Recently, Brother Andrew and I were talking about the first time we encountered each other. I had come home for a visit from the seminary, and he had just moved into the monastery to begin his monastic way. I had been the “only child” of eight German monks for about ten years. Being the first American, I had enjoyed something of a status. Some other American men had come and gone pretty quickly. And now, here was this person, this old guy (he was 11 years older than me) with that sassy Boston mouth, using swear words in our kitchen. I was not impressed!
He would forever remind me of my first response to him, even up until his last days when attention turned to his quickly deteriorating health.
Brother Andrew was a person you either loved or did not care for. The attendance at his viewings and at this celebration today are a testament to the fact that mostly, he was loved, despite his foibles. And the stories told at the viewings are a witness to the fact that the goodness in his life, being a person of great love that, the goodness seems to have outweighed the rest.
In the gospel today the Lord tells us that we know the way. A couple people in the last days expressed to me a doubt that Br. Andrew knew the way.
Yes, Brother was not perfect (who of us is), he could be quite judgie himself. Often, he did not do the things he was asked to do completely, and He had the mouth of a sailor.
One day he came to me very excited, “Adam, I just read an article that said that people who cuss are considered intelligent. I must be a bleepin’ genius!”
Br. Andrew could be quite dramatic, even about the smallest things, and yet he was a seeker. If someone were to ask me what Brother’s spirituality was I would have to say, a sometime Jew, often Buddhist, naturalist, Native American, feminist, Franciscan, Protestant, but always Ukrainian Orthodox Catholic.
Of late, he was fond of saying “we are not real monks,” but was reluctant, when challenged, to take the lead and show us the error of our ways. In my training as a spiritual director and as a priest, and in my 60 years of life, as one whose earliest memories are spiritual memories, I would say to those who doubt that Andrew did not know the way—this runs counter to my experience of God.
Before he was afflicted with cancer, Br. Andrew was always one of the first men in the chapel. He was a practiced pray-er of the Jesus prayer, and was very interested in most, if not all, things spiritual. “In my father’s house, there are many dwellings.” As I meditated on this Gospel and Br. Andrew’s life, it seemed to me that these many dwellings can be a metaphor for the way or ways to God. It was Pope Benedict who said, “The ways to God are as numerous as the types of people there are”. I would dare to say, as numerous as the many dwellings prepared.
The problem with organized religion often is that it wants to lay everything out in a straight line, in perfect boxes, in set ways. If you are not this, then you are out.
But a person with the mouth of a sailor might enter paradise before someone who prays the rosary every day, who judges others. In my father’s house, there are many dwellings, dwellings even for a sometime Jew, often Buddhist, naturalist, Native American, feminist, Franciscan, Protestant, but always Ukrainian Orthodox Catholic. And perhaps, just perhaps, even for the just plain old Roman Catholics!
Today, we give thanks for the life of Br. Andrew. We are very grateful for the care he received at the Hematology and Oncology Unit in Columbus, especially from Dr. Reno and the entire staff. They told us that in the seven and a half years of treatment there, they often sat Brother next to patients who were struggling, especially the younger men. That patients would jockey to sit next to the “mouthy monk”.
We are grateful to the Schuyler Rescue Unit who quickly, carefully, and skillfully responded to our call for help on the night of Friday, September 26. We are grateful to the staff at Immanuel CHI, and to the staff of CHI Bergan Mercy Cardiac Care Unit who lovingly cared for him until the end came, and to his many friends who came to see him in his last days. A special thanks to his family, who were a strong support in helping Andrew make decisions for his health and finally his death. To our coworkers, oblates, and all of you, I want to express our gratitude for your kind words, stories, and prayers.
For him, the struggle is now over; for him, it is a relief.
May the light of love that burns away every fault, may the king of love that reigns in all our hearts, grant him his dwelling place and give him peace and rest.
~Fr. Adam Patras, OSB