LOFTY IDEALS AND LAUDABLE LIVING

This past week the world media highlighted the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and much was said of his famous words "Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your country." Kennedy captured more than the mere spirit of civil service. He expressed a much bigger ideal well beyond the parameters of civil service: service to country and ultimately to others. Kennedy's presidency excelled in communicating lofty, laudable ideals reflecting the best of America.

The media last week focused not only on Kennedy, but also on someone very close to Kennedy who outlived him by forty-six years. Fifty years following the historical moment of Kennedy's speech, a member of the Kennedy extended family passed away. The media carried the news of the death of Sargent Shriver, John Kennedy's brother-in-law married to Eunice Kennedy,the presidents sister. Shriver was the first director of Kennedy's Peace Corps, Job Corps, Vista, Head Start, Upward Bound, architect of President Johnson's War on Poverty, U.S. Ambassador to France, and later in life a recipient of the highest honor a U.S. citizen can receive, the President's Medal of Freedom. It was noted more than once in the media that while President Kennedy espoused high values and virtues, Sargent Shriver actually lived them all his life. That accolade is worthy of reflection.

Sargent Shriver will also be remembered for his faith. He was a devout Catholic and attended mass daily. He lived-out his faith vertically to his Lord and horizontally to his neighbor. The Gospel of John has something to say about that in the poignant description of Jesus (John 1:14): "The Word became flesh, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." It was in the image of Christ that Sargent Shriver, in the flesh and the fulness of his humanity, lived out the noble words of Kennedy concerning service and sacrifice. The principles and ideals spoken by Kennedy became the life long practice of Shriver. This is grace lived out in human agency. The world embraces, or at least gives lip service to those ideals. The world media reflected on the virtues lived out by Shriver with a sense of hope for the future. Such hope yearns for the essence of principles to become reality (flesh, action, alive), to take form once again in real life persons like Sargent Shriver, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Nelson Mandella.

Sargent Shriver walked the talk, was a person who lived out his faith and his most cherished principles. He deserves more attention, because his life is exemplary. In my book, he is a true American hero, a world citizen, and someone whose life is to be studied, discussed, and emulated. In the likeness of Christ, his principles became embodied and lived out, and the world is better for his fidelity to his faith, his life's achievements, and the spirit of his service for others.