Mamie
By Fr. Rafael Alonso
On January 25th, 2006, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI gave the entire Church the gift of his first encyclical: Deus Caritas Est. There the Pope speaks to us about the Christian love, agape, which is a love of communion, unselfish service and self-giving.
If Mamie distinguished herself in anything it would be precisely her capacity to love.
One day, opening her heart in prayer, she said to Our Mother, “Dear Mama, I have not been spared any type of suffering. I have had them all: physical, moral, spiritual...”
She told me that she felt in her heart that Our Mother responded, “Yes, my daughter, Our Lord has so desired it that you might understand those who come to you with their sufferings.”
Mamie’s capacity to console was certainly much greater than simply noteworthy. All who would approach her with any type of suffering would truly receive consolation. The most remarkable thing is that she did not use the typical words of consolation, now worn away by frivolous and routine use, which we find so often on people’s lips.
Mamie was able to teach the person who suffered their responsibility to accept and offer up the suffering. She did not say this from the position of a person who has never suffered and who wants to find words of encouragement for the person who suffers. She did it from her own experience which was in complete harmony with the pains of the person suffering.
I have thus seen her console people who were at the point of being abandoned by their spouse, husbands or wives who were afraid to go to their house because it was like entering into purgatory, people who were about to lose their sight, people who suffered from arteriosclerosis, cancer, psychological disorders in the family, economical problems, etc.
So many faces rush to my mind, so many people who went to her for help with their limitations and sufferings. I’ve watched Mamie go up to the wheel chair of a sick neighbor who could no longer walk, gaze deeply into her eyes and say, “My daughter, Our Lord loves you so much, if you could only see how much Our Lord loves you, there now, there now, don’t complain any longer and offer this up, Our Lord suffered much more for you.”
They were not words which came from a spiritual and physical vigor but rather words full of comprehension and reverence for the suffering of a neighbor.
When I read the encyclical of the Pope, the figure of Christ who appears as the God of mercy and the figure of so many christs who have lived their lives in sanctity have come to my mind. In the midst of this multitude of anonymous but living Christians is also present the figure of our dear sister Mamie.
