by Fr. Thomas Brouillette
Vicar General, Catholic Diocese of Lincoln
Last Friday I asked the K-5 students at St. Michael School in Hastings if they had ever heard of the George Washington Bridge, sometimes called the GWB.
Many of us, when we were in seminary in New York, traveled Interstate 80 for 1,300 miles from Lincoln all the way to the GWB. It is the world’s busiest bridge leading from New Jersey into Manhattan from west to east. In 2019 alone the bridge carried between 275,000 and 300,000 vehicles a day; 104 million vehicles traveled between New Jersey and New York and from New York to New Jersey. The bridge was completed in 1931 with eight lanes, and in 1962, six more lanes on the upper deck were added. Today the toll fee to cross the bridge from Jersey into New York is $17 cash, and around $14.75 at peak hours if you have an EZ Pass. It is a “Super Bridge”!
Conversely, my cousin works on maintaining rural Adams County bridges. While these bridges that cross creeks and streams do not carry millions of people a year, they nonetheless provide an important function for farmers, residents and all who need to cross from one side to the other. And one other example for a smaller bridge yet is the footbridge at Heartwell Park in Hastings, which provides for passage over the water, carrying children from one side to the other, an essential bridge for little legs to avoid the long detour around the park.
So I continued my conversation with the students by asking, “If you were a bridge, what kind of bridge would you like to be?” Some said they wanted to be a big bridge, a few said they wanted to be a strong bridge so it would be safe for people to cross over, and “because it would cost money if it was falling apart.”
One of the girls said she wanted to be a clean bridge, and another starry-eyed girl said she wanted to be a magic bridge. The point of my questioning was to lead them to a place of understanding that they are a bridge between God and their neighbor, so that they could share God’s mercy.
The word ‘pont,’ from the word pons, is the Latin word for ‘bridge.’ We’ve heard of a ‘pontoon’ boat—a water bridge. Sometimes we hear of a priest being ‘pontifex.’ The ‘fex’ is a word for ‘builder,’ the root of our word for ‘factory’—where things are built.
The Super Bridge—the Pontifex Maximus or the Supreme Bridge Builder, is Jesus Christ. It is he who makes it possible for us to pass from this life to the next, to touch Heaven and our Father, and for our Father to touch us, His children, through Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. The Bridge to eternity is crossed over in our celebration of the Eucharist, particularly in the Eucharistic prayer when the words of Jesus are spoken in thanksgiving to our Father. We participate in receiving Heaven, and Heaven receiving us.
Knowing Jesus is the Supreme Bridge Builder, and knowing we are grafted to him by grace, you and I are called to be a smaller bridge, but nonetheless, an important one for those who need to cross over to eternal life. We participate in Christ’s priesthood when we provide this gift after having been touched by grace as we lay down our lives as a gift for others.
Every time we touch Christ, we experience a new energy and healing, our bridge is strengthened and cleaned. From one individual, to a married couple; from our families to our consecrated priests and religious, all need the healing mercy of Jesus, and we all want to be good bridges.
How blessed each one of us is who have received the gift of Christ’s healing forgiveness for our sins and strengthening grace. And having been healed and strengthened ourselves, we in turn are capable of being the bridge to healing and strength because we have Jesus within. He is the great power within us that we can offer to our world. It is the great power we have as children of the Father and disciples of the Son—the Supreme Bridge Builder, the Pontifex Maximus.
