Beautiful Goodbye
Heaven blesses us.
For those who did not see the sunset tonight
in Southern California. . . Farewell to the day.
However, the greatest gift we are given in life are the
souls that bless us with their goodness.
Today in our parish we said goodbye to a beloved
priest, who is being reassigned after six years.
There were tears, yes. And smiles.
Father Agustine Escobar is a priest filled with joy,
and sanctity, and humility. He personifies the type
of priest that Francois Mauriac wrote about:
HOLY PRIESTS
By
Francois Mauriac
(1885-1970)
(1885-1970)
People say that there is a scarcity of priests. In truth, what an
adorable mystery it is that there still are any priests! They no longer
have any human advantage. Celibacy, solitude, hatred very often, derision
and, above all, the indifference of a world in which there seems to be no
longer room for them - - such is the portion they have chosen. They have
no apparent power; their task sometimes seems to be centered about material
things, identifying them, in the eyes of the masses, with the staffs of town
halls and of funeral parlors. A pagan atmosphere prevails all around
them. The people would laugh at their virtue if they believed in it, but
they do not. They are spied upon. A thousand voices accuse those who
fall.
As for the others, the great number, no one is surprised to see
them toiling without any sort of recognition, without appreciable salary,
bending over the bodies of the dying, or ambling about the parish schoolyards….
For centuries, since the first Holy Thursday, some men have chosen
to become objects of hatred, without expecting any human consolation.
They have chosen to lose their lives because once Someone made them the
seemingly foolish promise: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he
who loses his life for My Sake will find it.”
But if they did not find their joy even in this world, would they
persevere? “What are You going to do?” said Abbe Perreyve to Christ, the
day before he was ordained. “You are delivering Yourself; You are
abandoning Yourself to me. You surrender your Body to me. I shall
use it for my needs and for the needs of other souls…I shall touch You, I shall
carry You, I shall handle You and You will allow me to do it; I shall
place You on the lips of whom I will; You will never Refuse….”
Indeed, Priests, holy priests, are repaid by an immense Love.
Francoise Mauriac; Catholic writer who won the
Noble Prize (1952) in literature.
(from Holy Thursday An Intimate
Remembrance)
