DEATH came to our beloved Opus Dei
prelate, Bishop Javier
Echevarria, 84, on December 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to
whom, together with the founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, and
predecessor, Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, he was most devoted.
When the news was conveyed to me early morning of December
13 while I was preparing for Mass, I must admit that I froze for a
while in disbelief and shock. I knew that a week before that, he was
brought to a hospital in Rome for what was said was a “slight lung
infection.”
I offered special prayers for him when I read that news,
but I never suspected his death would just be a few days away. Though
his health was deteriorating these past years, with his posture more
and more bent, I never heard him complain and he continued doing his
work. His smile never left him.
It took me some time before I could recover and view the
whole event in the context of faith. I remember St. Josemaria
considering death as Sister Death. Death, according to him, is not a
hunter who hunts us down in our weakest moment, but rather a gardener
who harvests his flowers that are already in bloom to take them home.
Yes, God has called Bishop Javier home. He is now where
he, just like anyone of us, came from and where we actually all
belong, unless we refuse to get there. He has already done his part
according to God’s providence. We can apply St. Paul’s words to him:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the
faith.” (2 Tim 4,7)
I know the Prelate to be a strong and tough man with a
most gentle demeanor. Always smiling, always serene and never
complaining about anything though most keenly aware of the problems
and issues of the times, he worked hard to carry out his fatherly duty
to all the members of Opus Dei, ever faithful to the spirit spelled
out by the Founder.
Before becoming the prelate, he carried out many tasks
entrusted to him by the founder and his predecessor, tasks big and
small, usually difficult and delicate. He lived very well these words
of Christ: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle
and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11,30)
In spite of the heavy load of work he had to carry
everyday, he always managed to be solicitous of everyone, eager to
spend as much time as necessary to talk to someone who may even
approach him unexpectedly. He was a very discreet person who knew how
to work hard while passing unnoticed, a trait he learned from St.
Josemaria.
His intense fidelity and identity with the founder can
easily be seen just by viewing the films of the public get-togethers
with St. Josemaria. Bishop Javier’s eyes were always locked on the
founder. He was prompt in answering the impromptu questions the
founder would ask him in the course of the get-together and quick to
provide what the founder needed.
I would like to remit here some words of the Auxiliary
Vicar, Msgr. Fernando Ocariz, who was with him at the moment of his
death. “I was able to give him the Anointing of the Sick,” he said,
“and he received it joyfully. He died soon afterwards—serenely as his
life had always been, a life of service, of self-giving to others.
“Our hearts are filled with sorrow but also with serenity,
because we know he will be helping us from Heaven. As you know, he
lived with two saints: with St. Josemaria, for many years, and then
with Blessed Alvaro. And he learned from them to be very faithful to
the Church, to love the Church, the Pope and all souls. He was a good
and faithful priest and bishop, close to everyone.”
When asked about what legacy Bishop Javier would leave to
Opus Dei and the Church, Msgr. Ocariz replied: “Fidelity to the spirit
received from St. Josemaria...This fidelity is not a matter of
mechanical repetition, because, as the founder himself used to say,
the important thing is to preserve the nucleus, the spirit. The ways
of speaking and doing change over time, but fidelity to the spirit is
preserved.”
Let us pray for the repose of the soul of this holy and
faithful bishop who also said that the faithfulness all Catholics
should have for Christ and the Church is inseparable from fidelity to
the Pope.
Echevarria, 84, on December 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to
whom, together with the founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, and
predecessor, Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, he was most devoted.
When the news was conveyed to me early morning of December
13 while I was preparing for Mass, I must admit that I froze for a
while in disbelief and shock. I knew that a week before that, he was
brought to a hospital in Rome for what was said was a “slight lung
infection.”
I offered special prayers for him when I read that news,
but I never suspected his death would just be a few days away. Though
his health was deteriorating these past years, with his posture more
and more bent, I never heard him complain and he continued doing his
work. His smile never left him.
It took me some time before I could recover and view the
whole event in the context of faith. I remember St. Josemaria
considering death as Sister Death. Death, according to him, is not a
hunter who hunts us down in our weakest moment, but rather a gardener
who harvests his flowers that are already in bloom to take them home.
Yes, God has called Bishop Javier home. He is now where
he, just like anyone of us, came from and where we actually all
belong, unless we refuse to get there. He has already done his part
according to God’s providence. We can apply St. Paul’s words to him:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the
faith.” (2 Tim 4,7)
I know the Prelate to be a strong and tough man with a
most gentle demeanor. Always smiling, always serene and never
complaining about anything though most keenly aware of the problems
and issues of the times, he worked hard to carry out his fatherly duty
to all the members of Opus Dei, ever faithful to the spirit spelled
out by the Founder.
Before becoming the prelate, he carried out many tasks
entrusted to him by the founder and his predecessor, tasks big and
small, usually difficult and delicate. He lived very well these words
of Christ: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle
and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11,30)
In spite of the heavy load of work he had to carry
everyday, he always managed to be solicitous of everyone, eager to
spend as much time as necessary to talk to someone who may even
approach him unexpectedly. He was a very discreet person who knew how
to work hard while passing unnoticed, a trait he learned from St.
Josemaria.
His intense fidelity and identity with the founder can
easily be seen just by viewing the films of the public get-togethers
with St. Josemaria. Bishop Javier’s eyes were always locked on the
founder. He was prompt in answering the impromptu questions the
founder would ask him in the course of the get-together and quick to
provide what the founder needed.
I would like to remit here some words of the Auxiliary
Vicar, Msgr. Fernando Ocariz, who was with him at the moment of his
death. “I was able to give him the Anointing of the Sick,” he said,
“and he received it joyfully. He died soon afterwards—serenely as his
life had always been, a life of service, of self-giving to others.
“Our hearts are filled with sorrow but also with serenity,
because we know he will be helping us from Heaven. As you know, he
lived with two saints: with St. Josemaria, for many years, and then
with Blessed Alvaro. And he learned from them to be very faithful to
the Church, to love the Church, the Pope and all souls. He was a good
and faithful priest and bishop, close to everyone.”
When asked about what legacy Bishop Javier would leave to
Opus Dei and the Church, Msgr. Ocariz replied: “Fidelity to the spirit
received from St. Josemaria...This fidelity is not a matter of
mechanical repetition, because, as the founder himself used to say,
the important thing is to preserve the nucleus, the spirit. The ways
of speaking and doing change over time, but fidelity to the spirit is
preserved.”
Let us pray for the repose of the soul of this holy and
faithful bishop who also said that the faithfulness all Catholics
should have for Christ and the Church is inseparable from fidelity to
the Pope.
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