On Sunday, Sept. 11:
Like to Have a Conversation with Jesus?
Here’s What Some Say about That
A Report by Robert R. Schwarz
The family is the simplest and most basic form of
society. It is the main school of all the social
virtues. It is the seedbed of social life. For it is
in the family that we learn to practice obedience,
a concern for others, a sense of responsibility,
understanding and mutual help, a loving
co-ordination of essential different characters.
(Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God,
Vol. 1, pg. 234)
My goal is to find what makes me happy in life,
to stick near my family and to always have God
on my side, to really focus on the things that matter.
( Kiana Resch )
I have visions of heaven each day I go to work.
Heaven is going to be a beautiful place where
we're going see people who have passed before us.
(Sam Resch. a mortician)
The Resch Family
Nowadays, when 57-year-old Sam studies a body he is preparing for a casket or cremation ash urn, he might have thought about the final destination for this deceased man or woman facing him. After four years of intense classroom study, Deacon Sam began assisting at Masses on the altar of St. James Catholic Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Sharing his life-altering moment was his daughter Kiana, and wife Kari, of whom four years of studying had been required. She also five times had to affirm her allegiance to her husband’s vows.
Three days after interviewing Sam, I sat in a St. James Church pew on Sunday listening to one of Sam’s first homilies. It concluded with Sam urging his fellow Christians to govern their lives with the same love they might have for one of their beautiful flower gardens. “Let God widen His garden gate to heaven for you," he said. His mother died three weeks prior to her son’s first homily.
“I’m on My Journey “
Sam and I talked at length about how being a deacon has changed his life. “Do you feel like a different person? " I asked. Sam choked up with tears as he spoke. “I will tell you this...the night that I discovered that this was God’s plan, I was embarrassed... but this journey took me 57 years to figure out...and you now, it’s [ being a deacon] the best thing for our family, for myself… It has opened up my heart to His light, His mercy, and has helped my spirituality.” He added that being a deacon has made him a better mortician as well as funeral director when the occasion arises.
“What about the way you look at the dead body you’re working on,” I asked.
Sam turned very serious and occasionally rapped his hand on the kitchen table to make his point. “God put Me here to do His work, you know. During my formation I learned more about the spiritual aspect of death...like the false assumption some have that states when you die, that's the end. As Christians we know that when you die, you transition into another part of your life, eternal life.
As a family-loving man, Sam said his relationship to wife and daughter has solidified. “I needed their support to get through this! My priorities are family, work, and being a deacon. Those were my steps all the way.
And today, how does he relate to God and Jesus? “In 2018”, Sam began, "I had a health scare--everything turned out good--and God asked me: Are you ready to die? And I said ‘no’ and He said, Do something about it. “And becoming deacon has prepared me for the next stage in life...the dogma of the church says that some of us go to purgatory for a cleansing before we go heaven. And that has been a comfort for me. Lord, I now say, get me through the day, help me to pass the test.” Sam believes that his faith in Jesus was strengthened when he more fully realized that Jesus was alive in the church’s holy sacrament of the Eucharist, in the wine and host, the body and blood of Jesus.
Other than that, Sam hadn’t changed much since we exchanged words almost four years ago, though he was a few pounds heavier, a bit more energetic, yet still a man with a strong, life-affirming nature (difficult to describe). Kari is now 50, and in her 21st year teaching kindergarten as the St, James school; Kiana, 21, now a senior at a college in Iowa City—oh , and Blaze, their Dachshund, is 13, and cat James is, perhaps, eight.
We paused our interview to talk about the statue of the Virgin Mary which Sam had shown me the last time we sat in his condo here in Palatine. Sam suddenly rose from his chair and went to the front door and returned carrying the statue of Saint Mary. Gazing down at it, he spoke as if I were sitting in a pew, she greets you as you come in the front door and as you leave, she prays over you,” he added with a smile of humor,
I asked Sam what he did for recreation. “I rest at night and watch television,” was all he said. I had another question: “Anything make you sad, Sam.” Anything at all?
“I’m a tender-hearted deacon.” He added nothing.
“Sam,” I said, “I think some of your fans would like to know what led you into this momentous decision to devote so much of you remaining life to being a deacon. I mean, you give sermons, take care of the dead…” He interrupted me with: “Don’t forget the weddings and baptisms.”
It all started with a suggestion...
“...some years ago when the school principal Judy Pappas casually asked me if I ever considered being a deacon. Standing next to her was Fr. JoJi Thanhgundia, a past St. James priest, who added: ‘That would be great for you, Sam.’ When I got home that day and repeated all this to my wife, she simply declared ‘Sam, consider it.’ "
“Well, Bob , Sam now said, “I Hear that once some seeds are planted, it takes seven years to germinate. So, seven years later Kari and I are at an information meeting for church men interested in becoming deacons. There’s a man there who’s waiting to be ordained as a deacon, and he was beaming—and his wife was a schoolteacher, too. I looked at Kari and said, “I want to be like him."
“Sam, I continued, please tell us what your greatest challenges are. “
“It’s to be the best I can be. I’m learning every day. I’m on a journey. I still talk to people. But that is a challenge when I go to a grocery store; something that used to take me 10 minutes to talk to a friend now takes me 45 minutes." Sam laughed.
The End
© 2020, 2022 Robert R. Schwarz
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