Testing an adage

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is an adage meaning that complex and sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image, which conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a mere verbal description.¹

Well, maybe. Above is a picture from my personal collection—whose meaning and essence is, I believe, more effectively conveyed when accompanied by a few words.

But first, study the photo: the hillside, the rows of kneeling soldiers, some with missals, the sandbag kneelers, the vested priest, the altar server to his right and the sand bag to his right that he’s not using, the stone altar, tabernacle, crucifix, candles, the barren trees, furrowed dirt road, the military truck in the distance … take your time, there’s a lot to it, it’s beautiful in a dozen ways.

Did you come up with a thousand words?

No?

Let me add a few:

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The scene is Korea. The year is 1952. The men gathered for Mass are soldiers of the noted Third Infantry Division, nicknamed “Rock of the Marne”—the division that World War II Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy of To Hell and Back movie fame served in.

The celebrant is the late Father Richard Wersing, C.S.Sp., a United States Army chaplain, Pittsburgh native, and a religious of the Congregation of Holy Ghost Fathers (now Spiritans). He was a friend and gifted me the photo.

Given the semi-permanent structure of the stone altar constructed by the men—surely a labor of love—and the sandbag kneelers, this is likely Hill 355 where Father Dick often gathered GIs for Mass; sometimes only a few and other times over 100. It became known as “The Hillside Chapel.”

It was on Hill 355 when once during Mass—according to an eyewitness I spoke with years ago—all of a sudden, the enemy started shelling the position. The GIs had been trained to duck and put their helmets back on. They had been off because they were “in church,” so they put them back on and kept them on for the remainder of the Mass. As the eyewitness looked up at Father Wersing, he was still standing up continuing to say Mass like nothing else mattered except the completion of the Mass. Some enemy shells had landed nearby and fortunately no one was hit, however dirt and mud had splattered Father’s vestments.

I asked Father Dick about this episode. He said that he heard a shell fly past his head during the Consecration but thought since it didn’t hit him that “God wanted me to finish.”

And he did.

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Chaplain Richard F. Wersing served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He died in 2006 at age 96 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I attended the burial. May he and all the men pictured who have died, rest in peace.

1. Wikipedia definition.