VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The epitome of prayer is thankfulness. If all you ever do in prayer is to thank God for all that he has given, I think that would be enough. I spend a lot of time now thanking God. I do not ask God for anything anymore, I stopped being a beggar. Rather, in my retirement, I am thankful for what I have.
I retired twice — once after 20 years as a military chaplain, and five years ago after serving as an active priest in the Diocese of Honolulu. As a military chaplain I was especially grateful for the time when I was in Vietnam near the end of the war. There were many orphans who were the children of the American soldiers. I was able to spend a lot of time helping people who owned orphanages to get the children adopted. One particular orphanage in Saigon would help send the children to Switzerland and Germany and the children would be adopted. That was the best part of my time in Vietnam.
Here in Honolulu, I have served in various parishes. In my retirement however, as there is no active duty military chaplain for the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe, I, along with Sacred Hearts Father Christopher Keahi, now share the duties of serving as their chaplain. I also help out with saying Masses at other parishes and chapels. Gainfully employed, I am busy enough.
I find that I am very happy each day. Now, I have enough time to spend in prayer, in reading, and in getting closer to Jesus. Because, when I was very active in duty, I sometimes did not have enough time to perform my spiritual exercises. But now, I swim for an hour every day at 6AM. Three days a week I also go to the gym. So, I won’t die too soon.
In the hour that I swim, I am able to say the rosary and meditate. Donning my mask and snorkel, I look at the bottom of the pool as I swim underwater where it is noiseless. It is like being in another world. Underwater, you can really feel very close to God. I used to go to Hanauma bay and snorkel and pray there. As I would swim along, I would be thinking about God, how good God is to me and thanking God for everything that he gave me.
The important thing about prayer is to put the time in, to make time for it. And, if nothing happens in the prayer, while you are putting the time in, it doesn’t matter as you at least took the time in and made the effort to do it.
Once in a while, I think about the passage from Luke 7:33-34 where Jesus says, “For John the Baptist has come, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say, ‘He is possessed.’ The Son of Man has come, eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” The whole point is, no matter what you do, you are going to be criticized for it. So, just try to do things for God and not for other people.
Father Paul Smith is a retired diocesan priest and military chaplain. He was ordained in 1962. He lives near Ala Moana.
