Good Friday
by Jerry Fuller, OMI
- A story is told in Madeleine L'Engle's book, Walking on Water. An Hasidic rabbi was known for his piety. One day, the feelings of a devoted, young disciple spilled over in exuberance, "My master, I love you!" Looking up from his books the rabbi asked the young man, "My son, do you know what hurts me?" The disciple was taken completely aback and wanted to be sure the rabbi had understood the depth of his adoration. "I'm trying to let you know how much I love you," the young man said, "and you have confused me with your trivial question." The rabbi responded, "Oh, my question is neither confusing nor trivial. For if you don't know what hurts me, how can you truly love me?"
Jesus left us, not only a legacy, but himself, something more than what happens when a person leaves his organs to another upon dying.
- For Chester Szuber, it was the gift of life. The cost,
however, was so dear he almost didn't accept it. The youngest of
his six children -- an exuberant 22-year-old nursing student -- had
been killed in a car accident and it quickly became clear her
heart could be transplanted into his chest. According to an
Associated Press story, the family had little time to decide.
Patti's death on a mountain road in Tennessee came while she was on a trip with a friend before her return to nursing school. The car she was riding in went off a curve in the road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The car hit a rock wall, careened back onto the road and rolled several times. The driver was treated for minor injuries and charged with drunken driving. Patti Szuber, his passenger, was airlifted to a hospital in "extremely critical condition." Her family rushed to Tennessee from Michigan to sit by her side. From the minute Patti Szuber entered the hospital, her prognosis was very poor. By Sunday, she had been pronounced brain dead.
Patti had indicated she wanted to donate her organs, and her family concurred in that decision. The family had two choices once they decided to donate: give the organs to society or specify an individual on the national waiting list whom they knew.
Chester Szuber, Patti's father, had been on the heart transplant waiting list for nearly four years. He was suffering life-threatening heartbeat irregularities and had undergone three open-heart surgeries and two angioplasties in the past 20 years to clear blockages. Test were done that showed the father-daughter transplant was feasible. The decision was made. A team of surgeons flew to Tennessee to remove Patti Szuber's heart.
Five hours and 51 minutes after it had stopped in Tennessee, it was beating in Chester Szuber's chest. Bob Szuber, Patti's brother, said the fact that his sister's heart gave their father new life is helping the family cope with the tragedy. Her liver and kidneys were donated to other recipients. "I'm sure down the road there will be some tough times," he said, but he said his sister is "the happiest little angel in heaven."
Jesus died for our sins. For many of us the idea of sin is a cliché. We really don't believe that we are sinners. "As long as nobody gets hurt," we say. "To err is human, to forgive divine."
- In her book Scandalous Risks, Susan Howatch tells the story
of Venetia Flaxton, a young woman who falls in love with a friend
of the family, who happens to be a clergyman -- in fact, the dean
of the cathedral. They develop a secret love affair. Naturally
they rationalize their behavior. Doubts, however, begin to
paralyze the mind of the young woman. She goes one day to seek
counsel from an elderly priest. Venetia justifies this violation
of ethical and moral rules by arguing that the metaphorical
language of past generations no longer adequately describes God.
Love is all the explanation one needs in today's world.
In an attempt to help Venetia understand the implications of her actions, the priest turns to a contemporary comparison. He says that when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, many people were killed outright. There were others, though, who appeared to be unscathed on the basis of external observation. Yet, unknowingly "they had been contaminated by a great pollutant. It was invisible, but it entered the flesh of those unfortunate victims and settled in their bones and is to this very day busy destroying them." The priest spells out the insidious way in which everything is contaminated by sin. Near the end of the novel, Venetia finally admits the damage of the sin she had so easily rationalized is so serious that she can no longer find God.
A good friend of Father James Gilhooley died. He wrote to his bishop, John Cardinal O'Connor, asking him to drop the widow a a note. Here is what the Cardinal wrote to Mrs. Devaney:
- "These difficult days for you and your family may become a time of great graces if you unite your suffering to those of Christ crucified. All too often we forget that it was not when Our Lord was preaching and teaching that he saved the world. It was, rather, when he was seemingly helpless and abandoned on the cross. There, in the midst of unspeakable anguish and pain, Christ wrought redemption for us. By joining your anxiety and pain to his, you will help countless others open their hearts to His grace and love."