Thanks Russ!

Details: 30 April 2010

Not long ago, while playing rummy with my mother and father, in the midst of the fray I said, “Dad, do you love me?” “No!!” he exclaimed, “Not while I’m playing cards, this is serious business!”

Of course my father loves me, even though he refuses to say so while playing cards, especially when he is losing.

I have an aunt who loved me tremendously but had a hard time verbalizing it. Whenever she thought I was blue, she would make spaghetti, cookies and pies for me. I loved looking sad in her presence because I soon would be enjoying delicious pasta complete with the trimmings. I would always thank and tell her I loved her and she would never say it in return. I knew she loved me and always received a great big hug and kiss.

Later, while on her death bed, suffering from intractable end-stage congestive heart failure, while struggling for every breath, I walked into her hospital room. She immediately rallied for a brief moment sat up and said in a loud voice, “Chris, when I get out of here, I’m going to Stoysich House of Sausage and will make you spaghetti!!!” Everyone in the room and I knew she would never leave the hospital and that death was near. I said, “Aunt Tina, I love you!” She said loudly, “Same!!!” This was the closest she could come to saying it. That said, I did not need to hear it, I knew she loved me. She died a holy death, having seen the priest before entering eternity.

Thanks to John the Evangelist, we know that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8; 4:16) and not a feeling or an emotion. We also know that the evidence of our love of God is our love of neighbor (1Jn 3:11-4:21). And further, the evidence of our love of neighbor is whether we sacrifice ourselves for them, the barometer of selfgiving. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16). “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom of all” (1 Tim 2:5-6).

Recently Russ Reinig, a past Cor Christi winner and co-founder of our food pantry, passed away into eternity. He was a long-time volunteer who even bought a pickup truck years ago to facilitate picking up food donations for CSS. Through the years I would see Russ in our food pantry, day or night, during and after hours. Why did he give of himself so selflessly? Because he loved his neighbor, especially the poor and hungry. Why did he do so? Because of his intense love of God.

Please keep the happy repose of this beautiful soul precious in God’s eyes in your prayers.

If you ever thought of volunteering for Catholic Social Services, please call us and remember, “Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph 5:1-2).”

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace, Amen!