“But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” // Matthew 13:23
“VoVo, what do you need?” I said with tears in my eyes. He turned, and as the scurrying of the nurses and his labored breathing slowed, our eyes met. He lifted his hands as if in prayer and gasped, “A priest.” In those moments, as we waited for our family friend, Father Joe, to arrive, I did the only thing I could think of: I prayed that our Lady would come and be with our family as we prepared, we knew, to say our last goodbyes to the patriarch of our family—our rock of faith, piety, and devotion.
Father Joe came and began the rite of Anointing of the Sick. I knelt at the end of VoVo’s bed, stroking his foot, my parents on either side of me. Father prayed the final prayers of commendation for the dying, looked at us, and told us to call the nurse. VoVo was gone. It was my first experience of witnessing death—it was beautiful.
My grandfather’s death was beautiful, in part, because the seed of God’s Word had been sown in the rich soil of his heart. In the days following his death it was evident that his life of faith had, indeed, yielded a hundredfold, and more. Beginning with our own family, gathered in prayer for his soul, and then in his friends, fellow parishioners, elderly shut-ins, and hospital patients to whom he brought Holy Communion for years, his love had echoed into ripples of faith in the lives of so many.
Grandparents are a gift to families, and I imagine that Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus, were no different. As we celebrate their memorial today, I pray that each of our eyes are opened to see the beauty of the faith of those who have gone before us and, taking up the torch of our ancestors, we too may keep “the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance” (see Luke 8:15, Gospel Acclamation).
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