Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
 

Last week, I had the privilege of spending three days at the Abbey Resort in Fontana, Wis. with the priests who serve our archdiocese. At dinner one evening, I found myself at a table with the Pallottine Fathers. We are blessed to have a number of international orders in our archdiocese who bring a wealth of cultural diversity. I was asked by Father Davies Edassery and Father Joseph Dominic whether I had ever visited India, their home country. I had a most memorable trip in 2006, but confessed I did not visit Kerala, their home region, which is known for its strong Catholic influence. Instead, I visited the Tamil Nadu region, which is located on the southern coast. Many of the priests who served in the Diocese of La Crosse, my former diocese, were from the Tamil Nadu region.
 
When it came to eating in India, I admitted that I survived on bananas and cashews. My stomach could not take all the heavy Indian spices. To me, it seemed that Indian spices made jalapeños seem like a sweet treat.
 
One activity that we talked about was the traffic patterns in India. I shared with them my experience of travelling by car on a narrow two-lane highway and having the car I was in pass on the dividing line -- right between the two cars flanking either side going in the opposite direction. I said a quick act of contrition. I was so close to the other car that I could have joined in the conversation with those in the other vehicle. To drive without fear in India, one needed to have their eyes closed most of the time.
 
Having lived in Rome, Father Davies remarked about traffic in Rome. I lived there for four years and realized that most traffic patterns in Rome follow a custom and practice which includes pedestrians should never stop when crossing a street, even if a car is approaching them directly. Americans visiting Rome will often freeze in their tracks at the sight of an oncoming car, not realizing that Italian drivers will veer around a person who is moving, while stopping merely creates chaos – lending credence to the statement, “He who hesitates is lost.”
 
I was also told by one Italian driver that red lights are considered ornaments, merely used as a suggestion for the driver to ponder whether or not he or she may want to stop or not.
 
Public bus transportation, both in India and Italy, is a step above herding cattle onto trucks. “Packed like sardines” is an expression that could have originated in either country. If you are foolish enough to form a straight line in order to enter an establishment or buy something, you do so at your own risk, quickly realizing that it is “every man, woman and child for themselves.” Father Davies said, “You don’t understand, Archbishop. There is an ‘order in disorder.’”
 
Our own lives can be very chaotic at times; the normal activities of life can be disrupted by illness, death or change. However, the order in our internal compass remains, and rights all actions if we recognize who is the point of our stability.  That point is Jesus. He remains the order in our disorder.
 
Pray every day and pray in every way so that when we are confronted with the chaos of our lives, into it comes one who makes sense of all things and all persons. It is through this love that Jesus offers us order and His expectation that we are to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
 

Note: This blog originally appeared as the May 10, 2016 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.