The first year at the US Naval Academy is… shall we say…challenging. It is called “plebe year.” The word “plebe” originates from the Latin word plebs, which referred to the common people of ancient Rome, as opposed to the elite class – in this case being the upper class midshipmen who have already proven their mettle. The purpose of Plebe Year at the U.S. Naval Academy is to transition civilians into midshipmen and future Navy and Marine Corps officers by instilling the foundational military, academic, and physical standards required for service. It is an intensive, year-long process—especially demanding in the first summer, known as Plebe Summer—that serves several key purposes:
Discipline and Military Indoctrination – Plebes (first-year students) learn military customs, courtesies, regulations, and traditions. They’re taught to follow orders, uphold high standards, and function in a chain of command.
Character and Leadership Development – the year tests and builds mental toughness, ethical decision-making, accountability, and resilience—key traits for leadership in high-stakes environments.
This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Liturgical Year C. The gospel is taken from John 13:31-35. Our short text can be divided into three parts:
vv. 31-32 – the glorification of God and Jesus
v. 33 – Jesus’ departure
vv. 34-35 – the commandment to love.
Before we delve into the text itself, we should perhaps consider the word “glory.” If asked, what would you give as a definition? Merriam Webster reflects on the definition in all the ways the word is used in the common palance: glory – renown, magnificence, exaltation, achievement, and more. When speaking of God, at best, these seem to linger on the edge of meaning, but not approach the heart of the matter.
If we turn to the Hebrew scriptures to discover what is meant by God’s glory, we quickly find it is not a single, well-defined concept. In fact, it is probably best to treat the word as something of a cipher, a term used to point to the ineffable qualities of God. In the OT kabod is perhaps the most important of many related words and refers in its root meaning to what is weighty, important or impressive. That would certainly apply to the people’s experience of God’s interactions in the world; not a direct experience but an experience nonetheless.
I suspect that most people read the title of this post and went, “What…???” Well… as it happens, this day in history, the first device to provide a means to escape a sunken submarine underwent its first testing. The Momsen Lung consists of a rubber bag containing a canister of soda lime that removes carbon dioxide from exhaled air and replaces it with oxygen. It was developed by Lieutenant Charles B. Momsen (UNSA Class of 1919), Chief Gunner Clarence L. Tibbals, and civilian engineer Frank Hobson.
The only known emergency use of the Momsen lung was during the escape from USS Tang on October 25, 1944. The Momsen lung was replaced by the Steinke hood beginning in 1962. This was the device that was standard during my time of service. My only experience with the hood was during SubSchool when all are required to do an ascent from ~100 feet. It was actually kinda’ fun.
The USS Tang was launched in 1943 and immediately went into action with Commander Richard O’Kane USN. Throughout the war the submarines had been plagued with faulty torpedoes. Sadly, Tang was actually sunk by her own torpedo which went into a circular run. She sank off China in the Taiwan Strait on 24 October 1944.
The engagement was at night with Tang surfaced and so there were several crew members along with O’Kane topside in the sail of the submarine. The majority of the crew was below decks. Several men escaped via the Momsen Lung, several did a free-ascent, but in the end only 78 perished. Nine, inlcuding O’Kane, survived and were captured by the Japanese, spening the remainder of the was in a POW camp.
In her short career in the Pacific War, Tang sank 33 enemy ships. Commander O’Kane received the Medal of Honor for her Tang’s last two engagements (23 and 24 October 1944)
O’Kane also received three Navy Crosses and three Silver Stars, for a total of seven awards of the United States military’s three highest decorations for valor in combat. Before commanding Tang, O’Kane served in the highly successful USS Wahoo as executive officer and approach officer under noted Commander Dudley “Mush” Morton. In his ten combat patrols, five in Wahoo and five commanding Tang, O’Kane participated in more successful attacks on Japanese shipping than any other submarine officer during the war.
In the world of WWII submarine lore, Morton and O’Kane are legendary.
Image credit: Momsen Lung: United States Navy, photographer unknown Steinke Hood: National Museum of the U.S. Navy – 330-PSA-262-63 (USN 711388), Public Domain
This coming Sunday is the Third Sunday of Easter, Year C. The gospel is taken from John 21:1-19, a scene on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Our gospel describes the Apostle’s encounter with Jesus at the Sea of Tiberias – another name for the Sea of Galilee.
1 After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way. 2 Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
In response, Jesus told Thomas, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Thomas came to believe because he saw the risen Lord, but Jesus did not praise Thomas’ pathway to faith; rather, he pronounced a blessing upon those who have not seen the risen Jesus yet have believed in him nevertheless. These are those who hear or read the witness to Jesus borne by the disciples and confirmed by the Spirit (15:26–27). This is the second pronunciation of blessing by Jesus in the form of a beatitude in the Fourth Gospel (cf. 13:17: “If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.”)
This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection. In today’s post we consider the phrase, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”The Fourth Gospel often speaks of Jesus being sent into the world by the Father: to do his will (6:38–39; 8:29), to speak his words (3:34; 8:28; 12:49; 14:24; 17:8), to perform his works (4:34; 5:36; 9:4) and win salvation for all who believe (3:16–17).
That these same actions would be expected of the disciples, continuing the words and works of Jesus, is foreshadowed at various places in the Gospel.
The parable begins with the younger son asking for what he considers his share of the inheritance – something that is for the father to decide. In the asking, the son communicates that he does not view the inheritance as a gift given because of his father’s good graces; rather he sees it as his due.
Kenneth Bailey, a NT scholar who lived for years in the Middle East, asked many people in the Near East cultures how one is to understand the younger son’s request. The answer is consistent and harsh: the son would rather have his father dead so as to gain the inheritance. In an honor/shame society it would be appropriate to ask, “What father having been asked by a son to give him inheritance…” Again the Lucan answer is not the answer of the society. The father grants the request. Where the younger son asks for “the share of your estate (ousia) that should come to me.” Luke tells us that the father “divided between them his property (bios, literally “life”).”
Imagination can fill in the familiar story line that is compressed with great economy: the extravagant spending, the attraction of freeloading friends, the crash. It should be noted that the young man squandered (diaskorpizo)the money. This does not imply a use for immoral reasons (which the brother suggests in v.30), but rather a thoughtless use of the funds. In any case, he becomes penniless and is reduced to tending swine for the Gentiles. For the Hebrew, caring for pigs evoked the idea of apostasy and the loss of everything that once identified the younger son as a member of his family and of God’s people. He is even lower than the swine — they have access to the husks, but he does not. It is a story of downward mobility
This coming Sunday the gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
28 About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.
Characteristically Luke tells us that Jesus went to the mountain to pray. This is a key motif in the Lucan narrative. In the gospel and in Acts, Luke continually points to people achieving the proper attitude and posture before God through the discipline of prayer which Luke repeatedly highlights. He has two principal ways of doing this:
This coming Sunday is the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time and our gospel is the second part of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. “A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.” (v.17) The description certainly points to a Jewish and Gentile audience and thus raises the question of how “wide is the circle of relationships.” Consider this bit of wisdom from Sirach 12:1–7 (ca. 180 BCE)
1 If you do good, know for whom you are doing it, and your kindness will have its effect.2 Do good to the just man and reward will be yours, if not from him, from the LORD.3 No good comes to him who gives comfort to the wicked, nor is it an act of mercy that he does.4 Give to the good man, refuse the sinner; refresh the downtrodden, give nothing to the proud man.5 No arms for combat should you give him, lest he use them against yourself;6 With twofold evil you will meet for every good deed you do for him.7 The Most High himself hates sinners, and upon the wicked he takes vengeance.
Is this the wisdom that was active among the Jewish listeners? It certainly seems to point to limits on acts of mercy and forgiveness.
The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” The following come from Walter Pilgrim (Good News to the Poor: Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts).
The clear social distinctions drawn here are between the haves and the have-nots, the possessors and the impoverished, those favored by society and those despised. The new and surprising element is the way in which the norms and values of society are turned upside down. The promised blessings belong to the suffering poor, while the coming woes are pronounced upon the contented rich. According to one commentator, this marks the first time in Jewish religious literature that the poor are directly called the blessed (Hengel Property). [p. 76]
…we have argued that the Lukan beatitudes are addressed to people who are literally poor and persecuted. Yet their poverty is blessed within the context of their response to the ministry of Jesus and the call to the kingdom of God. Thus it is not just poverty or riches per se that is blessed or condemned, but poverty in the context of trust in God and riches in the context of rejection of God. The two go hand in hand for Luke. [p. 77]
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