Subject: Re: Fr. O'Donovan interview
From: <[email-masked]>
To: "Missy Owens" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Alexander S. Mackler" <[email-masked]>, "Valerie Biden Owens" <[email-masked]>, "Jill Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Hallie Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>, "Ashley Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2015 12:36:58 +0000 (UTC)

Beautiful

Sent from Xfinity Con=ect Mobile App

------ Original Message ------
From: Alex Snyder-Mackler
To: Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, A=hley Biden, Hallie Biden, Missy Owens, Valerie Owens, Ted Kaufman, Eric Sc=werin
Sent: October 23, 2015 at 7:51 AM
Subject: Fr. O=Donovan interview

Thought you might be interested in this answer from Father O=;Donovan, in which he sort of compares Beau to Jesus:

=div>And so in the homily, whether people noticed this or not, I actuall= tried to draw an identification between Beau and Jesus, and in the first =aragraph I described the loss that his death entailed by saying that, &ldq=o;We had hoped that he would be the one, we had put our trust in him,&rdqu=; or words to that effect, which are the words that the disciples on their=way to Emmaus speak, when they speak to Jesus without recognizing him. So = was consciously trying to speak of our hopes for this young man the way p=ople had hoped in Jesus and then faced his death, and then hoped never the=less.

Well, it was a very, it was a very painful m=ment shared by a lot of people and instinctively — I don’t kno= how to put this without crying. Beau Biden was, by any measure, an extrao=dinary young man. He was 46 when he died, but he was never the less a youn= man so clearly at the beginning of what might be hoped for. He became the=attorney general of the state; it was widely expected that he would run fo= governor, unless you really knew him and the immediate family well becaus= the original diagnosis of the brain tumor was very severe. And he was a m=n of extraordinary generosity as his brother Hunter (CO ’92), who we=t to Georgetown, and Beau went to Penn, but, as Hunter said, his first mem=ry, Hunter’s first memory of life, was waking up in that hospital be= after the accident where his mother was killed and his little baby sister= And his brother Beau was leaning across from the bed next to his holding =is hand and looking intently into his eyes and saying repeatedly, “I=love you, I love you.” And then Hunter said, “And that was the=story of my brother’s life. If you needed something, he took your ha=d.” And the president, in his beautiful and very personal eulogy, sa=d of Beau, “He was the most popular politician in Delaware,” a=d then he looked down at Joe Biden and said, “Sorry Joe.”

And at the=end of Hunter’s eulogy he said, “So that was my brother, and I=rsquo;m proud — but what I’m most proud of is that he took my =and first.” I would never have been asked to preside at that funeral=mass or give a homily if I hadn’t been at Georgetown all those years= If I hadn’t come to know Joe as senator and more recently as the vi=e president. If I hadn’t gotten to know his sister, Valerie, who too= care of the boys after their mother’s death. Some of her children w=nt to Georgetown. There are young members of the family hoping now to go t= Georgetown.

It had a lot to do with Georgetown and Washington, and it felt very=much like being home, because there were so many people there from Congres=, President Clinton was there with Hillary Clinton in the front pew next t= the Obamas. Mitch McConnell was there, Lindsey Graham I think was there; =embers of the Republican side of the House and Senate. I didn’t thin= of it then, but as I look back, I’m proud that that’s the kin= of situation where Georgetown could make a contribution. Being a universi=y in the nation’s capital and being in a position to respond to some=hing really aching and painful beyond words, but something hopeful and fai=hful even more beyond words.

The night before the funeral I wrote to Hunter and=said, “Tomorrow will be very hard, Hunter, but it will be somewhere =ull of grace and hope.” And I got off the computer and put that line=into the homily, because I hadn’t thought of it before. That was tru=; it was like dying with Jesus, but hoping you would be one with him forev=r. And so in the homily, whether people noticed this or not, I actually tr=ed to draw an identification between Beau and Jesus, and in the first para=raph I described the loss that his death entailed by saying that, “W= had hoped that he would be the one, we had put our trust in him,” o= words to that effect, which are the words that the disciples on their way=to Emmaus speak, when they speak to Jesus without recognizing him. So I wa= consciously trying to speak of our hopes for this young man the way peopl= had hoped in Jesus and then faced his death, and then hoped never the les=.

Tha=’s part of our university’s tradition. John Carroll, our found=r, was an ardent republican in the sense of supporting the new republic. H= wrote the prayer that was used at George Washington’s inauguration.=We have this immense honor and responsibility of a special connection with=the government of our great country, and I was given trust, the trust of t=at institution for a time, and from the very beginning I thought, “T=is is a great trust, and I will do the best I can with it, and then hand i= on because it’s only for a time,” which was actually a great =elief. It was not something I had to do so there is a freedom in that.

That&rsqu=;s a rather philosophical answer to your question, but it’s the deep=r truth. We’ll always be in Washington. No matter how international =nd global, increasingly international and global. … That’s ou= heart and the heart of its students because of whom the faculty comes tog=ther, for whom the money is raised to support the teaching and the housing=of the students and their activities, and because of whom, students and th= faculty, all the facilities are built, but it starts with the students ar=und whom a faculty gathers in the hopes that these will be young women and=men as Jesuits say, “for others,” or responsible for a better =orld. What better thing could you be about?

Georgetown University The Hoya

On God, Beau =iden, and a Hilltop Dining Hall

=a style="text-decoration:none;color:#737373"> Georgetown Universit= The Hoya

I had the great honor — it wa= a very painful day — but the great honor of celebrating Beau Bid=n's funeral Mass and preaching at that Mass in early ...

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