It is obvious. Nobody dies a second too soon.
All we have to say about the matter is this: whether we die for a great love or for a small one; for a holy ideal or from a heroin overdose.
This death, in a senseless accident, of a Spanish seminarian has made a deep impression.
Let me take the opportunity to pass on a notice: if any of my readers feels drawn to the Catholic priesthood, I can lend them a vocation-meter (it is a little slow, but it works).
Read about the life and death of Marcos Pou. From Infovaticana:
“It was impossible to spend more than half an hour with Marcos without ending up talking about Jesus Christ”
IN NEWS / BY LOLA GONZÁLEZ GIRALDÓS / ON 24 FEBRUARY, 2015 AT 17:48 /
Iago Gallo celebrated the funeral yesterday of his nephew, Marcos Pou, a seminarian of the diocese of Barcelona who died in an accident last Saturday. In the homily he recalled Marcos’s passion for Jesus Christ.
A few days ago, the diocese of Barcelona had to face the sad news of the death of one of its seminarians, Marcos Pou Gallo, who died in a motorcycle accident. In the homily at his funeral, his uncle Iago Gallo recalled Marcos’s self-giving and the value of his yes to the Lord, which is an example for all Christians.
This priest also wished to underline how it was impossible to be near this seminarian without ending up looking towards heaven: “It was impossible to be with Marcos and not turn your head to try to catch sight of the One who made Marcos who he was”.
Here we reproduce this homily, which highlights Marcos’s vocation to the priesthood, his desire to give himself in the service of others and his joyful acceptance of God’s will, at times so hard for men to understand:
A privileged few -because that is how he had decided it- just a handful (I don’t know how many, I suppose there were two or three of us), knew, some time ago (years, even), that Marcos was going to spring a surprise (though only half a surprise, because wherever he went people asked him if he was a seminarian). But we knew that at the end of 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 seeing that day arrive came true. That precious day of being able to tell everyone why he was living the way he was living. And at last he revealed the mystery. “And now that you’re finishing your degree, what are you going to do?”, and he would put us all off the scent, playing the ball into touch.
The news was “I want to be a priest”. “I want to enter the seminary”. And look, it has been wonderful to be able to accompany Marcos these weeks. Seeing how this dream came true, a dream so treasured by him, so cherished, so carefully guarded; so utterly loved. And he would join the priests and look at the priests. But he wanted to be a priest, not for the priestly work, but for the face of Jesus Christ.
He has explained to us these weeks -though we have seen it in the way he has lived these last years of his life- he has explained to us, he has shown us! almost, rather, how for him, in his experience, Jesus Christ was something so utterly real, something so concrete, so tangible; as Saint John says: “what my eyes have seen, what my ears have heard and what my hands have touched”. Christ was so beautiful and so present that Marcos dared to say yes to Him. To say yes to Him for ever.
And he staked his human loves, he staked his good name; he staked everything. “I’m going to become a priest”. At this moment in history. “I’m going to become a priest”. It is as if he were saying to us (look, and you will 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, it is not at all a theological description, but the priest is the one who, hand in hand with Jesus Christ, because this way of being, this way of walking among men was invented by Jesus Christ; he is the one who, stretching out his arms, stretching them out wide; stretching out his arms as far as he can, with one arm, with one hand, grasps God, and with the other hand grasps man, and brings them -man and God- into communion.
The priest is the one who, despite 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 he walked; everything he said, was priestly.
Most of you here knew him. You spent time with him. And it was impossible. It was absolutely impossible to spend more than half an hour with Marcos without ending up talking about Jesus Christ.
It was impossible to follow his travels a little, to see the way he spent his time; it was impossible to see how he smiled, how he joked, how 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 to catch sight of the One who made Marcos who he was.
And Marcos said yes to him: Marcos said yes to the Lord. And he said yes for real. He said yes for real! Marcos -let us not grow used to this-, said yes to God. And God, with that plan of his which, thank God, surpasses us!, thank God surpasses ours; God accepted his yes. And since it was a free yes, without conditions, 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 do what I want. And we look at the Lord and we 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 telling us: “Because I am going to bless you in another way; because I am going to look after the diocese of Barcelona and 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.
I was thinking last night, once I got into bed, after such a beautiful day yesterday; I was thinking this: it really is true, goodness! It really is true that Christ and Marcos loved each other; that they love each other! It really is true! And I thought: am I going to interfere in that relationship? Am I going to have an opinion about “how Christ and Marcos love each other”, “how Marcos and Christ love each other”? Am I going to say that it should have been otherwise? Am I going to dare to say to Marcos: that is not how you love the Lord, look what he does to you? Am I going to dare to say to the Lord, about my nephew’s yes: “that is not fair”? Am I going to dare?
Look, -it is something I had in mind yesterday, because yesterday and today have been a beautiful day-, God has played a trick on us! God has played a trick on us! But not with Marcos’s death: he played the trick on us with Marcos’s life! Because he gave him to us as a gift! He set him before us, and he made us fall in love! And in looking at Marcos -and he was normal, you know, Marcos was normal-; in looking at Marcos (unless one was very slow, or very blind); in looking at Marcos one would say: “it is obvious that there is someone who makes this lad who he is”. It is obvious that there is someone who makes Marcos so attractive. It is obvious! In Marcos’s face, in his gestures, in his voice, in his embrace. It is obvious! And God played the trick on us there: because in looking at my nephew, in looking at Marcos, your eyes were drawn to heaven! And I was thinking yesterday: how am I going to get angry with the one who played this trick on me! How am I going to get 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 able to be Marcos’s friend? Has anyone paid a price? It’s free! He was given to us freely. And he has not been snatched away from us. He was given to us freely, and he continues to be given to us freely.
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 has given us Marcos. And he has given 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 months in School of Community: “life is not a task: life is an affection”. And that affection is fulfilled in Marcos. 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 the hands of Our Lady so that she may accompany him to his 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.