Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Click here for an audio of the sermon
Our brother Laurence Arthur Eugene Harms had a rich and productive life but not, I think, an easy one. He was born into a loving family in Rock Island IL but at age 8 developed a neurological disorder for which he had no name. It was of course narcolepsy, a condition which both limited him and shaped him for the rest of his life. It wasn't until he was 20 years old that the condition was diagnosed and given a name. Medications were made available to help keep him awake during the day, though he never enjoyed a full night’s sleep. But despite this he was a man who was intensely interested in the natural world and it how it worked. He loved the sciences--chemistry, physics, biology and later, as we all know, astronomy--and studied at Augustana, a small Lutheran college not far from home. He had to leave college after two years to work in a factory for a year to raise funds to pay for his education. He returned to school with enough money and the new medicine which allowed him to attain his bachelor’s degree and to begin a seven-year period of teaching sciences throughout Illinois. He loved the teaching, though he often had difficulties with managing the students. So when he turned 30, he and a friend set out for California for a summer job which turned into much more than a summer job. He first went door to door selling Watkins spices and then began working with the International American Tuna Commission where a great adventure took shape: he spent three months at sea on a tuna ship during which time they caught 200 tons of tuna.
Always a devout High-Church Episcopalian, Laurence--or Gene as he was then known--heard that a monk would be in the San Diego area speaking about missionary work in Liberia. That monk was Brother Raymond Gill, OHC, who explained to the gathered crowd that they desperately needed a science teacher in West Africa. At the end of the presentation, Eugene went up to Father Gill and said: “Father you have your science teacher.” And off he went to Liberia teaching for two years at the Holy Cross school there. During that time, he became a Companion of the Order and took the name Laurence. Laurence was an amazingly effective teacher under somewhat primitive circumstances. Perhaps because he was himself a bit slow and knew what it was to struggle, he paced himself and his students to the point that many of them excelled in the sciences and in knowledge generally. Among his students was the future vice president of Liberia along with many who became doctors, nurses, government officials or successful entrepreneurs.
It was also at this time Laurence felt increasingly called to explore religious life as a vowed member of the Order of the Holy Cross. He entered the community in 1962 as one of only two laymen and made his life profession in 1966. He had struggled with the question of whether he wanted to be a monk or a teacher, and when he was sent back to Liberia as a teacher and a monk shortly after his life profession, he discovered he could be both. He stayed there seven years and ultimately spent 13 years teaching in Liberia.
Laurence loved the life there and the Liberian peoples and spoke often of the excitement of going out on trek, that is on journey through the jungle to spread the gospel while always, always respecting the variety of both indigenous and Islamic faiths that they encountered. And--those of us who know Laurence will understand this--he often got in trouble. Once while teaching in Ghana, he was expelled from the country as a CIA spy! Laurence also suffered from various tropical illnesses, including amoebic dysentery and malaria, and yet bounced back to continue his teaching, loving his students and being loved by them in return. He was to teach in the Bahamas in the mid-1970s and then again in Ghana in the mid-1980s where he was the novice master, which is hard for me to wrap my mind around except when I remember that Laurence was a man who loved people and who saw Jesus in them and walked with them along the way toward new and larger life.
Laurence loved to travel when he could. He traveled through the Middle East. He traveled to the Holy Land. And when his astronomical interests developed, he travelled around the world to experience several eclipses of the sun. Alas, when he went to the South Pacific on one such journey he totally missed the solar eclipse because he was involved in trying to set up his camera. That, too, was our Laurence.
During these decades Laurence struggled with the burdens that narcolepsy put on him. People often made fun of him when he nodded off or collapsed in a cataplexy. He was embarrassed by this and was often beset by a sense of inferiority. But his transparent welcome and simple acceptance of others helped him overcome this time and again. And he did have his resurrection of sorts. When I lived with him in Santa Barbara, he was offered medication which for the first time in his life since age 8, allowed him to sleep through the night. He said it was like becoming a new person and indeed it was.
Laurence had other challenges and setbacks. Like the other brothers living in Santa Barbara at the time, Laurence lost all his possessions in the tragic fire which burned down the monastery in 2008. But he persevered, continuing with his astronomical interests. Many were the guests, myself included, who for the first time saw the rings of Saturn through his telescope or the near approach of the Hale-Bopp comet. He was part of the Astronomical Unit at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and took delight in its presentations and his work in the observatory. And he had a touch with fame. Once a friend of ours arranged a dinner party for him at Cal Tech and across the dining room was none other than the world renown theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking who was, as many of you know, paralyzed and rendered unable to speak by a progressive motor neuron disease. .That didn't stop Laurence who shot across the room to Professor Hawking, told him how much he admired him, then laid his hands on his head and gave him a blessing. It was the greatest affirmation that Laurence could offer anyone, and I think Hawking, though an atheist, realized that. At least, I hope he did.
Laurence could tell wonderful, often very funny, stories about himself, and our community has its own rich store of sayings and malapropisms that came from Laurence, things like the famous liver-shaped swimming pool or the local tribe that slaughtered half a cow for a feast. Laurence could also be forgetful. He tells the story of offering a school of prayer in Bolgatanga, in the northern part of Ghana:
“I remember one time, I had a wonderful village there. I had a number of people, about 20 people gathered together. I was teaching the Jesus prayer and centering prayer. So I got them all started on that and they were all centering. So then I had to go someplace, go to the bathroom, and I left and I forgot them. Here I was an hour later, and I remembered: ‘Oh my God those people are still there praying’ and I came back over an hour later and the people were still there praying. I hadn't intended more than 15 or 20 minutes, but they were so faithful that they stayed there and prayed. I learned a lesson from that all right.”
I'm sure they did as well.
It's tempting to reduce Laurence's life to narcolepsy, or teaching, or astronomy or even origami. All of those were important touchstones for him. But behind it all and suffusing it all, transparently so, was a deep love of Jesus. Repeatedly Laurence expressed his certainty that Jesus was with him and indeed protecting him and guiding him. And given some of the places and journeys that he was on and situations he found himself in, the fact that he came through them safely makes me think he was quite right. At the end of the oral history that he shared with his family and his dear friends Karla Marie and Remy, Laurence says the following:
“God was always with me. I never doubted it that even at times when I was not happy, not on the ball, or not employed or something. God was still my friend. Some people have three: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Some of them find God in…the Father, the Almighty. Others find God in the Holy Spirit; God is closer to them through the Holy Spirit. With me God is friend, Jesus Christ is my friend. I mean the others are as well, but the emphasis is on: he loves me and he cares for me and looks out for me as a friend would. So, you might consider that wherever you may be.”
For Laurence it was always Jesus and all for Jesus. Laurence was not a theologian by any means, but he was a man touched by God’s love who touched others with that same love. He was a man of prayer and compassion and patience and persevering hope…just like his Lord. And we shall miss him.
Brother Laurence Arthur Eugene Harms, may you rest soundly in peace. And may you rise in glory with Jesus, your friend and guide, your protector and Savior...to Whom be glory and honor, now and forever. Amen.
