It happens to be August 29 as I write this, the feast of the beheading of St. John the Baptist, long of significance to me. It was on August 29 in 1980 that I learned that Pope John Paul II was asking me to be the Bishop of Salt Lake City. Although I was actually appointed on September 3 and ordained on November 17, the martyrdom of John the Baptist has been meaningful to me during my 25 years as Bishop.

John the Baptist came to have special kinship with me during the nearly 10 years that I was pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Cali, Colombia. The patronal feast of the parish was June 24, the feast of the birth of John the Baptist. In 1980, however, it seemed that my service as Bishop would be associated with the beheading of John the Baptist.

This association with the beheading of John the Baptist has been mainly in that slow, daily living out of my call referred to by St. Paul in last Sunday’s second reading (Romans 12: 1-2): “to offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.” This invitation is given to all Christians, of course. In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus spelled it out starkly: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt. 16: 24) The “cross” takes many forms in everyone’s life. The challenges, disappointments, sufferings, etc., of daily life force us to mature, to go deeper, to grow closer to God.

In my case, part of this normal pattern has been the dealing with a liver disease. It was only five months after that feast of the beheading of St. John the Baptist in 1980 that I was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis and was told I might have only three to five years to live. God had other plans, of course, and I discerned as much at the time, even though the news was sobering.

From a faith view, one learns to expect greater vulnerability and a need to rely more on God when one receives a higher call. In some ways, my limitations and personality made me ill-suited to the role of Bishop from the beginning. The newly-diagnosed liver disease, while making me even more ill-equipped, seemed to me to be just part of my call as Bishop. And then, 13 years later, my appointment to the See of Sacramento, November 30, 1993, involving far greater responsibilities, made even less sense, humanly.

Divine Providence frequently runs counter to human wisdom and “writes straight with crooked lines,” reminding us: “My ways are not your ways.” If God has used me to some good effect during these 25 years, it may be as much due to my weaknesses as to my strengths. In the Office of Hours of August 29, St. Paul put it this way: “We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not of us....For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Cor. 4: 7, 11)

Excellent medical care, frequent medical interventions, and lots of prayer power kept me functioning quite adequately for well over 20 years. The slow progression of the disease, however, finally caught up with me, leading to liver transplant surgery on April 1. It was Friday of Easter week.

Being the octave day of Good Friday certainly linked the event to the sacrifice of Jesus. It was linked, as well, to the death agony of Pope John Paul II that same day. But the reality of Easter was marvelously borne out — through the selflessness of Dan Haverty, the extraordinary expertise of the surgical team, the medical staff, and the incredible prayer power of tens of thousands of believers — “so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

Five months later, I am back to work with strikingly new health and vigor. It is clearly a “resurrection” of sorts. The success of the transplant surgery and the rapid recovery of both my donor and me validate the discernment of God’s will which we both made, through prayer and consultation, to proceed with surgery.

I cannot tell you how thankful I am to God. Nor are words adequate to express my gratitude to all of you for your concern, support, and prayers. But my deepest gratitude goes to Dan Haverty, my donor, and his family. I know that you join me in thanking Dan and his family and praying for them. Witnessing to the highest call of the Gospel, Dan has “laid down his life for his brother,” and has taken it up again. That Christian example has been a powerful example to us all, and to our community and nation.

This witness, it seems to me, is the strongest manifestation of “the surpassing power of God,” of “this treasure in earthen vessels.”

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