Divine Mercy

Details: 16 April 2010

I'll never forget the words of Bishop Bruskewitz during a luncheon on a hot summer day when I was a seminarian. He said, “Gentlemen, there are people out there, some of whom have not been born, whose salvation depends on whether you will be there as their priest.”

During the first six months of 2005, I assisted a priest in Mexico City while studying Spanish. I traveled there on weekends from Cuernavaca. It was a complicated three-hour journey, necessitating some walking, several buses, and navigating the massive Mexico City subway system. He was the only priest assigned to a parish with an estimated 70,000 people within its boundaries. Let us compare this to the Diocese of Lincoln with more than 90,000 Catholics with more than 140 active and retired priests. Needless to say, he was happy to have the help.

After a tour of the parish, I noticed a medium-sized hospital a few blocks away. Because of the demographics mentioned above, I understood why he didn’t visit it on a daily basis, attempting to see all who were admitted (the population is estimated to be 88% Catholic with the percentage to be even higher among the elderly). Every Sunday morning after filling a large pix with the Blessed Sacrament I was off to the hospital. The nurses, not having to worry about HIPPA, were eager to inform me which patients were the sickest and closest to death.

One such Sunday, I entered a room with a woman in her early 50s who looked like my sister Barbara. She was thin and struggled for every breath. She was in obvious respiratory distress, nearing the end of her life. She never thought of calling a priest but was relieved to see me. She was brought up Catholic but had fallen away from the practice of the faith and had not been to confession for many years. After she verbalized all of her sins, I raised my hands and said, “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!” I then anointed her and although still in distress, she was in peace. I recalled the bishop’s words.

There were many others like her. Some had received baptism with no exposure to anything of the faith until I walked in the room. Some of them left this world soon after my visit. One man’s heart stopped as I entered his room. As his nurse and I did CPR, we brought him back and after the reception of the sacraments, he died. Again I recalled the bishop’s words, “Gentlemen, there are people out there, some of whom have not been born, whose salvation depends on whether you will be there as their priest.”

During and after the homily by Msgr. David Hintz April 10 at the funeral Mass of Father Mark Tasler, I meditated on what the manifestation of Divine Mercy, the sacramental priesthood of Jesus Christ, is to humanity. Just imagine the many times Father Tasler offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, fed his parishioners the bread of Angels, absolved them of their sins, and anointed the sick preparing them for eternity.

Yes, the sacrament of Holy Orders like the other sacraments, is a manifestation of the mercy of God, making Christ present in the person of the priest. Please keep the happy repose of Father Mark Tasler in your prayers and remember, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Lk 10:2).