings me to my best friend Joe.

The father of eight and a former Marine, Joe is a classic command personality: rational, organized, and driven to perform.  He spent the closing decades of his career as the president/CEO of two successive multibillion-dollar companies, and the skills it took to get and stay there, he learned in the Corps.  For 13 months in 1967-68, Joe led a Marine infantry company in the Dong Ha area, just south of the DMZ and hard against the North Vietnamese border.  Enemy activity was high.  Thus, along with normal patrolling, Joe had civil affairs duties, befriending and securing the local population.  As it turned out, many of the local Vietnamese were Catholic, like Joe.  And that’s how he met Father Paul.  …