One Soul

Mission Blog Day Seven

Easter Sunday

Murray Hill, NYC. As I relax here over coffee at our place in midtown, reflecting on the exuberant "Alleluia" pouring like a fountain from my heart, my thoughts turn to "the letter" in my wallet, handed to us by Chris Flatz, the Old St. Pat's parish administrator who was holding onto it for us. It was a letter to the Fr. Graebe. It was a letter from one soul.

In the life of a missionary, we rarely get to see what happens with the souls we help draw closer to the Lord; only He knows. And for that reason, we don't even know how many souls we've helped the Lord save.

When asked this question on media interviews, my answer is always something like this:

"I acknowledge it's a 'low margin' business-- for every person we greet, there is less than a 0.5% chance we'll even get them to a confessional, let alone heaven...."

"Exactly!"

"But we make it up on volume."

"Volume?", usually comes the reply. "How do you know how many of the 15,000 to 20,000 you've brought to confession make it to heaven?"

"I don't know."

"Then where's the volume?"

"Well, try this. Forget the 20,000. Would you give me that maybe half of those will make it? Or how about 1,000 of those?"

"Possible."

"100?"

"Very likely."

"One?"

"Most certainly. I will give you 'One'."

"Well then, I win. Because one times eternity is infinity, and it was all worth it."

Please read the letter in the photo with this blog. Maybe he's the 'one'.

"Alleluia! The Lord is risen! Alleluia!"

A missionary

April 9, 2023