Article

A Humble Priest

At my father’s wake in 2001, my uncle told me a story about how when he was a kid he had a sickness, a nervous disorder I believe, that the doctors were unable to cure. My grandmother, a devout Catholic, took him straight from the doctor’s office to the Capuchin monastery to see Fr. Solanus Casey. This was in Detroit in the 1930’s. Fr, Solanus prayed over my uncle and told his mother to take him home and that he would be fine. He quickly and fully recovered. On November 18, 2017 I was privileged to attend the Beatification Mass of this holy friar with more than 70,000 other people at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions.

July 30 is the feast day of Blessed Solanus Casey. My uncle’s story is one of thousands of “favors” God granted to suffering people through his prayers. But people are not beatified or canonized because of miracles. It is because of heroic virtue, of genuine holiness. The life of this son of St. Francis is full of examples of simple but outstanding goodness. It was a life poured out in service to others, like that of his Lord.

One attribute of Fr. Solanus that particularly strikes me is his obedience. He was not permitted to hear confessions or preach about doctrine because of poor seminary grades. He accepted this without complaint. He was told he was being transferred several times right in the midst of very successful apostolic work. Each time he was ready to go within hours, without questioning why. He would remark that a religious should be content with the privilege of living in a house with the Blessed Sacrament. And that if he was serving Jesus, it should not matter where or how. Not only did he not complain, but Bl. Solanus was deeply grateful for everything that happened or did not happen.

“Thank God ahead of time,” he said often.

May he help us imitate his heroic trust, docility, gratitude and generosity.

Amen.

Fr. Peter