Like so many Americans who lived through the madness of November 22, 1963, I spent a substantial amount of time today reflecting on President Kennedy's assassination. Eleven years old and in the six grade, I remember my seat in the second row in a classroom of my parish school, administered and taught by the religious sisters of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Three priests were in active residence for a very active parish of mostly French Canadian immigrants and first and second generation families.
Soon after lunch, Sr. Anne left the room quickly. We listened to hushed voices in the hallway. Kids know when something is reallywrong and we did. When she returned a few minutes later, Sr. Anne said "President Kennedy has just been shot in Dallas, Texas. Let's take a minute to pray for the president." We just about made it through a numb Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary when Sr. Anne once again hurried into the hall and returned about ten seconds later. "President Kennedy died. School is dismissed. Please pack your school bags and go directly home."
No one spoke. Older siblings collected their younger brothers and sisters. We all walked home in huddled little groups where we were met by our weeping mothers who hugged us, fed us Campbell Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches as we all watched the historical first day of live media coverage on a small black and white television set with rabbit ears.
This was the beginning of our visual fascination with what we cerebrally reject as loathsome but that from which our psyche cannot turn away - human suffering. Do we objectify hardship as creative technology offers us minute to minute pictures of horrific events with narrated details as they unfold?
I do know that when America learned of the death of its 35th president, the images of national grief offered a pictorial description of the prophet Jeremiah's words: "This is what the Lord says: "A voice is heard in Ramnah, mourning and great weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." America refused to be comforted because John Kennedy was no more. I saw the same kind of grief on 9/11/01.
As media has prepared for this national day of remembrance, more than one opinions page claims that innocence died in America 50 years ago. In our era of immediate news, the same wrathful images flash before us faster than the speed of sound on a daily basis. Unlike 50 years ago, we've come to expect the ravages of horrendous deeds, the dehumanizing altercations caused by a wounded, fractured world, a very different world than what we knew 50 years ago. At the same time, technology gives us access to the community that John Kennedy sought to create in his thousand days in office - a sense of one nation, under God, indivisible, with justice for all. The word attempted to create an idol out of this charismatic president. John Kennedy reminded us often that he was a man and a servant of the people and encouraged us to use our hearts, our intellects and our collective wisdom to create change for the common good.
So many of us were prompted to plunge into community service after JFK's inaugural address, the epitome of the kind of gorgeous rhetoric that can transform mere words into a life changing event. "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country" defined the Kennedy administration's leadership in matters of social awareness, civil rights, expansion of the arts and education, scientific achievement, just wages and equal opportunities for all peoples and service as a duty for every any person privileged to be an American citizen. John Kennedy, the first Catholic president in United States history reminded us that "the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." (Innaugural address)
On the day of John Kennedy's assassination, the Second Vatican Council ratified by a landslide majority vote the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium). In its introduction, the Constitution states that "the sacred council has set out to impart an ever increasing vigor (a favorite word of JFK) to the Christian lives of the faithful; to adapt more closely to the needs of our age those institutions which are subject to change; to encourage whatever can promote the union of all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever serves to call all of humanity into the church's fold." 50 years later, a marvelous juxtaposition of the legacies of John Kennedy and John XXIII still provide us with profound vision and as much meaning as they did a half century ago. Both church and state continue to seek ways to be what God intends for all creation - to be fully human and in the service of one another with love that may be found in works of peace, mercy and justice.
"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." (JFK, inaugural address)