Obituary: Daniel Berrigan

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Obituary: Daniel Berrigan | Blessed are the peacemakers; Daniel Berrigan SJ, priest, poet and anti-war activist, died on April 30th, aged 94. Economist, May 21, 2016.
http://www.economist.com/news/ob ... aged-94-blessed-are

Note:
(a) "If God willed, it might mean lives saved, swords beaten into ploughshares and the world smiling with peace."

will (vt, vi): "wish, desire"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/will

(b) "In the febrile America of the Vietnam-war years, however, it more often meant obloquy, humiliation, scorn, the hand of a federal agent on his collar. Between 1970 and 1995 he spent a quarter of his time in prison, in denim garb"
(i) febrile (adj; "Did you know?" for etymology)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/febrile
(ii) obloquy (n; from Latin obloqui to speak against, from ob- against + loqui to speak)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obloquy
(iii) Prison uniform
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_uniform

Quote: section 4 United States of America: "work clothes were introduced, perhaps because of the concept of honest labor helping to turn an inmate into an honest citizen. Blue jeans and light blue denim or chambray work shirts became the norm, a tradition still followed in some state prison systems today. In federal prisons, this concept was introduced in the form of khaki pants and shirts, still in use.

(c) "as he liked to say, if you were serious about Jesus, you had better start considering whether you’d look good on wood."

Daniel Berrigan said, "If you want to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood."  You guess right: the wood is an euphemism for the cross -- the tool of execution.

(d) "on May 17th 1968 in a parking lot in Catonsville, Maryland. He and eight others * * * made a blaze there of 378 stolen files of young men about to be drafted to fight in Vietnam. * * * He apologised over the pyre for 'the angering of the orderlies in the front parlour of the charnel house' * * * Come, Holy Spirit! Like a Pentecost, Catonsville lit up people's hearts, a spreading fire of protest across America."
(i) Catonsville, Maryland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catonsville,_Maryland
(lies to the west of Baltimore along the city's border.)
(ii) charnel (n; from Latin carn-, caro flesh — more at CARNAL): "a building or chamber in which bodies or bones are deposited —called also charnel house"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/charnel
(iii) I do not know what the "orderly" here means (as a noun).
(iv) Pentecost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecost
(seven weeks after Easter Day; descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles)

is celebrated as a feast or holiday.

(e) "The two chief influences in his life—Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and Thomas Merton, a Trappist philosopher"
(i) Dorothy Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Day
(1897 – 1980)

Not to be confused with Doris Day (1922 or 1924 - ; an American actress)
(ii) Trappists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trappists
(The order takes its name from La Trappe Abbey or [in French] La Grande Trappe, located in the French province of Normandy

(f) "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam[:] * * * a distant, blind-as-a-bat deity * * * His hope sometimes seemed forlorn* * *
(i) Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_maiorem_Dei_gloriam
(ii) Latin English dictionary:
* ad (preposition): "(direction) toward, to"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ad
* majorem: "accusative masculine singular of mājor"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/majorem

The comparative of "māgnus," Latin adjective "mājor" means "larger, bigger, greater."
* deī (n): "genitive [ie, possessive] singular of [noun masculine] deus [god]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dei
* gloriam: "accusative singular of [noun feminine] glōria [glory]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gloriam
(iii) The phrase "(as) blind as a bat" means not seeing well. But many in the Wb point out that this is untrue.
(iv) forlorn (adj): "nearly hopeless <a forlorn attempt>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forlorn