‘Listen to Him’

A column by Most Rev. Ronald M. Gilmore

Bishop of Dodge City

I had Sister Mary Alberta Schreiner’s funeral in Great Bend a few days ago, and it made a powerful impression on me.

She chose her readings, you see, and I found myself consumed by curiosity to know why she chose just these (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15; Philippians 3: 10-16; John 10: 1-18), and no others. Her dialogue with the Word became my dialogue with her, therefore, and it plunged me more deeply into that Word.

What moved her to this choice? What happened between her and this Word of God (from these three sources)? What secret thing in it spoke so powerfully to her that she would want it to be her last word to us?

There is an old Hasidic text that might give us a clue. The sacred letters are the chambers into which God pours his flowing light. The lights within each letter, as they touch, ignite one another, and new lights are born. I suspect it was that way for Sister Alberta with this Word.

The time and the timeless from Ecclesiastes, the pattern of Christ’s death and the power of his Resurrection from Paul, the unearthly knowing of sheep and Shepherd from John: I suspect these touched, rubbed, and ignited one another in Sister Alberta. They were chambers of flowing light for her, and she turned them into chambers of flowing light for us.

In doing that, she showed herself to be a true consecrated woman, one who has forgotten her father’s house and who has devoted herself totally to the vowed life with her Spouse, and who has been willing to share with us something of that deeply personal communion. Women and men religious do this time and time again, in thousands of humble and unnoticed ways. They have done that for me all my life. They plunge all of us more deeply into the Word of God.

Sister Alberta reminds us of what a gift she and they are to our local Church. May she rest in the Peace flowing from the Word that so captivated her.