Being a dad is sometimes a scary thing. As head of a family, a dad is charged with the care of unique, irreplaceable persons. That care takes so many forms – shelter, food, clothing, education, but most of all salvation. Sometimes the other issues – shelter, food, clothing, education, (not to mention our own selfishness and sin) can get in the way of our most important task related to salvation. Sometimes we can let our responsibilities weigh us down. Times are tough for a lot of families . These times provide moments where we can live or deny our primary call to salvation, ours and our families.
Someone who had a tremendous impact in my life, a priest, died recently from cancer. He was still young, in his 60’s. I understand that there was a group he met with until right before he died. When he was getting to the point when he was unable to meet with them anymore, he told them that he was getting ready to die and that he wanted to show them how a Christian is supposed to die.
I wasn’t there when he said that, but the words echo in my mind, and I can’t help but apply those words to my own life as a father. A father is called to lay down his life for his wife and children like Christ. We must show them how a Christian dies, how a Christian suffers, how a Christian loses his job, how a Christian loses his home, how a Christian sacrifices to provide. Whatever the cross, we must bear it like Christ and die to ourselves. When times are tough, we must go through our dark valleys as Christians – walking in Christ’s own footsteps.
Gentlemen, if you are going through difficulties like we all do at different times. Unite that suffering to Christ, and show your family how a Christian father dies to himself for his family – that is our call. Our families are watching, and there is more than our own salvation at stake. I pray that I and you can die like a Christian in all our struggles now and at the moment of our physical death.
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Reddit]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
When he was getting to the point when he was unable to meet with them anymore, he told them that he was getting ready to die and that he wanted to show them how a Christian is supposed to die.
Rob,
Your account of this priest you knew — may he rest in peace — reminded me of someone I knew.
When I was a sophomore in high school, one of my teachers died after a 22-month battle with liver cancer. He was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known, and a devout Catholic.
After being diagnosed with cancer, he was very public with his students about his willingness to accept his impending death (as well as in the local media, publishing numerous op-ed pieces in the local newspaper, and being interviewed at least once by a local TV station).
Given his strong love for teaching, he taught as long as he could until he became too sick to continue.
A few weeks before he died, he asked one of his good friends — a priest who also taught at our school — to celebrate Mass at his apartment the following Sunday, as by that time, he was homebound. Along with a few other students and parents, I attended as well.
I would have to say that was one of the most memorable Masses I've ever been to. I still remember how difficult it was for me to see the teacher I regarded as an intellectual giant so weak, sick, and exhausted from cancer that he fell asleep numerous times during Mass.
Like the priest Rob wrote about, he was showing us how a Christian is supposed to die.
Although this teacher was a lifelong bachelor and thus not a biological father, he was very much a spiritual father to me, and to the many, many students who had the privilege of being taught by him.
Brilliant post! Rob and John, those are both moving descriptions of heroism in the face of impending death.
Lately, I've been thinking about the Christian way of dying to self in the small matters of everyday life. It was sparked by something that Catholic mom blogger Danielle Bean tweeted recently: "Do not say “In a minute” at all today."
I wonder if for most of us there will not be many extraordinary moments of suffering worthy of a "Christian death to self" and instead all we are left with is motification of the small things?