Living the Gospel with a Cheerful Heart: An Introduction to the Life of Fr. Horace B. McKenna, S.J.

For many, he was a prophetic challenge. For others, he was simply a delightful older priest who kept everyone laughing. For the poor and homeless throughout Washington, D.C., he was the one person they could always count on. But for all who knew him, Horace McKenna, the Jesuit priest and friend of the poor, was a living saint, a true witness to the gospel, a Christ-figure. He is not easily forgotten, first and foremost, by the poor whom he served. For them he offered the good news of Godís peace and dignity and justice. For the rest of us, struggling to live the Gospel, he showed us what it meant to be a Christian. Indeed, he showed us how to be human with one another.

I never met Horace McKenna, but I grew up in Washington, D.C. hearing about his good works. His death at the age of 83 in May, 1982, came a few months before I entered the Jesuits, and I was able to attend his funeral. I was impressed by the many people who flocked to bid him farewell - rich and poor, black and white, young and old, women and men. "We are bound together in our love and affection for Father Horace," the preacher observed that day. "We are one today because of him. In his own person, he had broken down all lines, barriers, and distinctions between us. He is our reconciler, mediator, and peacemaker. He is the door through whom we pass to friendship with one another."

When Horace was born on January 2, 1899 in New York City, his parents had difficulty winning the approval of the parish priest for the new baby's name. Horace father explained that everyone is named "John James" or "James John." And he wanted to "break the routine." "But there's no Saint Horace," the priest said, referring to the custom that children be named after saints. "He'll be the first!" retorted Mr. McKenna.

Horace entered the Society of Jesus on July 30, 1916. At the Jesuit novitiate, he prayed through St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises and diligently studied Greek and Latin. Between 1921 and 1923, he taught in a Jesuit school in Manilla, in the Philipines. There, he discovered the desperate needs of the poor and oppressed. After theology studies, he was ordained a priest, in 1929. His first assignment was a small parish in southern Maryland, among the poor blacks of the region. He stayed for twenty years, from 1931 until 1953, pastoring St. Peter Claver's Church, St. James' Church, St. Ignatius' Church and St. Inigoes'.

Southern Maryland, a land of milk and honey and natural beauty, boiled over with racism and poverty. The entire region, like most of the country, was segregated - including the churches. Horace began the work of racial justice and reconciliation which Martin Luther King, Jr. later advocated in the civil rights movement. With his friend, Richard McSorley, S.J. and Mike Kavanaugh, S.J., Horace continued to push for integration and better relations between blacks and whites into the early 50ís. In the midst of death threats, violent accusations and much anger, he helped to bring about reconciliation through his compassionate and loving presence.

From 1953 to 1958, he served at St. Aloysius Gonzaga parish, a Jesuit church a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. After a few years as assistant pastor at the Church of the Gesu in Philadelphia from 1958 to 1964, he returned to St. Al's and remained there for the rest of his life, serving the poor. "There were plenty of poor people around in those days ," Horace later recalled, "but of course there always are, if you keep your eyes open."

"We have to learn to love other men and women in the depths of their spirits," he said often, "even if they are in an African Village, a Brazilian mountaintop, or some Himalayan valley. We have to realize that as a human being, any person is a brother or sister to Jesus, and so is intimately related to us, and we must have sympathy for him or her and must make an effort to help that person, whether it is by prayer, or by teaching or by social action of some sort." Such was Horace's message, which he offered to any who listen.

Through his years serving and defending the poor of Washington, D.C., Horace helped found such works as S.O.M.E. (So Others Might Eat, a soup kitchen, clinic, housing and job program), "Sursum Corda" (a housing project located near the U.S. Capitol) and Martha's Table, (a soup kitchen and center fro homeless women). Horace became a common figure in the city, the leading advocate of the poor, and the friend that the poor could always trust. Stories are told about the many homeless people who often turned to Horace on cold winter nights with no place else to go, and were allowed to sleep in one of the Jesuitsí cars. One homeless man, applying for some government program, when asked for his legal residence, replied, "The back seat of Father McKenna's car."

Horace was reknown in the parish for his one-minute homilies, dramatically checked at times from the pulpit with a raised stopwatch. He was eminently quotable, always offering little gems of insight into the Gospel. His friends included a host of homeless and poor folks across the city, as well as such stellar lights as Imagene Stewart, the dynamic and inspiring preacher and pastor of the Church of What's Happening Now, and Dorothy Day.

But Horace's life was not without difficulty, His religious superiors refused to allow him to be part of the famous March on Washington in 1963, where Dr. King proclaimed his dream for a just society. Because he refused to support Humanae Vitae, the papal encyclical dealing with birth control, his priestly faculties were temporarily suspended. He refused to criticize church leaders, but held his ground citing the day-to-day encounters with the poor, and the realities of their struggle.

During the Vietnam war, he marched in anti-war demonstrations in Washington. "When war is so general as it is now, and putting up a defense means killing on a wholesale scale, that is simply organized murder, and it is useless," he said later, regarding the prospect of nuclear war. "In purely personal matter, one should act upon the Sermon on the Mount and turn the other cheek, which means relying on the goodness of God to soften the assailant or support the sufferer - but in matters of modern war, that's not enough. The Bishops," Horace said a few years before the pastoral letter on peace, "have to come out and speak against wholesale obliteration, which is atomic war."

In the summer of 1968, Horace spent a lot of time on the Mall with thousands of rural people who had traveled across the country to come to Washington, D.C. and to take a stand for justice. The Poor Peoples' Campaign had been Dr. King's dream, but he did not live to see it. Horace was 69 years old, but he slept outdoors in that hot summer heat with the people, and talked with them at length during the day. In that way, he became a member of "Resurrection City."

Throughout his last years of life, Horace retained an openness and a tolerance that continued to make him younger in spirit with each passing day. In his late 70ís, Horace started to study liberation theology, supported the ordination of women and attended a workshop on ministry to the gay community. As one priest remarked: "It was amazing to see one so open as he was at his age. He was an old priest, but he was so with it at the same time."

Horace had "a truly Christian attitude of mind in his dealings with everybody - even people with whom he disagreed. He was always very kind and patient. He disagreed with people, but he was just a very charitable man." "I have never heard him voice ill-will against any person," said another friend. "He was always delightful, so cheerful and chipper. Many people put a guilt trip on you and are party poopers in dealing with the problems of life and religion, but Horace always used sugar instead of vinegar in his approach. He was always affirming. He cared about people. He was all the good things that count."

Horace said at one point toward the end of his life: "When God lets me into heaven, I think Iíll ask to go off in a corner somewhere for half an hour and sit down and cry because the strain is off, the work is done and I havenít been unfaithful or disloyal. All these needs that I have known are in the hands of Providence and I wonít have to worry any longer whoís at the door, whose breadbox is empty, whose baby is sick, whose house is shaken and discouraged, and whose children canít read."

Horace left an example to all of us, an example of how to be human with each other, how to serve those in need, how to serve those in need, how to share our lives with those in need. He was faithful to the Gospel mission of loving others, reconciling people, making peace and following Jesus. He saw Christ present in the homeless and the poor. Indeed, he saw every human being as his very own sister and brother, a child of God. His life is a testament of service and commitment, of love and peacemaking, of speaking the truth and working for justice. He served the poor, said his prayers, laughed with his friends, and died with a deep belief in God.

Today Father McKenna's work is continues at the McKenna Center, the drop-in center and shelter for the homeless at St. Aloysius Church in Washington D.C. Those who follow Horace's example encounter the passion of Jesus played out before their eyes every day. Christ comes: homeless, broke, without friends, evicted, unemployed, wanted, an illegal refugee, a torute victim from Guatemala of South Africa, a mother with nine children and no food, an AIDS victim, an alcoholic or drug addict, a victim of violence. In these poor, Christ comes back as he did to Horace. Today, however, the struggle to survive - the reality of life - is even more difficult for the poor. Nearly 15,000 people are currently homeless in Washington, D.C.

Horace would be appalled at this and would surely be working hard to reverse the situation. He would take up where he left off: to stand in solidarity with the poor and homeless; to demand money for adequate housing and food for the poor; and to work for the creation of a nonviolent, just society.

May we continue to be enriched by the life and witness of Horace McKenna and may he help us to see Christ in the poor and in each other.