John Janaro's Blog, page 2

“Dark Shadows Fall Over An Era”

"The darker the shadows fall over an era, the greater the longing for the light of individuals whose bourgeois equanimity has been robbed by the shadowy nature and sacrilege of their present. The longing for light and enlightenment has led us to the only bright spot that remains for us: Christ. And that will remain for us. He is our entire background, our guide, and our goal."

~ Hans Scholl (of The White Rose anti-Nazi student protest group, Munich, 1942)

In these weeks I have taken up again the study of the group that emerged briefly in opposition to Adolf Hitler at the University of Munich in Germany during World War II, The White Rose. A more intensive look at these students opens up a unique perspective on one of the most violent, suffocating, dehumanizing social orders that has ever existed in human history: Hitler's National Socialist totalitarian Party-State. Here is a story of a group of ordinary German young people in the wider context of a whole generation that grew up under Nazi rule and experienced its systematic invasiveness of every aspect of human life. Even internal dissent was extraordinarily difficult, especially after Germany went to war in 1939. The lies of Nazi propaganda fed a misconceived national patriotism and people's genuine fears of being overrun by Stalin's Communist totalitarian system from the Soviet Union. All of this combined with the natural human desire for economic security and a comfortable life, the pressure to conform, and the fear of expressing any criticism or opposition to Hitler or his regime. 

So many German people remained bound to the Nazis — whether through hollow enthusiasm or crushed silence — in a kind of psychological and spiritual paralysis of various and complex origins. There were numerous factors, including a combination of escalating terror, lingering wishful thinking about economic success and “social order,” and the desperate hope of escaping Soviet Communism through a neopagan revival of mythical Teutonic strength. It was difficult to avoid the trap of active collaboration (or at least the passive complicity of being dragged along) with Hitler’s “triumphant” war, even as it was carrying out a racist program of genocide and ethnic cleansing out of hatred for the Jews and in pursuit of a "Greater Germany" expanding into Eastern Europe and Ukraine.

The leaflet campaign of The White Rose was a brave and energetic effort to “do something,” and — even though it never stood much chance of political success — it did show Germany and the world that there was still a narrow space where the human conscience could shine. It was a witness to the transcendent human vocation for which these students were willing to give their lives. Above all, it was an experience through which they encountered Jesus Christ and grew in love for Him even in the midst of so many other activities and concerns. Ultimately the protagonists were able to embrace Christ through sharing in His death, which they faced with a serenity — even a joy — that shocked their executioners. Their joy promised something new even as their nation was falling apart all around them.

I will continue to research and learn more about Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst (whose beautiful “conversion story” I have just written about for my monthly article series, and which will appear in April 2026), Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, and others in The White Rose circle who mentored and supported them in the resistance work that they took up at great risk and with considerable hesitation, but ultimately standing before God with clarity of conscience. They were real people with flaws and doubts. They were full of immature passions and youthful ideals and they argued amongst themselves. They were not fine-tuned for success, but they tried their best. And, of course, they failed. But history remembers them (even if it doesn’t understand them), because they acted out of love for the truth and genuine love for their country and the world. It was a love that grew within them and reached maturity in the face of their own deaths in 1943. Ultimately they acted for love and persevered in love to the end because they surrendered themselves to the One whose love is greater than death.

Looking at these people and these events as a citizen of the USA in the “Bloody Summer of 2025” has rekindled hope in my own heart regarding our nation even though it too seems to be falling apart all around us in these days. The United States is fundamentally different from Germany in the Nazi era and faces different dangers. I don’t believe that the current regime is “just like Hitler,” no matter how much agitation is bound up with this comparison. Nevertheless, in my opinion, this regime remains reckless, callous, disoriented, and dangerous for our nation and the world for many other reasons. However, the current regime is too often hounded by an “opposition” that is poisoned by its own compromises and delusions. The opposition denounces this regime’s failure to respect human rights, but it also participates in manufacturing and lobbying for new so-called human rights drawn forth from ideologies that aim at the very foundations of human dignity and seek to undermine the basic principles of moral law written by God in the depths of every human heart.

The United States has a whole different context of problems in 2025 than Nazi Germany 85 years ago. We may be able to learn something, however, from the history of the people of those days, from what Hans Scholl called the “bourgeois equanimity” that dominated the mentality of so many ordinary Germans and drove them to sell their intelligence and freedom for the false promises of a demagogue. Just like us, their daily lives were controlled by the desperate desire to hold on at all costs to the material comforts of their technologically advanced society. They were compelled to blind themselves to the enormous evils perpetrated for their comforts and alleged “greatness,” and then to distract themselves as their own society began to fall apart due to the “shadowy nature and sacrilege of their present.” 

How well do we perceive the “shadowy nature” (not to mention the sacrilege) of our own present? The United States has long existed as a “two-party system,” with multiple levels of deeply rooted institutions that have a long history of preventing any faction from seizing total power. Externally, we are nothing like the Weimar Republic. We have different problems, and our future is subject to many forces that are beyond our control. But both political parties have become ugly and intolerable in our current society (in different ways and for different reasons). We don’t seem very competent at “voting for the lesser evil” without losing our heads and running after the distorted, polarized, and foolish propaganda of whichever party we end up choosing. How quickly we adopt its proposals, adapt ourselves to its changes of content and/or strategy, and join in demonizing members of the other party. Are we motivated by something more than our grasping to preserve and increase our unprecedented material comforts, our pride, and our lust for success — for “winning” at all costs? Is this our 2025 version of bourgeois equanimity? Whatever it is, it cannot satisfy us. It’s falling apart all around us, falling into the shadows, evaporating into the superficial self-indulgence that increasingly dominates our every day.

Why are we compelled to heap contempt on other people who pop up on our screens and seem to be repeating slogans from the opposing group? We don’t know these people, the stories of their real lives, the motivations of their conflicted hearts. Do we even try to consider them as human persons? Although we can’t see them as God sees them, can we not aspire to love them? Not that we should have soft minds, but can we open a space for them in our minds and hearts, open paths to dialogue, endure them with hope in the working of the unfathomable grace of God in their hearts? If we are convinced we must oppose someone else’s ideas or projects, can we not do so with honor, reason, and compassion? This entails not rhetorical tricks, but being present with love: the love for the human person that is vulnerable to the point of suffering. This is difficult: in fact, it’s impossible unless we ourselves have experienced this love and allow ourselves to be carried by this love and grow through this love. We must not be afraid, but rather be patient with one another and with ourselves.

Perhaps we are struggling to grow in truth and love.

Hans Scholl, as a teenager, became a leader in Hitler Youth! He carried a Nazi flag past the Fuhrer’s grandstand at the Nuremberg rally of 1935. Who would have known back then where God was leading him? It was the presence of people who loved him with patience and perseverance that led him on a journey to the truth that was not without difficulty. The light shined in the darkness of his heart and he longed for it.

What do we know about the hearts of our brothers and sisters who are encompassed in the infinitely compassionate Heart of Jesus? What do we know of the longing He awakens within them, or the inner conflicts and struggles and sufferings that they endure, the suffering that He endures with them and in them and for them? How dare we have contempt for any human person?!

It’s not surprising that violence continued to rage among us in the Summer of 2025, that shootings have taken place in homes, shopping malls, and even churches. Most recently, there has been the assassination of political and social activist Charlie Kirk. May his soul rest in peace and may God console his poor family. This was a heinous act of violence that must not be viewed a single iota “less horrible” by those who have disagreements with the substance and/or style of his expressed views. Yet there were some people who are so engulfed in the hyper-partisan rage of their own shallow faction that they “celebrated” or otherwise commented flippantly about his death. It’s a sad thing that the internet has trained people to put forth in unjust words their most cruel and most vulgar impulses. This was a terrible murder! How can we turn to anything other than the infinite goodness and love and mercy of God?

What we all really need to do is to repent from out of the depths of our own souls, acknowledging the sins (yes, sins) by which we all participate in the spiral of violence in our country. And if we face the darkness — the shadows that we invite among us so as to hide ourselves from our own shrinking hearts — if we face the darkness, we might glimpse the light of Christ who remains with us and shows His merciful love. 

Jesus Christ is the meaning and purpose of our lives, of nations, of the whole universe. This is what matters, and we must hold fast to him with greater firmness in these dark days as the shadows fall on us. His light is greater and burns more brightly in the growing darkness, and His grace works to awaken us and stir up within us that “longing for light.”

“Shadows Fall Over An Era”

"The darker the shadows fall over an era, the greater the longing for the light of individuals whose bourgeois equanimity has been robbed by the shadowy nature and sacrilege of their present. The longing for light and enlightenment has led us to the only bright spot that remains for us: Christ. And that will remain for us. He is our entire background, our guide, and our goal."

~ Hans Scholl (of The White Rose anti-Nazi student protest group, Munich, 1942)

In these weeks I have immersed myself in the study of one of the most violent, suffocating, dehumanizing social orders that has ever existed in human history: Hitler's National Socialist totalitarian Party-State. The lies of Nazi propaganda fed a misconceived national patriotism and people's genuine fears of being overrun by Stalin's Communist totalitarian system from the Soviet Union. All of this combined with the natural human desire for economic security and a comfortable life, the pressure to conform, and the fear of expressing any criticism or opposition to Hitler or his regime. 

German people remained bound to the Nazis — whether through hollow enthusiasm or crushed silence — in a kind of psychological and spiritual paralysis of various and complex origins. There were numerous factors, including a combination of escalating terror, lingering wishful thinking about economic success and “social order,” and the desperate hope of escaping Soviet Communism through a neopagan revival of mythical Teutonic strength. It was difficult to avoid the trap of active collaboration (or at least the passive complicity of being dragged along) with Hitler’s “triumphant” war, even though it was carrying out a racist program of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the pursuit of a "Greater Germany" expanding into Eastern Europe and Ukraine.

The leaflet campaign of The White Rose was a brave and energetic effort to “do something,” and though it never stood much chance of political success, it did show Germany and the world that there was still a narrow space where the human conscience could shine. It was a witness to the transcendent human vocation for which these students were willing to give their lives. Above all, it was an experience through which they encountered Christ and grew in love for Him even in the midst of so many other activities and concerns. Ultimately the protagonists were able to embrace Christ through sharing in His death, which they faced with a serenity — even a joy — that shocked their executioners. Their joy promised something new even as their nation was falling apart all around them.

Looking at these people and these events as a citizen of the USA in the “Bloody Summer of 2025” rekindled hope in my own heart regarding our nation even though it too seems to be falling apart all around us in these days. The United States is fundamentally different from Germany in the Nazi era and faces different dangers. I don’t believe that the current regime is “just like Hitler,” no matter how much agitation is bound up with this comparison. It remains reckless and dangerous nevertheless. However, it is too often hounded by an opposition that is poisoned by its own recklessness, that aims at the very foundations of human dignity and seeks to undermine the basic principles of moral law written by God in the depths of every human heart.

We should all mourn the recent assassination of political and social activist Charlie Kirk. May his soul rest in peace and may God console his poor family. This was a heinous act of violence that must not be viewed a single iota “less horrible” by those who have disagreements with the substance and/or style of his expressed views. It was a horrifying murder! What we really need to do is repent from our own hearts, acknowledge the sins (yes, sins) by which we all participate in the spiral of violence in our country. And if we face the darkness — the shadows that we invite among us so as to hide ourselves from our own small-heartedness — if we face the darkness, we might glimpse the light of Christ who remains with us and shows His merciful love even if we are all fleeing from him.

Jesus Christ is the meaning and purpose of our lives, of nations, of the whole universe. This is what matters, and we must hold fast to him with greater firmness in these dark days as the shadows fall on us. His light is greater and burns more brightly in the growing darkness, and His grace works to awaken us and stir up within us that “longing for life.”

The Cross: “That the World Might Be Saved Through Him…”

September 14th — Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

It’s Not ALWAYS Quiet Around Here!☺️

Did I say “the house is always quiet” these days? That’s not really true. We see our two granddaughters on Sundays and during the week too. I’m so glad! Look how big Anna is getting! She will be two years old in November, while Maria turned four over the Summer.

They definitely feel comfortable hanging out at “Papa’s and Nana’s house.” It’s not unusual to “camp” in the living room. Ha ha!😉 (They’re in a little tent in the picture below.) Maria and Anna are very loving to each other… unless they’re fighting or crying over something. 

But their lives, and all of our lives, are about to change dramatically in ways we cannot possibly imagine. Their little SISTER is due this month… actually, any day now! (Have I mentioned this before on the blog? Well, I will definitely be writing more about her, very soon...)

Splendid Flowers, Distraught Human Faces

"How splendidly the flowers are blooming on this railroad embankment! As if all had assembled so that no color should be missing, they bloom here with gentle insistence — everywhere: alongside ruined buildings, gutted freight cars, distraught human faces. Flowers are blooming and children innocently playing among the ruins. O God of love, help me to overcome my doubts. I see the Creation, your handiwork, which is good. But I also see man's handiwork, our handiwork, which is cruel, and called destruction and despair, and which always afflicts the innocent. Spare your children! How much longer must they suffer? Why is suffering so unfairly meted out? When will a tempest finally sweep away all these godless people who besmirch your likeness, who sacrifice the blood of countless innocents to a demon? The whole world is bright again, for as far as the eye can see, after this rain."

~ Hans Scholl   from the Russian Front, July 31, 1942————————————————————

Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie are the most widely known of a group of young friends at the University in Munich, whose questions about transcendent meaning in the face of the suffocating totalitarian pretensions of Nazi ideology, along with their meetings to discuss philosophical and literary works and the great grace of their close camaraderie led them to a profound encounter with Jesus Christ, and led some of them to commit themselves to nonviolent resistance against Hitler’s regime. They are known to us as “the White Rose.”

Currently I have been researching one of these deeply human and inspired young people for my “Conversion Stories” column: Christoph Probst, who was baptized into Christ and His Catholic Church in the moments preceding his execution on February 21, 1943. 

There remains a great deal of material about the White Rose, and I intend to continue intensive research into the lives of these heroic men and women into the future. Stay tuned…

Mother Teresa and the “Thirst” of Jesus

September 5th was the feast day of Mother Teresa, who died on that day in 1997. Those of my generation remember her astonishing presence in this world — she was overflowing with the immense, unconditional love of Jesus that radiated forth from her and touched everyone who encountered her. Her service to "the poorest of the poor" drew many to follow her in her new religious foundation, the Missionaries of Charity, that she began after 20 years of teaching in Calcutta as a missionary with the Sisters of Loreto. In this new “call within a call,” Mother Teresa sought Jesus in the suffering poor who were neglected by everyone else. In them, she contemplated the thirst of the Crucified One, and in her service she sought to respond to His thirst, and also to enter the depths of that thirst, witnessing to the inexhaustible thirst of Christ to love and to be loved. 

In His mercy, Jesus shared the thirst — the need of every human person — to be love and to love that cries out for redemption from the core of human experience. Mother Teresa's focus on the thirst of Christ opened her up to a profound and particular compassion for the individual persons of destitute persons abandoned in the streets of Calcutta, and to every person she encountered. She prayed and loved with a humble but unlimited openness to the poor, sick, and dying people she served in East India in simplicity and relative obscurity for twenty years. Then one day in 1969, a veteran British journalist showed up with a television camera to make a documentary about Mother Teresa's work.

Malcolm Muggeridge was 66 years old with a long career of global print, radio, and television reporting behind him when he pursued this remarkable story of radiant love in the South Asian slums. Muggeridge was also struggling with his own questions about the meaning and mystery of life, about God and suffering, faith and doubt. He struck up a remarkable friendship with Mother Teresa that ultimately led him to the Catholic Church. His documentary, Something Beautiful For God, brought a glimpse of Mother Teresa's luminous sanctity into the living rooms of countless BBC television viewers, and then to viewers all over the world.

In the ensuing years, Mother Teresa became one of the most recognized, admired, and inspiring people on earth, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Her charism touched us all in the remaining years of her life, and the Missionaries of Charity expanded their ministry to serve the needs of the poorest of the poor — to share the thirst of Jesus — wherever they were asked to go. They went to many places.

The most profound aspect of our conflicted, excessive, violent world is the enormous suffering, the terrible thirst that remains unquenched not only among the poor but also (and especially) among those of us who are drowning in the spiritual disappointments of unprecedented material abundance. It is good when our hearts are opened by the awareness of this need that leads to love, the need the Christ shares with us, thirsting from the Cross with us and for us.

Pope Leo's General Audience of September 3rd addressed these points in a striking and beautiful way. Here is the text, from the Vatican website:

At the heart of the account of the Passion, in the most luminous and at the same time darkest moment of Jesus’ life, the Gospel of John gives us two words that contain an immense mystery: “I thirst” (19:28), and immediately afterwards: “It is finished” (19:30). These are his last words, but they are filled with a whole lifetime, revealing the meaning of the entire existence of the Son of God. On the cross, Jesus does not appear as a victorious hero, but as a supplicant for love. He does not proclaim, condemn or defend himself. He humbly asks for what he, alone, cannot give to himself in any way.

The thirst of the Crucified Lord is not only the physiological need of a tortured body. It is also, and above all, the expression of a profound desire: that of love, of relationship, of communion. It is the silent cry of a God who, having wished to share everything of our human condition, also lets himself be overcome by this thirst. A God who is not ashamed to beg for a sip, because in that gesture he tells us that love, in order to be true, must also learn to ask and not only to give.

I thirst, says Jesus, and in this way he manifests his humanity and also ours. None of us can be self-sufficient. No-one can save themselves. Life is “fulfilled” not when we are strong, but when we learn how to receive. It is precisely at that moment, after receiving from unknown hands a sponge soaked in vinegar, that Jesus proclaims: It is finished. Love has made itself needy, and precisely for this reason it has accomplished its work.

This is the Christian paradox: God saves not by doing, but by letting himself do. Not by defeating evil with force, but by accepting the weakness of love to the very end. On the cross, Jesus teaches us that man does not realize himself in power, but in trustful openness to others, even when they are hostile and enemies. Salvation is not found in autonomy, but in humbly recognizing one’s own need and in being able to express it freely.

The fulfilment of our humanity in God’s plan is not an act of strength, but a gesture of trust. Jesus does not save with a dramatic twist, but by asking for something that he cannot give himself. And it is here that the door to true hope opens: if even the Son of God chose not to be self-sufficient, then our thirst too – for love, for meaning, for justice – is a sign not of failure, but of truth.

This truth, seemingly so simple, is difficult to accept. We live in a time that rewards self-sufficiency, efficiency, performance. And yet the Gospel shows us that the measure of our humanity is not given by what we can achieve, but by our ability to let ourselves be loved and, when necessary, even helped.

Jesus saves us by showing us that asking is not unworthy, but liberating. It is the way out of the hiddenness of sin, so as to re-enter the space of communion. Ever since the beginning, sin has begotten shame. But forgiveness – real forgiveness – is born when we can face up to our need and no longer fear rejection.

Jesus’ thirst on the cross is therefore ours too. It is the cry of a wounded humanity that seeks living water. And this thirst does not lead us away from God, but rather unites us with him. If we have the courage to acknowledge it, we can discover that even our fragility is a bridge towards heaven. It is precisely in asking – not in possessing – that a way of freedom opens up, because we cease to pretend to be self-sufficient.

In fraternity, in the simple life, in the art of asking without shame and offering without ulterior motives, a joy is born that the world does not know. A joy that restores us to the original truth of our being: we are creatures made to give and receive love.

Dear brothers and sisters, in Christ’s thirst we can recognize all of our own thirst. And to learn that there is nothing more human, nothing more divine, than being able to say: I need. Let us not be afraid to ask, especially when it seems to us that we do not deserve. Let us not be ashamed to reach out our hand. It is right there, in that humble gesture, that salvation hides.

“Even Our Fragility is a Bridge Towards Heaven…”

Here is Pope Leo’s Instagram post from Wednesday, September 3, 2025:

September: Another Academic Year Begins

September always brings complicated and strange feelings even after all these years. It has been a long time since the year 2008. It has been "a lifetime," it seems, since I taught a regular course in a university classroom. Still, after 17 years, there is something like grief mixed in with my emotions.

Meanwhile, Eileen has her first week of teaching, and Jojo begins her final year in the White Oaks Upper School at the John XXIII Montessori Center. And so, once again, the house is quiet during the day, and I am alone. I’ll have to get used to that again. The evenings are also getting shorter, too — although there is still daylight at 7:00 PM. And at least for the moment, the weather has cooled off, so I can have more time outdoors.

I'm a bit droopy in September. At the same time, this new academic year beckons me to continue my studies and be open to new possibilities to serve the Lord with the gifts He has given to me. So often I feel useless, but I pray that God will draw me with His merciful love and lead me on the paths He chooses for me.

And to remember, every day, to be grateful.

Goodbye August

Goodbye August 2025.

Even When We "Lose Control," God's Love Sustains Us

In our society we're supposed to have things "under control" in our lives, if we are responsible and mature adults. But let's face it, most of us don't "hold it together" all the time. In the increasing chaos that is spreading over the world today, it's not surprising that so many of us feel rattled, shaken up, and even scared. We're not "in control."

But if I "lose control," who will take over in my place?

If I don't control the direction and purpose of my life, then who does? Other people? Is the value of my life determined by those who "take control," those who manipulate minds with ideologies and/or control over the images that constantly bombard us — those who have power in this world? This is an existential problem, which means it's a question that really punches me in the guts, and not just me.

This is one of the reasons why people are afraid to admit their vulnerability even to themselves, much less reveal it to others. If we are vulnerable, if we are weak, how can we protect ourselves from being defined (and perhaps used and discarded) by those who grasp hold of power?

I don't know if we can protect ourselves, ultimately, from being misused and humiliated by those who boast of their power and want to do violence to us. But we have to try to remember that — however overwhelming it may be — our vulnerability does not define us either. And no ideology or clique or group or anyone can take it upon themselves to be the measure of the meaning and dignity of a human person. The powers of this world have their limits, and therefore oppression has its limits.

For "the Lord hears the cry of the poor..."

God defines and controls the meaning of my life. He doesn't manipulate me. He is not some great and distant super-power; God is not like the tyrannical "boss" of the universe, imposing a scheme on me that is alien to myself.

God is my Creator. He is the guarantor of my inviolable dignity, even when I am absolutely helpless.

God is Love. He has come to share our lives, to share our weakness, to bear the burdens we carry day by day in this harsh and broken world, the afflictions that the violence of others imposes on us (and even the afflictions that we impose on ourselves).

It is after all grace, the gift of God's love in Jesus Christ, that saves, heals, and transforms our lives beyond our own power or anything else in this world.