The Lippold wire sculpture

From the Gospel according to Mark (5:1-20). They came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him. The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones. Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him, crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!” (Jesus had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”) Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.” And he pleaded earnestly with Jesus not to drive them away from that territory.
             Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside. And they pleaded with him, “Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.” And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned. The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened. As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear. Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their district. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him. But he would not permit him but told him instead, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

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That was quite a dramatic story in the Gospel we just heard. I want to tell you a more contemporary story, about a circus family. In the days before cable TV and streaming, a 3-Ring Circus under a big tent was a big deal, with side shows, lots of animals and lots of acts. Circus people were a breed apart; they were always on the road. Boys and girls dreamed about running away and joining the circus.

There is one special family, who has been performing in circuses since 1780 beginning in Germany and Austria. In the late 1800’s, they became trapeze artists. Karl was born 1905 and began performing in 1922, when he was 17. His family, the Wallendas, became famous with a unique act – a four-person pyramid walking on the high wire. They were brought to the US in 1928 to perform in The Ringling Brothers Circus. But their net was lost in shipping, and from then on, they never performed on the high wire with a net under them. Once in the 1930’s the wire shifted and the four in the pyramid fell but caught themselves on the wire. They were present at the greatest circus tragedy ever, in 1944 – a fire that killed 168 people and all the animals in Hartford, Connecticut. Back then, the tents were waterproofed with paraffin and kerosene. The Wallendas were just beginning their act and, from high in the air, Karl spotted the flames and signaled to the band leader, who sounded the alarm. The flames spread quickly, but all the family made it to the ground and out safely, with only one being injured.

The Wallendas in Sarasota, Florida

In 1947 Karl developed a seven-person, three-level pyramid, a spectacular act the family performed for the next 16 years. On January 30, 1962, 61 years ago, in Detroit – with the pyramid two-thirds of the way across the wire, the front man on the first level – Karl’s son Didi – suddenly called out, “I can’t hold on any longer,” and his knees buckled. Three of the four men on the first level fell and hit the ground. Because there was no net, Didi was killed, as was Karl’s son-in-law, and his nephew. Mario; another of Karl’s sons was permanently paralyzed. Karl, who was on the second level, and his brother, Hermann, fell to the wire but held on. The girl on the top level landed on Karl, but he was able to hold on to her until a makeshift net could be placed under them. In the course of this accident, Karl suffered a double hernia and a cracked pelvis, the girl suffered a concussion. But the very next night, January 31, 1962 – with a son, a son-in-law and a nephew dead, another son permanently paralyzed, and himself injured – Karl was back up on the wire performing. “I feel like a dead man on the ground,” he said; “The wire is my life.” The Wallendas only did the three-level pyramid twice more: once with Karl in 1963, and again in 1977 by his grandchildren. Karl continued to perform on a smaller scale. In 1970, he walked a wire 700 feet high for 1200 feet, across the Talullah Falls Gorge in Georgia. In March 1978, at the age of 73, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Karl died in a fall from the wire, caused by the improper connection and support of the wire. “Life is being on the wire,” he said: “Everything else is just waiting.”

Confessionals in Abbey church

The Wallendas’ life did not stop with Karl. Steve Wallenda, his son, held the world’s record for wire walking, 4162 feet. He died in 1999 in an accident. Karl Wallenda’s great grandchildren perform even today. A reporter asked one of them, who performed as a child sitting on their father’s shoulders as he walked the wire, “Aren’t you afraid?” “No,” he said, “because that’s my father.” What an amazing family. What heroism and courage they have. What tragedy they have experienced. What a life they live. And that is life. The philosopher F.W. Nietzsche was fond of the life metaphor of a man walking a tightrope stretched over an abyss between what we were and what we will become, between the past and the future; a dangerous crossing, a dangerous looking-back, an apprehensive looking-forward, a dangerous trembling and halting. You have heard many times:

The Abbey is a family. The church is a family. If one of us stumbles in our act, we all fall together; if one of us takes hold of the wire, we are saved together. We are all connected. Life is walking a straight, narrow wire for us. We need to help each other. Each one of us is important to the act up on the wire. After his knees buckled and the pyramid fell, Didi Wallenda never had the chance to say, “I’m sorry.” But you know what his father Karl would have said: “If you spend your life on the wire, you’re going to fall sometime. It’s important to get back up there immediately. And you must try very hard not to do it again.”

What do you have in you and in your life to help you back up on the wire after your knees buckle and you fall? We all fall, you know. We all pull each other down by our failings, by giving in to our weaknesses, by our sins. But we do have a net. We do have in our family – the church – the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is a way to say I’m sorry to God and to all of us. And you know what God will say: “It’s okay – get back up and try very hard not to fall again.” And he will carry you on His shoulders back up on the wire. Don’t let your family down. Take advantage of the net that God placed under you. We just completed the Christmas season. Hard as it is to believe, Lent will begin on February 14, five weeks from yesterday. What better way to begin to prepare yourself, to prepare the way of the Lord in yourself.