Today I took a friend to the Social Security office to pick up a check. What seem liked a simple task turned into a bureaucratic nightmare for my friend, and we walked out of the waiting room 2 ½ hours later with no check in hand.

I have commented before how we can turn waiting into something positive, and today I had a chance to practice it. This waiting gave me a chance to read more in my book Franz Jägerstätter, Letters and Writings from Prison. Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian conscientious objector who was beheaded by the German military for his refusal to cooperate with the Nazi war effort.

Our renewed resistance for Marquette University to Close the Military Schools on campus have invoked Franz as our patron saint. Some of his words I read today, while waiting, seem relevant for our times.

For example, in 1942, a year before he was killed, he wrote: “It is of course very sad today that so many people do not recognize, or do not want to recognize, the dangerous situation in which we find ourselves. Many people claim to be blameless.” He was, of course, talking about the German wars, but the statement could be applied today to the American wars.

A question Franz asked (we can change the name of the country from Germany to USA): “What kind of Catholic would venture to declare that those military campaigns of plundering, which Germany has undertaken in many lands and is still leading, constitute a just and holy war?”

Another statement he makes that rings true today is: “Doesn’t it seem laughable when people say that no one can truly decide whether the war, which Germany initiated against so many countries, is just or unjust.”

Here is another description of his time and our time: “Today we hear words of consolation, such as ‘Be at peace, and wait patiently.’ People who want to do otherwise are told: ‘Nothing needs to be done.’ Today’s situation and these words of advice are comparable to this imaginary scene. People find themselves in a house that is engulfed by flames, and they hear someone outside the house call to them: ‘Be at peace. The fire will not continue much longer. Soon the entire house will fall down.’ Can someone guarantee the people that they will not suffocate in the smoke before the house collapses and that they will not be struck by the debris as the house falls in?“

The quotes from Franz could go on, but I think you get the point: Reading while waiting in the present can remind us how we fail to learn from the past. “The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind.” Franz speaks to us today if we can listen.

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