Very early this morning, May 1st, at 1:00 AM, "Malachy McBride, Capuchin," as he called himself, died peacefully in his friary, one hour later than he told me ahead of time. "Saints of God, come to his aid. Come to meet him, angels of the Lord. Receive his soul and present him to God Most High."
On April 29th I had the privilege of giving him Holy Communion (perhaps his last). Before giving him the Host, when I entered his room, I had said to him, "You're still here!" He said, "Just one more day." He was off only by one hour. How do the dying know that?
Another privilege I get to have is to preach at his funeral. I'm sure I will include this magical story: When he as just one year ordained he was assigned to do missionary work in Papua New Guinea, aka PNG. On his journey he was scared, very much afraid. PNG was only recently opened up to the outside world and was still very primitive. He was afraid. On the journey to PGN the Latin text of the Introit of the Mass on that particular day was, in English, "If you love me, Simon Peter, feed my sheep." Suddenly while reading this, all fear dropped off of him because he knew this line of Scripture was sent from the Lord for him to know his mission clearly with the grace given to him to be fearless.
And so he fearlessly met new and strange people, making disciples of people who never had met a white man, never had heard anything about Jesus Christ. And his love for them was so deep and so profound that they encountered Christ in him all during his 30 years of being a missionary there. There will be great mourning in PNG today. And also at Queen of Peace Parish in Aurora, Colorado. But I'll save that for another time.
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