We will be praying for Bishop David Foley in the intercessions again this week, but in a different place, now among the faithful departed.
Bishop Foley, third Bishop of Birmingham in Alabama, second Pastor of Saint Bernadette in Silver Spring, died on Tuesday evening 17 April, with the Holy Name of Jesus, and a smile, on his lips.
This sneaked up on me, even caught me off guard, even though we all knew he was in his final illness and did not have long to live. It was sooner than I expected because I had talked to him only days earlier; just Friday evening, he had called me.
Just back to the rectory from the first Friday Night on the Field (“Munchkinball” is my affectionate name for it) and settled down in front of the Nats game, I was shocked when shortly before ten my phone signaled that the good Bishop was on the line.
You may recall the column I wrote for Easter was about him; well, he had received and read it and was calling to thank me. Despite the hour, he sounded full of energy, and was in an awfully good humor for somebody whose best recent development was that they had stopped giving him the pain medication that made him constantly sleepy. He cheerily recounted that he was paralyzed from the waist down and completely dependent upon the help of others for even the most basic activities, but that he had no pain and at least he could enjoy the letters, calls, and company that came to him, and pray.
He was pleased to hear the news I had for him about parishioners here whom he remembered, several of whom had spoken to me about him when they read about him in the bulletin. It was a delightful chat with someone who admitted that “the doctors said I had two months to live and that was five weeks ago.”
Saint Joseph is the patron saint of a happy death, and I invite you all to join me in opening the conversation with him now about preparing for our own, if you have not done so already. The foster-father of our Lord died with Jesus and Mary at his side, and it sure seems as if Bishop Foley had the same arrangement.
He was ten weeks in to his eighty-ninth year, and though the doctors had predicted a little bit more, he couldn’t have been more ready for his earthly end to come. What an example, and I couldn’t be more grateful that he took the time to make that call and share it all with me. He reminds me, and all of us, what is at the heart of our life in Christ:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)
Bishop Foley knew that the Lord would not let him down, but he knew just as well that he was not yet, not ever perfect enough to stroll straight into the everlasting perfection of heaven. Not exempting ourselves from our responsibility to help him along this final leg of his journey home; and reminding ourselves at the same time of our gratitude that he still takes so seriously the responsibility he accepted in 1974 to pray for us; we, the people of Saint Bernadette, will be praying for Bishop Foley again this week.
Monsignor Smith
