Daily Archives: May 29, 2025

Naval Special Warfare

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I enjoy reading. While I read scriptural and spiritual books, I also read for my own entertainment, enlightenment, or just because that looks interesting. I just finished a book by Benjamin H. Milligan entitled, “By Water Beneath the Walls: The Rise of the Navy Seals.”  It is not a collection of SEAL war stories, although such accounts are present in the book to the extent they serve a larger question. The author is addressing a question of history, policy and “the way things turn out.” Here’s the question:

How did the US Navy – the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans – ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one the world’s most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and even Central Africa.  Behind the SEAL’s improbable rise lies the most remarkable underdog story in American military history.

Mr. Milligan served with the SEALs for 8 years and it was a question that was in his mind as he operated. “So, how did this happen? How did the US Navy create a unit whose operational center of gravity is not only directed at a mission performed on 29% of the earth’s surface that its ships cannot touch, but on so fraught with difficulties that most units of the Army and Marine Corp – the US military’s tradition tenants of its land operations – are not able to perform it with any where near the same proficiency?”

You might be thinking “didn’t the Underwater Demolition Teams (UTD) just become the SEALs?” Hardly. The history is fascinating, convoluted, and even involves the CIA. It was a fascinating account, well researched and written. It is not a story that unfolds in a straight line, but runs through Little Creek VA, Ft. Pierce FL, Coronado CA, North Africa, Saipan, Korea, Vietnam, mainland China, and an itinerary that covers the globe.

And as it happens, 50 years ago Naval Special Warfare Group ONE was formed with its headquarters on Coronado Island, California. NSWG consists of Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) and Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC). NSWG-1’s legacy builds on a rich history of naval special operations dating back to 1942, when the Amphibious Scouts and Raiders and the Naval Demolition Unit were formed to conduct critical missions during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. These units laid the foundation for the modern SEAL teams. 

If you enjoy military history, it is well worth the read.

Persistence

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Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a glimpse into the ordinary life of Saint Paul and how God’s extraordinary grace works through very human circumstances.

Paul arrives in Corinth, a bustling, morally complex city (a nice way of saying it was a typical naval port town). Apart from its activities in support of Mediterranean trade and shipping, because of its international flavor it was a center of a wide variety of temples. One of the larger communities was Jewish, in part because of political persecution in Rome. It is there that Paul  meets Aquila and Priscilla, refugees from Rome. It seems as though they met in the course of their ordinary work: tentmakers. Of course, we remember them as great evangelizers.

This passage reminds us that evangelization often begins and happens in the ordinary. Paul’s partnership with Aquila and Priscilla is not just practical—it’s providential. It’s a reminder for us: our workplaces, our homes, our daily routines can become sacred spaces if we allow God to work through them.

Later in the passage, we see Paul’s persistent preaching. Despite rejection in the synagogue, he doesn’t give up. He simply moves next door, to the house of Titius Justus. And what happens? Crispus, the synagogue leader, comes to believe in the Lord, along with his entire household. Paul’s endurance, guided by the Spirit, bears fruit—just not in the way or place he may have first expected.

Paul is “kicked out” of Corinth, but he has sown the seeds of faith. Someone else will harvest the fruit of his work – as it often is and will be.

So, what does this mean for us? Few of us are preachers, but your example of faith in your job, in your family, or among your neighbors, can touch hearts. Maybe you’re facing rejection or disappointment, but, like Paul, be persistent; don’t give up. New possibilities exist in the very next session of ordinary. And don’t convince yourself that your life is too ordinary to matter in God’s plan. The history of CHristianity is a story of butchers, bakers, candlestick makers – and tentmakers, too – being used by God as a springboard for the Gospel.

Ask for the grace today to be faithful in the ordinary, open to the Spirit’s prompting, and persistent in love, so that like Paul, we trust that God is at work, even when we can’t yet see the full fruit..

Image credit: Saint Paul Writing His Epistles | attributed to Valentin de Boulogne | Houston Museum of Fine Arts| PD-US

The Mission Ahead

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This coming Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. The first reading for Sunday is taken from the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles. The gospel reading is taken from Luke 24. Yesterday we considered a high-level view of the unity of the two volumes as a way of showing the centrality of the Ascension as a connection of the mission of Jesus and the mission of the Church. Today we consider the Ascension itself.

I think it may be a fair statement that we modern readers are more engaged by the actual ascending into heaven, but I would suggest that is not Luke’s central focus. Luke is more concerned with what was said than with what happened. The vital question was the one posed by the disciples: now that Jesus had been raised from the dead, was God going to complete his purpose by finally establishing his rule? The answer given was twofold. First, the time of this event remained God’s secret; what was more important was the immediate task of the disciples which was to act as witnesses to Jesus from Jerusalem to the end of the earth. The spread of God’s rule was to take place by means of the disciples, empowered by the Spirit. This was the final command of Jesus before he left the disciples. 

Secondly, the departure of Jesus was interpreted as a pattern for his ultimate return to the earth to inaugurate the final establishment of the rule of God. These verses spell out God’s purpose and the place of the church in it. They postulate that the period of witness and mission must precede the return of Jesus. They were in effect a warning to the disciples not to expect a speedy winding up of history. For Luke’s readers some forty or more years later they were a reminder of an ongoing task: the gospel must still be taken to the end of the earth. At the same time the words contain a note of promise in that the departure of Jesus is compensated for by the coming of the Spirit, given by Jesus himself (2:33).

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7  He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.  The question about restoring the rule to Israel in 1:6 also shows continued misunderstanding about what the kingdom of God meant. Acts 2:3 will show that God’s promise was about the coming of the Holy Spirit, not an earthly empire. The prohibition against trying to compute the times of the end is meant to discourage Luke’s readers from guessing what cannot be known. Rather, they should focus on the power of the Spirit as the sign of living in the promised final days. Luke says Christians are to use this power during whatever time is left to witness to Jesus to the ends of the earth. They should not waste energy trying to figure out when the end of the world will be….to be continued. 

Image credit: detail of “Ascension of Jesus” | John Singleton Copely, 1775 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | PD-US