Integration 1 John Austin Hatch Moreau FYE 3/4/22 Prof. Chan John Austin Hatch: A Life Lived Friends, today we come together to celebrate the life of my brother and good friend, John Austin. He has followed our parents Austin and Elizabeth into the hand of God. I’m sure mom is surprised he arrived first. She has probably mentioned how he hasn’t called her in a while. However, we should mourn the passing of our brother. We can also envy him, for he has ‘run the race’ and ‘kept the faith,’ as St. Paul says. We can also be happy for him, and even for ourselves, who don’t have to deal with him any more. John Austin always liked to say, “The more time I spend away from my work, the better that work will be.” (“Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Lyer - Moreau FYE Week One). Now we don’t have to address the surprising amount of evidence compiled by his college roommates that suggests he applied this maxim more thoroughly than he should have. All joking aside, John Austin was a compassionate individual. He lived out the words of Pope Francis, often asking his kids, “What is tenderness? It is the love that comes close and becomes real. It is a movement that starts from our heart and reaches the eyes, the ears and the hands.” (“Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by His Holiness Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven). He was a man that loved up close, whether it was his children, siblings, students or friends. For him this meant loving with his deeds. As a father he constantly worked to have time for children and his wife, even if that justified more backpacking trips than it should have. As a teacher, he was committed to his role as mentor and example. Many of his https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript former advisees are here today, and I am sure we can attribute his influence to them having their top collar buttons buttoned. Personally, we always had our Thursday call, where any topic was fair game. Thursday nights might be when I miss him the most. Let me return to the beginning. John Austin was born way back in 2003, the second of seven kids, and herald of the coolest child in the family. There’s a reason he’s named after John the Baptist. When he was seven, we left Maryland for the first time, and moved to Houston Texas where our dad was the assistant headmaster of a new school. It was a short stay, only two years, but we learned a lot. As they say, “Every experience shapes you in some way, whether you realize it at the time or not.” (“Navigating Your Career Journey” by the Meruelo Family Center For Career Development - Moreau FYE Week Four). I think for JA the biggest take away was the spirit of adventure. We saw that the school was successful, unique, and awesome, even though it lacked so many things that other schools had. Since our dad was one of the leaders, we knew when things went wrong, and how hard it was to have all that responsibility. Still, from a young age, I learned, and I know John Austin did too, that some things are worth the sacrifice. When we moved back to Maryland, both of us attended The Heights School, a small all-boys Catholic school that I am sure most of you know about. There our education continued, in academic subjects and things that mattered. In the spirit of Opus Dei, the organization that ran the school, we learned how our work could be an offering to God. this John Austin encountered later as well, in the work of Aria Swarr, whom he regularly read in his later life. The idea of always asking, “‘How can I use these 5 minutes?’ And I decided to pray to God for those 5 minutes.” (“Five Minutes” by Aria Swarr - Moreau FYE Week Six). I think this expresses his attitude well. Nothing ever frustrated him as much as wasted time. Similarly, he was a man of prayer. A daily communicant for over 60 years, he wanted everyone to know the joy of the https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/transform/why-does-god-allow-suffering/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022 sacraments. One time when we were at mass together after college, he came out of the CHurch so fired up that he jumped on our car and started shouting. If you have any idea how quiet he was you will understand the uniqueness of this moment. John Austin’s professional life was mostly devoted to his teaching career. A former president of Notre Dame, his alma mater, once said, “We don’t prove anything by burning something down, we prove something by building it up.” ("Hesburgh" Produced by Jerry Barca and Christine O'Malley - Moreau FYE Week Two). and I promise you he was a builder, even if he could tear you down in three sarcastic sentences. Beginning just after college, he began his teaching career at a startup school in New York. Throughout his career, he would go on to help start four different schools in three states, working anywhere from the math department to director of admissions. He once told me that one of his best friends from high school had said to him, “I think something that’s difficult to say, but good for you to hear, is that you can be rather passive.” (William Grannis). Given what I have outlined here, this can be hard to believe. But John Austin said that this moment had actually been one that he looked back to and always tried to work on. He proved himself by building himself up, and by building up others. I read in a book once that “Two key virtues are crucial to give oneself away: wisdom and courage. Wisdom is more than knowledge and wisdom preeminently knows that the other is other.” (“Three Key Questions” by Fr. Michael Himes - Moreau FYE Week Three). I am an old man, so I feel I can say, wisdom can only come with time. And before we have wisdom, we need to act with our own courage, but another’s wisdom. I mourn the loss of my brother's counsel, just as I mourn the loss of my father’s. But I know that even I have picked up a little wisdom over the years, and I can say that from examples of men like the one we honor today, that we only have so much to give, but with the power of God that mustard seed can be transformed into a great tree. https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9 https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/40288/files/471202?module_item_id=145988 It is in thanksgiving of a great tree of service that I can say, I thank God for my brother, John Austin Hatch.