The Gift of Stability

It is no wonder that Rome is called the "Eternal City!" The Churches, the cobblestone streets, the buildings, the masterpieces, the bones of the martyrs, the clergy and papacy...everything professes stability, permanence, fidelity, reliability, and endurance. This is awe-inspiring; especially for one coming from a culture of pervasive, relentless technological change. Consider: a humble mason laid this cobblestone 800 years ago and since then Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, Ignatius Loyola and today I myself tread on the same stone. It is easy to believe in the Incarnation in Rome; it seems obvious that the Eternal has entered and self-expressed in time and matter. My nephew was ordained a deacon in St. Peter's Basilica, just feet away from the place where St. Peter's bones lay. This is what Pope Benedict calls "communion between the generations." This is Tradition. It causes me to question: What am I leaving as a legacy for future generations and for my own descendants? Have I absorbed my own heritage and expressed in in a form, however modest, that will transcend time and history and endure into the ages?