Joan Chittister: You can lose everything, but win in the end by simply going on

"By Margery Eagan

This column appeared in Crux Nov. 14, 2014

"The day before Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley went on “60 Minutes” to declare the Vatican investigation of American nuns “a disaster,” the woman who once led those nuns, Joan Chittister, knocked it out of the park before 600 rapt fans who packed the Wellesley College chapel Saturday."...

“The rising comes when we are able to commit our lives to something worth being condemned for,” said Chittister, a Benedictine nun....

Chittister told the women there: no matter how old or tired or sick you are, decide what you can do in the time you have left, and do it. “Choose what’s best in life over what is comfortable. Chose witness in life over the country club scene … Find a purpose large enough on which to spend yourselves. Torture, climate change, something that says, ‘my life isn’t over. This is yet to be done.’ What will they remember about you when you’re gone? What are you doing now that will not be forgotten? You can say, ‘Oh, I don’t go to those rally things.’ Honey, I hope you remember that explanation when your own property is under water.”

...Remember, she said as she ended to a prolonged standing ovation, “These 14 stations are not about suffering, but about how to live through suffering. They’re not about the death of Jesus, but about Jesus’ life born in us to support us through our own death and resurrection.

“We are not meant to be the people of the cross. We are people of the empty tomb. We are alleluia people … And He is here, with us. Emmanuel, Emmanuel.”