Thursday, May 1, 2020
Robert Mennel
How have you found joy this Easter season?
Joy under Siege
Joy is such an important part of our worship experience and never more important than in the Easter season. This year we find that resurrection and renewal are confronted with a pandemic of death and illness that necessarily requires isolation that feels more like Good Friday. Our faith community has rallied together—clergy. staff, and parish—to form virtual settings for worship and sharing, and these have helped us all to find comfort against the travail.
Another way I have found to kindle joy amidst hardship is to re-visit the past—our own and that of more distant relatives and families. I am current working with my cousins to retell the Mennel stories for our contemporaries and for generations to come.
In my own case, this is about a six-year old boy who attended Church on alternate Sundays with one Nana who was Catholic, and another Gram who was Presbyterian. The contrast between the candles and chanting of the Toledo Cathedral, and the Sunday School’s gold star rewards for memorizing Books of the Bible was evident even to a little fellow. I eventually concluded, however, that the differences were not confusing, but rather illustrations of different paths to faith in God.
Heading backward several generations, I have come to know my great-grandfather Alphonse Mennel who was born in 1849 in Hellimer, in French Lorraine. Alphonse’s family was shattered by death and divorce and he was taken care of and educated by the Catholic Church. Following service in the Franco-Prussian War, he emigrated to Ohio where he achieved success as a flour miller. His first and enduring priority, however, was to seek out his mother and siblings in order to bring his family back together. Whenever possible, he contributed directly to the care of siblings, nieces, and nephews.
So, the message of these historical quests may be that joy can be found and futility overcome by connecting to the faith traditions of our younger selves and our ancestors.