Wednesday | May 1, 2024
John 15:5
I am the vine, you are the branches.
St. Joseph the Worker
Connected to the Source
Recently, a good friend of mine—Diane, a former student and regular email correspondent—died in an automobile accident that also claimed the life of a young motorcyclist. Both deaths were sudden and untimely, but it was Dianne's that left her husband and three daughters bereft.
The Gospel for the funeral Mass, taken from Luke 12, was an exhortation on being prepared, “for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (v. 40). But still, how could anyone be prepared for such a moment?
To this, I offered that, quite remarkably, Diane was prepared. That’s a judgment left to God, of course, but Diane was vigilant in staying connected, day after day, with the source of her life. I know she understood herself to be a branch on the vine of Christ—and the care she took to live from that truth bore fruit in her vocation as wife, mother and friend of those in need. “She was so incredibly loved,” the family wrote in her obituary. Love begets love, and drawing from the one who is Love, she herself loved much.
- Fr. Dennis Gallagher, A.A.
Acts 15:1-6 • Psalm 122:1-5 • John 15:1-8
