Regardless of how successful a human may be, or however many books are written about him, the memory of him will pass.
Newsroom(23/02/2022 11:35, Gaudium Press) There are many men who stand out for their biographies, for their life stories, for their good performance in relevant areas, financial success, examples of overcoming, extraordinary sporting achievements, scientific contributions, and talent in the arts. Apart from the exceptions of great dictators and tyrants who stood out for the evil they practiced, to the point of being recorded in the pages of history, stories of failure are not highlighted. The stories of success are the ones that stand out and have wide reach.
However, no matter how successful a human being is, and no matter how many books are written about them, they pass away. Indeed, who knows today who Napoleon Bonaparte was married to, how many children he had, which wars he won, whose son he was, or where and how he lived? It is the same with kings, queens, idols and heroes of all times. They live, they win, they stand out, they are acclaimed, they are followed for some time, they leave and their legacy fades into oblivion.
The carpenter
We have, however, a character who, without making an effort, without accomplishing great conquests and great deeds, without even undertaking trips outside his homeland and without conquering many goods, had the power to divide history in two: one either lived before him or after him.
The interesting thing about this character is that, among all the human beings who have been biographed, probably less is known about him than about any other, but also everything is known about him and time has not altered a single comma, has not changed a step, or a nuance.
Of all that has been written about him – and much is still written – there is one statement that seems to be the most complete: that he is the same yesterday, today and forever. And this is so true that, without having mentioned his name or used capital letters to refer to him, all those who read me know exactly to whom I refer.
Any slight mention of his life already arouses in the reader the understanding that we are talking about Jesus Christ.
When we read a biography, we find everything and even unnecessary and irrelevant data. But what do we know about Jesus before his baptism, apart from the circumstances in which he came into the world and a brief incident that occurred when he was 12 years old? Then, without any news of what happened for thirty years, he appears and changes the history of humanity.
To develop the reasoning that I am proposing, I will summarize these thirty hidden years in the profession that he learnt from his father and which he probably exercised: that of carpenter. Now, let us take a journey in time and space.
Phil Mulryne
Late 1990s. At 1.75m, 72kg, in excellent physical shape and with a strong desire to be a champion, wearing the shirt of Manchester United Football Club, midfielder Phil Mulryne took to the field, fulfilling the dream of having as a teammate the idol David Beckham, considered one of the best players in the world. The young Irish player was one of the “Red Devils”, nickname of the players of Manchester, the main team of England, and one of the most famous in the world.
Football is a business as well as a sport, and in March 1999, the promising Phillip Mulryne left Manchester and signed a contract with Norwich City, a smaller team, but with a much more attractive salary: £500,000 ($700,000) per year. During his career, he made 205 appearances, 27 of which were for the Northern Ireland national team, scoring a total of 23 goals.
He was the typical football player with a promising future: money, fame, success, dating a famous model. However, it seemed that something was not quite right in the plans for the young football star’s life. Shortly after the start of the 1999-2000 season, Mulryne broke his leg when he clashed with a player from the opposing team during a match, which left him off the field for quite some time.
After his recovery, he remained an average player over the next few years, only to return to prominence in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers when he was kicked out of the Ireland squad on the eve of a match against England for running away from the camp to spend the night drinking in a Belfast bar. It was the beginning of a decline in his career as an athlete that would end in 2008 playing for an English fifth division team.
Ann Miller
Now, let us move from Northern Ireland to the United States and back a few more years in time. It is 1928 and the home of the prosperous president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, the company that controls the important railway that links San Diego to San Francisco, is celebrating. Little Ann has just been born.
The girl grew up surrounded by every comfort, luxury and much pampering, but something in that child was different, she cherished a secret dream…
At the age of 20, Ann married Richard Miller, vice-president of Pacific Gas and Electric. She went from rich girl to a famous socialite and her life continued to be surrounded by luxury and glamour. Ann and Richard were a passionate couple, who got on very well together. They were the parents of ten children.
Ann Miller’s routine – if you can call it routine – was made up of parties, ski resort holidays, designer clothes, jewellery, mansions, yachts, archaeological excavations, trips to the Mediterranean, and everything as exquisite as you can imagine. One of her sons defined her as “a woman who had a million friends, smoked, drank and played cards. She became an open water diver and drove so fast and recklessly that people came out of her car with sore feet from stepping on the imaginary brake.”
Mrs. Miller was someone who lived life intensely, enjoying all the pleasures that money can provide. She was widowed in 1984 and soon after her husband’s death her life underwent a major transformation. She abruptly stopped smoking, and drinking alcohol and caffeine.
In 1989, on her 61st birthday, she decided to throw a luxurious party for 800 guests at the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco. On that memorable night, Ann Miller would make a bombshell revelation that would take everyone by surprise. With her cheerful and contagious manner, the millionaire told everyone that her life was coming to an end…
The bond that unites them
What do that humble carpenter from Galilee, the ambitious Irish football player and the millionaire Ann Miller have in common? In common they have the call, also known as vocation. The Master called them; the footballer and the socialite answered the call.
In 2008, the young Irishman would end his football career, but where the man’s career ended, God’s plan began… In 2009, at the age of 31, Phillip Patrick Stephen Mulryne entered a seminary in Belfast. In September 2016, he made his profession of the vows of poverty, obedience and chastity in the Dominican Order, and was ordained a priest on 8 July 2017, aged 39, at St. Saviour’s Church in Dublin.
After celebrating his first Mass, Fr. Phillip Mulryne recalled the restlessness he felt, the searching he did, and said that his life was only filled by answering God’s call, that he was transformed by grace and that his only goal was to be completely God’s.
In San Francisco, when, during the lavish feast, the elegant matron asked for silence because she wanted to make an announcement, everyone was apprehensive. She said: “The first two thirds of my life were dedicated to the world. My own life and children have taken over my first and second 30 years of life. The last third will be dedicated to my soul.”
Still not understanding what she was getting at, her friends and family were even more astonished when she explained that she had asked God for one more third, that is, 30 more years of life, and that she would dedicate them to fulfilling her childhood dream: a farewell party, for she had decided to enter Carmel, and she concluded by saying that the last third of her life would belong to God.
The next day she entered the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Des Plaines, Illinois. As a Carmelite, she became Sister Mary Joseph, took vows of silence, solitude and poverty, and began sleeping on a plank of wood with a thin mattress. Undoubtedly, her girlish dream was very important to God, so much so that He granted her request and gave her 31 more years of life, which she dedicated completely to Him. Sister Mary Joseph died at the age of 92 on 6 June, 2021.
The invitation
These two trajectories may seem unusual today, but in the history of the Saints we find many who abandoned luxury and riches to dedicate themselves to the religious life. The important thing is to be attentive to what God wants of us and to listen to his voice, which often comes in the breeze. There is a song that I used to hear at Mass, as a child, that said: “If you hear the voice of the wind, calling without ceasing, if you hear the voice of the weather, telling you to wait, the decision is yours. There are many invited, almost no one has time. If you listen to the voice of God, calling without ceasing, if you listen to the voice of the world, wanting to deceive you, the decision is yours.”
As the Carpenter himself said, “Great is the harvest, but few are the labourers.” (Lk 10:2) The football player and the millionaire were able to change their stories and respond to the divine call, but how many, deaf to the voice of God, allow themselves to be carried away by the attachments and illusions of the world and do not heed the sweet invitation made by that humble Carpenter who built the Universe?
Afonso Pessoa
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
