Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 8
Thursday, November 18,1999
By Kathy Beirnes
Catholic News Service
a
F ur friend Jay was very sick.
His lungs caused him terrible pain,
but the doctors could not find any
thing wrong when they did scans.
Finally they located the cause of his
pain. He had cancerous tumors on
the outside of his lungs.
We began praying for him to re
cover. All his friends stormed heaven.
He was such a good
and giving man,
and he should still
have had many
years to live, but it
was not to be.
The first opera
tion revealed that
there was wide
spread damage. He
decided against in
tensive chemo
therapy, and the
nature of our
prayers changed.
Now we prayed
for the grace of a
happy life in this
world while it
lasted, and the
presence of the
Lord by his side as
he passed from this
world to the full
ness of life with
God.
We lived at a
distance from Jay
and made the trip
to see him one last
time. The rest of
the time our
prayers kept us
connected with
him and his fam
ily-
The friends who
lived near Jay
spent the last
weeks taking
turns at his side,
praying with him,
singing the Bible
songs he loved so much, and gener
ally praying with their voices, hearts
and presence.
God was good to give us the privi
lege of knowing Jay and being part
with him of the mystical body of
Christ.
Prayer unfolds as events unfold
in our lives. It becomes less par
ticular and more humble. And as
prayer does so, it reveals more of
God to us, allowing the voice and
will of God to take over from our
human wisdom and desires.
One day I was scrubbing the
kitchen floor, praying without
words by just keeping the image of
that sleeping boy in my mind, when
I was flooded with a sense of well
being. I felt God was speaking to
me, telling me not to worry because
all was well.
That night we learned the boy
had come out of the coma that after
noon.
Prayer, we have been told since
childhood, is a way of knocking on
ride to heaven and then decide
whether they want to stay there. It
describes many different kinds of
people and the reasons they choose
to hold on to their own ideas, even
when those ideas separate them
from God; the reasons they don’t
embrace the love and mercy heaven
represents.
One character who lives in
heaven says, “There are only two
kinds of people in the end: those who
say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and
all
“I
1 think now of the knocks on my door. More often
than not, it was a neighborhood child asking if one of
my children was at home.... I think that is why we
knock on God’s door too — not in order to request
anything other than the very presence of the divine.”
God’s door. I think now of the
knocks on my door. More often than
not, it was a neighborhood child
asking if one of my children was at
home and could come outdoors.
I think that is why we knock on
God’s door too — not in order to
request anything other than the
very presence of the divine.
■ ■ ■
C.S. Lewis wrote a book called
The Great Divorce. It talks about
people in hell who get to take a bus
those to whom God says, ‘Thy will
be done.’ All that are in hell choose
it.... No soul that seriously and con
stantly desires joy will ever miss it.
Those that seek, find.”
God loves our loved ones better
and more perfectly than we do.
What ultimately is best for them is
what God has in mind for them and
for us.
In the last few days of Jay’s life, a
friend of ours sat with him as he
slept a drug-induced sleep. She was
All contents copyright©! 999 by CNS
dozing herself when she realized he
was awake and smiling. “What is it,
Jay?” she asked. “I can’t wait to
meet the Lord,” he told her.
When I heard that story I knew
our prayers for Jay were heard.
The Lord who loved him had so
filled him with desire for his jour-
CNS photo by W. P. Wittman Photography
ney that it conquered the pain.
Prayer connected us to him, it
made us feel useful, it softened the
pain of losing him and it moved us
toward saying — and meaning it
— “Thy will be done.”
(Kathy and Steve Beirnes, mar
ried 32 years, are publishers of Foun
dations, the newsletter for newly
married couples, in partnership with
the National Association of Catholic
Family Life Ministers.)
What difference does prayer make?
We had moved 1,500 miles away
from a number of families we were
very close to, keeping in touch by
phone and visiting at least once a
year. Then one day we got scary
news: The 16-year-old son of one fam
ily was in a coma after being hit by a
car.
We began to pray; prayer took
over our lives. And I began to clean
house. That’s my response to crisis.
(The founder of the Shaker religion
used to tell her followers, “Turn
your hands to work, and your mind
to God,” and that’s my belief when
trouble hits.)
F00DF0RTH0UGHT
In the Advent season the Lord reassures us “that he makes all things new.” I borrowed those words from the
1998 “Message to America” by the church leaders from North, Central, South America and the Caribbean who
participated in the special Synod for America held in Rome.
“He makes all things new.” The words sound nice. But could they become the stuff of real, ongoing prayer? I can
think of a few areas where I might benefit from newness or change: in my listening ability; my perspectives; my
misunderstandings.
What the synod participants had in mind, however, was the situation of the poor. There are always two paths,
they said: “the wide and easy one of acquiescing in the way things are, and the way that is long and hard that leads
to justice (cf. Matthew 7:13-14).” They concluded:
“We must choose the hard path; and during Advent, as we hear the Lord’s assurance that he makes all things
new (cf. Revelation 21:5), may he make us worthy of helping to restore this world in him so that the poor may hope
once again for peace and joy.”
40 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!
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