Tonight WTU bids farewell to Ken Himes, OFM who leaves us to Chair the Theology Department in Boston.
Ken Hime’s Christian Moral Life was the first class I took at WTU. It was the first graduate theology class I took in a “Catholic” institution to which I found myself as an adult in faith. I remember that his warmth and personality impressed upon me two things
First, that I was truly in the right place studying what I was meant to be studying. Another student, years later, related to me a very good way of expressing this feeling: “Ken made you feel good about being Catholic (again).” It was BOTH the good and the again that really touched upon a felt history of experience of the struggles that emerge in living a life of faith, and to the particulars of living this particular Christian way of life. Ken brought back the wholesomeness of its original promise.
Second, Ken provided a very succinct sense of discipleship and mission. This was stretched out over two semesters from Moral Theology (how to be a disciple) to Catholic Social Ethics (how to preach the Gospel today). But really, it could be succinctly expressed as “falling in love.” Not just conversion as perhaps some sort of quasi-mystical or radical life altering experience, but a very today-ness simplicity of living in a loving world as lovable people in love with one another.
Who is the Other? Threat or Gift.
Only YOU can answer "I love you" as the measurement of such a gift.
Only YOU can answer "I love you" as the measurement of such a gift.
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