“It could very well be that the goodness of God in my behalf has been manifested not only in the gift of Christian parents, unusual opportunities for education and on and on; the greatest gift of all may have been His summons to the Cross, where I found His continuing self-disclosure.” (p. 372 Treasure in Clay)
The words quoted above come from the last sentence of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s autobiography. I have been reflecting these past days on these word, most especially on “His summons to the Cross,” after I learned of the death of my classmate and brother priest, Fr. Andres Parra. God has blessed us with his goodness in so many ways but it is in the gift of life that we begin the journey, the summons to the ultimate unity with God.
It seems we are always surround by life and death in our world. It is a temptation that we seek to cheapen and degrade life so that death does not define how we live our lives. Fr. Andres was two years my senior and we shared many things. We shared the call of a later vocation in life. We spent a summer together in San Antonio, he working on his English and me on my Spanish, neither too much success during those six weeks. We also shared the reality of a heart attack, and the understanding of how this changes the outlook we have on life. Most of all we shared the gift of serving God in the gift of priesthood as we sat next to each other on the day of our ordination.
It is often at the time of death that we are able to best look back and see the many blessings given and shared, even the blessings of the crosses we bore in life, that make our relationships with one another such precious and holy gifts. This too is part of our Advent journey where we are entering into the mystery of new life in the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, yet we are also looking towards the Cross and how it is ultimately the greatest of all gifts given and shared.
The question of how God is involved in all of this is stuff is the journey that we all share. We share this journey because ultimately it is about life and the life that we live in the love and service of each other. This is the joy of our Advent journey to Jesus. It is the seeing and knowing of Jesus in the stuff and life that surrounds us. How do we respond daily to this great adventure? As many of you know my beard has become a little grey and quite long over this past year. On my day off I often take a morning walk in the neighborhood and enjoy a breakfast out during the walk. The other morning, as I came and sat down, a young boy sitting with his grandmother looked at me with great big eyes and stared and stared and I could see (and hear) him whisper this to his grandmother, “Santa Claus just sat down.” Apparently my belly is growing too. I think his grandmother assured him that in fact I wasn’t Santa Claus but it gave me a chuckle all through my breakfast to be scrutinized and wondered at by this young child.
This moment reminded me, as I seek to remember always, the “who I am” should shine through in “how I am” in the eyes of friend and stranger. Did I eat my meal and drink my coffee with a little more grace under the watchful of the child…you bet I did…but also the question is always…do I seek to be more grace-filled and hope-filled always…even when I am not under the eye?
That is how we complete the circle of God’s grace in our lives as we prepare for the ultimate summons to the Cross.
God bless
Fr. Mark
- Fr. Andres’ heart disease was compounded by his addiction to smoking, as with my Dad’s own death, please pray for those with this addiction and for the health of your parish priests.