Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
In today’s gospel, Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” As many of you know I am a big TITANIC buff! I love the ship and everything about her. I even have a lump of coal from the ship—probably the only time I was happy to get a lump of coal! It was 113 years ago today that she set sail from Southampton England to New York. There were three priests on board the Titanic: Frs. Thomas Byles, Josef Benedikt Peruschitz, OSB, and Juozas Montvila. All three men refused to get into a lifeboat. On Sunday Morning April 14, 1912, which would have been Divine Mercy Sunday (but not called that until St. John Paul II’s pontificate), Fr. Thomas Byles preached about “Our prayers and the sacraments of the Church are spiritual lifeboats taking us back to God…lifeboat in the shape of religious consolation at hand in case of spiritual shipwreck.” These three heroic priests stayed on board the sinking ship as it went under the Atlantic Ocean giving absolution and last rites on that cold morning on April 15 at 2:20 a.m., when it foundered. They kept the word of God and spread it in those final hours so that people could see life rather than death.
Reflection by Br. Maximilian Burkhart, OSB
Posted in Articles for Lent, Daily Reflections