On 22 February it was a year. On that day in 2015 Marcos left us, to go for ever to Heaven with Christ, with whom he dreamed of being at every moment. A year on, the pain has not ceased and our longing for him grows. We sometimes picture him with his smile, full of passion; we miss him. But a year later what we have is a stream of testimonies, not only from Barcelona but from many corners of the world, telling us that Marcos goes on; he goes on living for ever and he acts close to those who drew near to him. Even some who never knew him personally, but who have come across his «My Story», the account of his life’s relationship with Christ, published online and also brought out as a small book distributed by his friends and his family. As he wrote, his life became an adventure through his following of Christ.
On Saturday 20 February the church of the parish of La Paz in Barcelona was filled with Marcos’s friends, fellow students and family at an anniversary Mass concelebrated by priest friends from the Seminary of Barcelona and presided over by José Miguel García. The choir ended with «Signore delle cime», an Alpine song that Marcos used to sing and that made us feel him so close, next to the Lord, as we gathered at the Eucharist.
In one year the website that gathers photographs, documents and testimonies about Marcos has received tens of thousands of visits. Many people have left testimonies, memories, photographs. They all speak of hearts stirred by his death: drawn to Christ, strengthened in their vocation, whatever it might be. Those who knew him speak of missing his presence here, but also of his closeness and of clear signs of his action from Heaven.
New initiatives keep arriving and will appear on this website: Marcos’s diary (his day-to-day life in his relationship with his friends and his passion for Christ), translations of «My Story» into several languages that are being prepared, his testimony offered in the form of a meeting-exhibition at some event in preparation.
Father Carlos, a Passionist now in Chile, who got to know Marcos when, before going to university, he would drop by his parish to pray or to go to confession with him, has sent us a testimony. «I consider», he writes, «that his death was like his “first Mass”; he was so in love with Jesus that he could neither resist nor wait for his priestly ordination to celebrate it. He was united to Christ, he lived with Him, he died with Him and with Him he will rise again.
Marcos’s life bears an unmistakable mark: that of being a “model” young Christian for young people. I trust that one day he may be proposed by the Church to young people as an example to follow.
Machine translation. If you spot a mistake, do write to us.