Homily

Matt 13:1-23

The Gospel we have just heard is perfect for today. Much of the good done in our lives is a result of the seed sown in our hearts in our days at Saint Albert’s.

Should I talk today of my own days as a student as Saint Albert’s? 1946 to 1951, high school and the first year of college. I had come from Brewster, NY, in those days a sleepy little railroad town that could have passed for the home of Lil Abner. There was one basketball court in town - in the high school. There were two baseball fields. One at the high school for their use and one called the Electrozone Field which was reserved for the big boys on Sunday afternoons. I came to Saint Albert’s with a gym downstairs in our dorm building and a ball field that was lying there just waiting for us to come out and play. To me, it was heaven on earth.

It was a broadening experience because of the students coming from all over the east. We got a great education and some extras. Gerard McCarthy was the dullest teacher and he taught right after lunch but he gave to a good number of us a love of reading and literature. Vincent McDonald gave many a taste for classical music that turned into a love. Alphonsus Galligan so taught us German that I remember much of it to this day. If we had time, I could even sing a little "Du, Du lichts mir im herzen." They were happy days when we looked forward to going home for vacation and while at home, looked forward to returning.

Or should I talk of my tenure on the faculty, 1967 to 1976? I arrived here on July 16, 1967 to a place that was in the throes of renovation preparing classrooms and carrels for team teaching. The first floor of O’Connor Hall was being prepared for dorms. Somehow or other, everything came together and we were ready for school that September.

Those were the days when most of you were students at Saint Albert’s.

I tried in team teaching to have in each group a protagonist who differed in opinion from myself. Needless to say, Bob Linderman was one of these. I knew which buttons to press to get him going. Over the years, Lindy and I became good friends but I was surprised to learn that he never caught on how helpful he was to promoting group discussions. Team teaching was just that: it relied on yourselves helping to teach yourselves. It was a beautiful display of cooperation.

I learned from Doc Keller that the Venetian blinds in a room need not be at a certain level nor do all those in a room have to be at the same level. I learned from you very quickly what are the important things in life.

I also learned that nothing is sacred. I remember the day when Doc came into the lecture room and began an imitation of myself giving a lecture. I also remember the day Lindy came into the classroom with a pipe in his mouth and puffing out the talcum powder he had filled the pipe with. I think we got along rather well.

My memory also recalls a plastic fireplug being placed outside my room and some jokester put a little puddle around its bottom edge trying to accuse poor Rusty of an indiscretion. I also thought that this again showed the good relationships that existed among us.

Another indication of this was Paul Crowley, known affectionately as Lurch, taking orders from others on the freshman corridor for ice cream that he went down to Carvel’s in the Playtogs Plaza to buy.

Looking back to that teaching tenure at Saint Albert’s, I must say that the most important innovation of that time was group dynamics. I feel I can speak with some certainty on this because not only were we group leaders but we also had our own group that met with Doctor Casella. The most important thing it did was to create a sense of self awareness enabling all of us to know who we are and what we wanted to do in life. It helped us to bear the rough edges of others and to understand that each of us had rough edges too. It brought forth in us a sense of community that enabled us to act as one at the appropriate times.

In trials in my own life, it was the group experience that brought me through to this day because it had made me well aware that I am a Carmelite and a priest. Those completing their training today have a noticeable void in their character created by their lack of group dynamics or a similar program.

You helped and covered each other in housework and in school work. You learned teamwork and dependence on one another in playing together under the tutelage of Coach Pavlik. You learned to live without some of the comforts you had at home. When we went overnight on the Delaware, you learned to live as the Native Americans lived, with just the basic necessities. You learned the three R’s and you have diplomas to prove that and also your further education.

I am currently trying to write an e book on the Carmelite formation and education that those of my generation went through. I came the other day to a road block. How we were formed into what we became is the most difficult thing to put on paper. I have listed for my student period at Saint Albert’s all the religious exercises we had, the various liturgical dramas we put on and the periods of prayer that were made available to us. We were formed by these things but how, I cannot tell. I think the same is true for each of you. There was something intangible you received in your days at Saint Albert’s. It formed you in some way. How, we do not know. We do know, however, that it is the seed of great value that was sown in our hearts.

Alfred Isacsson, O. Carm.

July 9, 2005