issues - Seton Hall University

“We’ve reached the conclusion
that the students recruited by Seton
Hall are outstanding or remarkable
in their own way,” Karol said. “You
only need to recognize your own
personal strengths.”
A long, heartfelt round of
applause followed Karol’s reflection
as he returned to sit with his family.
onsignor Sheeran’s homily
at the memorial service
embraced the theme of “listening”
and the imagery of hands — hands
tending the wounded, hands clasped
in prayer. “Listen … I ask you to listen
very carefully …. not so much to my
words, but rather to the silences
between my words,” he said. “Listen
… for in those silences are the sounds
of miracles … the echo of hearts
breaking, the wonder of hearts healing,
the love of hearts remembering.
Breaking, healing, remembering.
“In my own images of last January,
I see hands — hands that led frightened
students to safety … hands that
tended the injured with a healing
touch … hands that reached out in
friendship and consolation … hands
joined together in prayer,” he continued.
“When our own hands were too
few, when the burden was too heavy
for us to bear alone, friends,
both old and new, came and
stood close by our side. They
held us up and helped get us
through.”
Monsignor Sheeran shared
with the community two
moments from the last 12
months that touched him most
profoundly. “The first
moment came late on the
afternoon of the 19th,” he
said. “I had already met with
the parents of John, Frank and
Aaron. I had visited Ken,
Alvaro, Nick, Tom and others
— and their families. Then,
— Monsignor Sheeran
together with Archbishop [Theodore
E.] McCarrick, I visited Dana Christmas
at UMDNJ to pray over her. [A
resident assistant in Boland, she had
suffered serious burns as she helped
to rescue students.] At the sight
of this young woman lying before
me in her hospital bed, I was overwhelmed
by our tragedy, by the
bleakness of that day. So much had
been lost. And now Dana, it seemed,
might easily slip away right before
us. I prayed, ‘Lord, you cannot let
this happen.’ And I wept.”
The second moment, Monsignor
Sheeran related, came 11 months later
when he and Dana Christmas met
again — at Seton Hall — for an
evening of appreciation when the
University thanked the many people
who rushed to its aid after the fire.
“Dana came up to me and hugged me.
‘It’s good to have you here,’ I said. And
she replied, ‘It’s wonderful to be back.’
In that moment, I knew I was in the
presence of no small miracle,” he said.
“I knew before me was but one of
many miracles of faith and hope …
miracles of care and prayer. Dana,
so trusting in God’s providence,
herself both victim and hero of the
fire, emerges from her suffering as a
consoler and healer of others — not
the least of all to me.”
In his remarks on Thursday
evening, in the drizzle of a cold
January night, Monsignor Sheeran
acknowledged Boland Hall as being
a “holy ground, a sacred place,” where
three young men left their lives to
meet their God. “From here, from this
place, heroes emerged, and the injured
were set on the road to healing,” he
continued. “Always this place will
speak to us, its message, just one word
— Remember.
“Remember that life is
precious and all too easily lost,”
Monsignor Sheeran observed.
“Remember that God is close
— His heart is breaking, even
with our own. Remember that
love is strong, stronger than
fire, stronger than death ….
We remember.”
Monsignor Sheeran and members of
the University’s Priest Community
were an integral part of the 70-minute
memorial service.
WINTER 2001 5