In Memory of a Role Model

In my theology studies at Aquinas, I've been reading a lot about living as your truest self. I've also been reflecting frequently on who my truest self is. Thanks to the friends who've patiently suffered my questioning and advice-seeking. Something that Parker Palmer writes in Let Your Life Speak reminded me: you may see lots of people you want to be, whose gifts you wish were your gifts, but you are called as a uniquely gifted person to be only yourself.

A role model of mine passed away last week and his absence strikes me. His example, however, is so pure that I feel like I can honor him best, not by imitating him, but by digging for, cultivating and propagating my own gifts. I know he would appreciate that gardening metaphor. Henri Nouwen wrote that "death bears fruit in many lives," and that "you and I have to trust that our short little lives can bear fruit far beyond the boundaries of our chronologies. But we have to choose this and trust deeply that we have a spirit to send that will bring joy, peace, and life to those who will remember us...How different would our life be if we could but believe that every little act of faithfulness, every gesture of love, every word of forgiveness, every little bit of joy and peace will mutiply as long as there are people to receive it..." Darrell lived in the trust and hope that his love was merely God's, reflected to the world, and that his legacy would live on, as one of many who worked in God's name.

Darrell was diagnosed with leukemia four weeks before he died, but even in the hospital, he lived the Gospel, radically--from his very roots. Some visitors recall him thus:“He retold his conversion experience working with the very poor in Recife, Brazil. He spoke with quiet passion and a voice choked with emotion and tears about the meaning of Jesus to him and to his life since that experience: Jesus' great love for the poor and needy, for the forgotten and abandoned; Jesus' message of acceptance and freedom, peace and nonviolence; Jesus' message in our time of care for the earth. He spoke with deep regret, yet without bitterness or blame, of how we have still not heard, known, and lived Jesus as He truly is.”