By Dr. Jason Heron, ObISB
My name is Jason Heron. I’m a Benedictine oblate and an associate professor of theology at Mount Marty University, down in scenic, cow-smelling Yankton. I live here with my wife, Hannah, to whom I’ve been married for 23 years. We have six children: Our eldest, Margeaux, 19, is studying art at the College of St. Benedict in northern Minnesota, and Eloise, 16, James, 15, Thomas, 13, Frances, 10, and Lily, 9, are still with us at home. They love music, skateboarding, movies, drawing, history, bonfires, parties and potty humor.
We moved here from Dayton, Ohio, in 2017. I’d finished my doctoral studies in theology at the University of Dayton and was looking for a university job teaching theology. This may come as a shock to some of you, but there aren’t a ton of jobs for theologians in the U.S. right now. We don’t seem to be very useful in the world of buying and selling.
But my predecessor at Mount Marty had to leave her position for family reasons, and so there was a vacancy, and Mount Marty isn’t ruled by the same laws that rule the world of buying and selling. The school thought it could still be useful to have a theologian around. My dad’s friend, Joe Rutten, had just been made the director of Mount Marty’s Benedictine Leadership Institute. He heard that I was finished with my studies and was looking for a job. He called me. A month later, we were driving to South Dakota.
We stopped in Indianapolis at lunchtime to watch the solar eclipse at a truck stop. We ate sub sandwiches and alternated between crying and saying, “Oh. Wow!”
Since that strange day, we’ve come to love Yankton. We have good friends here. I play in a rock and roll band. Hannah, who is a registered nurse, works at a crisis pregnancy center. The kids are happy. We have a beautiful house.
This all makes strange sense. I found out once we moved here that there are deeper reasons for our unexpected move to Yankton. Back in 2011, when I entered my doctoral studies at Dayton, my mom was teaching water aerobics at the wellness center in Sioux Falls. One of her regular participants was Sister Margretta Doyle, a Benedictine from Sacred Heart Monastery, Mount Marty’s sponsoring institution. When my mom told Sr. Margretta that I had been accepted into a doctoral program, she said, “Well, I’ll just pray that he gets a job at Mount Marty.” Six years later, I was walking into my first class at the Mount.
A lot has happened since. It has been a great gift to be a part of the momentum at Mount Marty. And we are also grateful for this diocese. We love the St. Martin of Tours Pastorate. Over the years, I have become more involved in education at the diocesan level. I help with intellectual formation in the propaedeutic program for prospective seminarians; I teach periodically in the deacon formation program; and I regularly participate in the School of Missionary Discipleship.
Through these partnerships, I’ve come to know our beloved diocesan theologian, and my friend, Chris Burgwald. Chris has accepted some new responsibilities in the diocese, so he is giving up his monthly column here in The Bishop’s Bulletin, and I’m taking the column over for him until he wants it back.
Chris and I have a lot in common theologically, but we are not identical. Chris’s specialty and passion lie more within the systematic and biblical forms of theology, whereas my specialty and passion lie within moral, social and political forms of theology. I also have a background in literature and creative writing, which probably explains why I’m interested in the type of theology I am: I love to think about personal and social life through the beautiful lens provided by our Catholic faith. Our faith helps me understand the stories we are telling and the ones we are living with our lives. This passion for personal and social life will surely shape my writing here.
Chris’s column has an apologetic focus. That is, it’s intended to enable Catholics to give a rational account of why they believe what they believe. Not every Catholic is capable of giving such an account, and not every Catholic needs to give such an account. But for those of us who are capable and who need to, I’m excited to help. If I do my job, we will learn more about the riches we’ve inherited from our ancestors in the faith, and if we can do that, then we can tell a compelling story about how Jesus has made possible a new way for us in this world.
Every generation of humans needs Christians who can tell such stories. Thanks to our faith, we have a lot of hope and love to offer our neighbors. If you think of it, please pray for me so that this column can edify the people of God in a way that would please the Lord.
Talk to you soon.
