Homily by Fr Yago Gallo, Marcos’s uncle
A privileged few — because that is how he had decided it — just a handful of us (I don’t know how many, I suppose there were two or three of us), had known for some time (years, even) that Marcos was going to surprise everyone (though only halfway, because wherever he went people asked him whether he was a seminarian). But we knew that, once he had finished his physics degree, Marcos was going to surprise everyone with the news that he was entering the seminary of the Diocese of Barcelona.
And so it was. His dream of reaching that day came true. That precious day when he could tell everyone why he was living the way he was living. And at last he revealed the answer.
“And now that you’re finishing your degree, what are you going to do? And he would throw us all off the scent, one after another, with a long clearance up the field”.
The news was: “I want to be a priest”. “I want to enter the seminary”. And look, it has been a beautiful thing to be able to accompany Marcos these past weeks. Seeing how this dream came true, a dream he had so treasured, so cherished, so carefully guarded; so absolutely loved. And he would join the priests and look at the priests. But he wanted to be a priest not because of the priestly work, but because of the face of Jesus Christ.
These past weeks he explained to us — though we had already seen it in the way he lived these last years of his life — he explained to us, or rather he almost showed us, how for him, in his experience, Jesus Christ was something so absolutely real, something so concrete, so able to be experienced; as St John says: “what our eyes have seen, what we have heard and what our hands have touched”. Christ was so beautiful and so present that Marcos dared to say yes to Him. To say yes for ever.
And he staked his human loves, he staked his good name; he staked everything.
“I’m going to be a priest”.
At this moment in history.
“I’m going to be a priest”.
It is as though he were saying to us (look, and you’ll understand me): “it isn’t true that two thousand years have gone by. Christ is alive. Christ is alive. Christ — as we say every day in the Angelus — dwells among us”.
And the priest — this is not a theological description at all, but the priest is the one who, hand in hand with Jesus Christ, because this way of being, this walking among men, was invented by Jesus Christ himself; he is the one who, stretching out his arms, stretching them out wide, stretching out his arms as far as he can, grasps God with one arm, with one hand, and with the other hand grasps man, and brings them — man and God — into communion.
The priest is the one who, in spite of his human wretchedness, and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, brings it about that man and God meet. And look: Marcos did not receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. Our Lord did not need it. But Marcos was already a priest. Marcos — everything he did, everything about the way he walked, everything about the way he spoke, was priestly.
Most of you here knew him. You spent time with him.
And it was impossible. It was absolutely impossible to be with Marcos for more than half an hour without ending up talking about Jesus Christ.
It was impossible to follow his travels even a little, or the way he spent his time; it was impossible to see the way he smiled, the way he joked, the way he teased (especially Mateo and Juan, his younger brothers) without discovering that there was something great there. It was impossible to be with Marcos and not turn your head to try and catch sight of the One who made Marcos what he was.
And Marcos said yes to him: Marcos said yes to the Lord. And he said yes for real. He really said yes!
Marcos — let us not grow used to this — said yes to God. And God, with that plan of his which, thank God, is beyond us, which thank God goes beyond our own, God accepted his yes. And since it was a free yes, with no conditions attached, God has done with Marcos’s yes whatever he pleased.
Because Marcos gave his yes to God. He belonged to God. And God said: with this I shall do as I will.
And we look at the Lord and say to him: “goodness, Lord, it seems you have priests to spare. Because there are so few of us, and this one was worth it, and you take him away”.
And the Lord is saying to us: “Because I am going to bless you in another way; because I am going to care for the Diocese of Barcelona and for the Church in another way.” “Because I can do it too”.
Because Marcos can do it from heaven. Because Marcos can accompany us from heaven. Marcos, hand in hand with our Lord, Marcos risen, can do it.
Last night, once I had got into bed, after such a beautiful day yesterday, I was thinking this: it’s true, goodness me! It’s true that Christ and Marcos loved each other; that they love each other! It’s true! And I thought: am I going to get in the middle of that relationship? Am I going to give my opinion about “how Christ and Marcos love each other”, “how Marcos and Christ love each other”? Am I going to give my opinion that it should have been otherwise? Am I going to dare to say to Marcos: that’s not the way to love the Lord, look what he’s doing to you?
Am I going to dare to say to the Lord, faced with my nephew’s yes: “that isn’t fair”? Am I going to dare?
Look — and this is something I have had in mind since yesterday, because yesterday and today have been a beautiful day — God has cheated! God has cheated on us! But not with Marcos’s death: he cheated with Marcos’s life! Because he gave him to us as a gift! He placed him in front of us and made us fall in love! And in looking at Marcos — and he was normal, mind you, Marcos was normal — in looking at Marcos (unless you were very dull, or very blind); in looking at Marcos you would say: “it’s obvious that there is someone who makes this fellow what he is”. It’s obvious that there is someone who makes Marcos so attractive. It’s obvious! In Marcos’s face, in his gestures, in his voice, in his embrace. It’s obvious! And that is where God cheated: because in looking at my nephew, in looking at Marcos, your eyes were drawn up to heaven! And yesterday I thought: how am I going to be angry with the one who has cheated like that? How am I going to be angry with the one who gave me Marcos — just think — in exchange for nothing? Because he gave him to us “in exchange for nothing”!
Has anyone paid a price to be Marcos’s friend? Has anyone paid a price? It’s free! He was given to us free of charge. And he has not been snatched away from us. He was given to us free of charge, and he goes on being given to us free of charge.
I always say it, because it is so: God does not give in order to take away afterwards. God gives in order to give. And he gave us Marcos. And he gave him to us for ever. Now, certainly, as we have heard in the liturgy, in a different way, but for ever.
These days I am infinitely grateful to Marcos, with his life and with his death, and I am infinitely grateful to our Lord for showing me, in a way I could understand — and may we all be able to understand it — this phrase we have been working on these past months in School of Community: “life is not a task: life is an affection”. And in Marcos that affection is fulfilled. Marcos loved the Lord. Marcos loves the Lord.
Look: we can go on living like this. We can go on living in affection. I don’t know how many hundreds of embraces we are receiving these days, but they are all real. They are all genuine. All genuine. They are embraces that come from on high.
Let us place Marcos in Our Lady’s hands, so that she may accompany him home. To his new home, where we shall find him on the day when we too are called. So be it.
Machine translation. If you spot a mistake, do write to us.