Student Zach Ulmer, left, portrays St. Ambrose during Mass at St. Ambrose University’s Christ the King Chapel in Davenport as Father Dale Mallory, Bishop Dennis Walsh and the congregation look on.
By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — Reflecting on the readings of Dec. 7, the feast of St. Ambrose, Father Bud Grant asked what the kingdom of God is, and what will it look like.
Bishop Dennis Walsh presided over the feast day Mass at St. Ambrose University’s Christ the King Chapel. The liturgy was concelebrated by Father Grant, Father Dale Mallory, school chaplain, and Father George McDaniel, a retired professor.
In Isaiah, “it is not all sweet, perfect and pure,” said Father Grant, who co-founded the Academy for the Study of St. Ambrose of Milan and is a professor of theology at the university. The reading offers “beautiful imagery, but it has a dark tint.”
The future Messiah or savior is envisioned as a warrior with a mission to destroy, the priest said. Isaiah was written during a time of threat, he noted. “The image that Isaiah asked didn’t bear out the way he wanted it to.”
In Matthew’s Gospel, John the Baptist is preaching wrath and violence, using sarcasm and insult and frightening people. This is the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. “Thank God he got it all wrong,” Father Grant said. When Jesus set foot in the Jordan River to be baptized by John, it all changed. “This is not what John was expecting.”
The priest feels St. Ambrose would have thought of this differently. He pointed out a banner of St. Ambrose that was carried in a procession at Mass. It was delivered the day before and designed by alum Chris Mandle. In the center of the banner is St. Ambrose drawn in the style of Father Edward Catich, an artist who taught at the university for many years.
“You see Ambrose as a young, fearless man. This is an Ambrose like us,” Father Grant said. To one side is Christ the King Chapel and the other side is the tower on the library. “Faith and reason connect the two. Not one or the other, but both entwined,” he noted. There are two young students with technology, including a cell phone. The words “Fons Luminis” or “Source of Light” are written below.
Bishop Dennis Walsh presides at Mass on the feast of St. Ambrose earlier this month at St. Ambrose University’s Christ the King Chapel in Davenport. Fathers Dale Mallory, left, Bud Grant and George McDaniel (not pictured) concelebrated.
Father Grant noted Mandle’s work was based on a 15th Century work in Milan, but there, Ambrose is portrayed knocking down two warriors.
“So what does the kingdom of God look like? It looks like us here,” Father Grant said. The world was a very dangerous place when Paul wrote his letter. And still today, “the world is not a very safe place, especially if you are a marginalized person. What does the kingdom of God look like? It looks like we who have faith, standing up with Christ and with St. Ambrose. People of faith, we are the light of Christ. We are the kingdom of God — now and forever. And if the Church doesn’t see it, then it’s because we’re not doing our job. And if you don’t see it, it’s because you are not looking carefully enough around you and within you.”
“We are supposed to see Christ in ourselves first — wounded, impure and not perfect,” the priest said. When we see Christ in ourselves, he said, “We can see Christ in one another.”
Father Grant then returned to pondering Ambrose, a saint who he said connects faith and reason. Reflecting on the second reading from Romans, what links us together is the “mercy of God. We recognize for ourselves that we can be forgiven. Please open your heart,” the priest told the congregation.
When we recognize that we are forgiven “it feels awesome,” he said. When we accept the mercy of God and embrace the forgiveness of God, we become a people of peace; a people of the light, according to Father Grant.
The theology professor encouraged those at the Mass to extend themselves to those on the fringes. “It’s the outcast, the marginalized who are the light of Christ. And the kingdom of God will indeed be manifest. We are the kingdom of God and we ought to be because it’s pleasant. It’s encouraging to look back like a child who runs out in front from his parents. But then checks back to make sure they are still behind him.”
“When John looked back,” Father Grant said, “we looked back at the first Nativity so that we can take peace and consolation and comfort in the birth of Christ, the Messiah and look forward to the future.”
He asked the congregation to look around them. “You are seeing the kingdom of God. You are seeing the light of God. You are seeing Christ’s presence.”
As Mass concluded, junior Zach Ulmer, a mechanical engineering major and theater minor, dressed up to portray St. Ambrose. Standing in front of the congregation, he spoke of the influence St. Ambrose had on the Church. He informed his listeners that St. Ambrose was not even baptized when he was called upon to become a bishop.
Portraying the saint he said, “We share a common duty to seek wisdom, to pursue justice, to persist in courage, to serve with generosity and to show God’s mercy.”
