I explained last column how after learning about the Early Church Fathers, I suddenly felt the urgency to share my faith. Meanwhile, in the midst of my discovery, God was working in my life in other ways as well.
For several years, I had been trying to discern whether God was calling me to marriage or the priesthood. Myrna and I had gotten engaged, but we decided to postpone the wedding. Shortly after, my Mom and Dad had taken me to Hawaii. While it was beautiful, I was downright miserable. Surrounded by happy couples holding hands and walking on the beach, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.
One morning I was driving past a church and decided to stop in. Kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament I prayed, “Jesus, am I to be married, or am I called to the priesthood? I just don’t know. What should I do?”
I had never before asked God for a sign, but remembering stories of Old Testament figures who ask for signs from God, I prayed: “God, if I am to be married, make all the readings this Sunday be about marriage. And if I’m to be a priest, make all the readings be about the priesthood.”
That Sunday, the Old Testament reading was from Isaiah: “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.”
The Gospel was the wedding at Cana. I was overwhelmed!
Confirmed now in my call to marriage, I was still unsure of whether Myrna was the one I should marry. As I drove into Vancouver one day I was particularly disturbed by all the questions swirling around my discernment.
While driving across the Oak Street Bridge, I literally begged God, “Is Myrna the one I should marry?” I immediately started praying a decade of the Rosary, asking Jesus and the Blessed Mother to help me know what to do.
I rolled to a stop at a red light in Vancouver, closed my eyes, and had just started my fifth Hail Mary, when I suddenly heard through the open window, “Hi there!”
I opened my eyes, and in the car beside me was Myrna.
Myrna and I had taken time apart to discern further and had not seen each other in four months. I lived in White Rock, she in Kitsilano, so the odds of us running into each other in the big city at that moment were probably close to zero.
I took all of this to my spiritual director, and he agreed that God seemed to be pointing to marriage, not the priesthood, and specifically to marrying Myrna.
Married life would be filled with many blessings, but three come particularly to mind.
Late one night in the ER, doctors diagnosed me with epiglottitis, a serious infection that causes a sudden swelling of the epiglottis. In earlier days, virtually everyone died from this condition since the epiglottis eventually blocks the airway.
Prepped for emergency surgery, we called our pastor, Father William Ashley, who rushed to the hospital and gave me the anointing of the sick. For more than two days I had been unable to swallow or barely speak. Within minutes of the anointing, my throat returned to normal.
A year later my year-old daughter Maria was diagnosed with the same condition. Given her tiny airway and the quick progression of this infection, this was extremely serious. We immediately called Father Ashley, who anointed her just before we were hustled into an ambulance. Nothing can describe the feeling of a father holding his child, not knowing if she will die in his arms or not.
We got to Children’s Hospital, where the ER team immediately scoped her trachea to assess her. To our great joy she had been healed. As my wife and I sat with her, we were overwhelmed to hear her little voice for the first time in two days saying her characteristic little Maria expressions. We had our little one back.
A few years later we would be back at Emergency again, this time with our seven-year-old son Michael. He had been diagnosed with septic pneumonia and was in serious condition. One in five children with this form of pneumonia die from it. We immediately called our pastor, who rushed to the hospital and anointed Michael.
Shortly after, a nurse came in to check his vitals. “No fever, no chest sounds, no chest pain, breathing normal.” She re-read his chart. “Is this Michael?” she asked.
They took further blood tests, and started IV antibiotics just in case, but the doctor decided the best place for him now was to rest at home. The pneumonia was gone and never returned.
If you’ve ever wondered why I write this column, this is why. I am convinced that Christian unity will evangelize the world. I am equally convinced that every Christian must become Catholic. Jesus didn’t found multiple denominations; he built one Church, and the gates of hell will never prevail against it. Yes, it is filled with weak, sinful human beings. But he also left it great sources of grace that we all need – the sacraments.
I have seen the power of the sacraments working in my own life. I have seen people healed. I have read in Scripture where, 13 times in nine verses, Jesus says in one form or another, “unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you cannot have eternal life.”
How can we be silent about these things? If this is the Church Jesus built on rock for the salvation of the world, how can we not want every single person in it?