Father Groeschel Column

Back at the start of the year in 2004, while crossing the street in Orlando, I was hit by a car. It was in every legal sense an accident. I couldn't see the car because it was diagonally behind a bus, and the driver couldn't see me. There were also no stop signals, no traffic lights, and no street lights on the road.

When I was struck, I was taken immediately to a trauma center at Orlando Medical Center. Without that medical trauma center being so close, I certainly would have died.

This experience really brought home the message that every second, every minute of life is a profound gift from God.

During the weeks after the accident, in fact, immediately following it, I nearly died three times.

The first was the night of the accident, when I had no blood pressure, heartbeat, or pulse, for about twenty minutes. Understandably, after a long time, the doctors were going to give up, because I seemed to be gone. But the priest with me, Father Lynch, begged them to go on and with a while they found a heartbeat and kept me going.

A few days later, I almost died of toxins that spilled into the system. No one knows where the toxins came from or where they went. And, finally, in about two weeks, I had a heart failure while I was on the respirator. All of these would be considered, medically, likely to cause death.

What did I experience? I don't know, because I don't remember anything of the first month.

So much of our life is like this. We don't exactly know everything that goes on around us but God is always working. He is always calling us to trust, to exercise our faith and to be a light in a darkened world.

During my recovery period I had an opportunity to pray, particularly during the two months when I had no possibility of speaking, eating, or even drinking a drop of water, because I was on a respirator. There wasn't anything else to do but pray. Largely, I said the Rosary, over and over again and meditated on the mysteries of the life of Christ.

I had just seen a preview of Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ," and that had deeply moved me. During those difficult months I kept turning to Christ, but strangely not in His Passion. It was too painful already. Where I found my spiritual consolation was in the Glorious Mysteries, particularly in the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Coronation of our Blessed Mother as Queen of Heaven, the Queen of angels and saints. That Coronation is, in fact, the triumph of all those who are saved and of the human race. Our Blessed Mother represents the redeemed human race in its utter perfection.

Many times, during my period of recovery, the idea of purgatory crossed my mind. Indeed it was a purgatory. And during those quiet days and weeks I met myself. I cannot say I did this perfectly, but I came away from those times with a clearer realization of my absolute dependency on Christ, of the many ways in which I have failed Him, and of my great need for repentance.

Where then do you turn in such a realization? To the Redeemer and Savior of the world.

All my life I have had a great devotion to Jesus Christ. I learned it from my family and the sisters who taught us in school. As I was in the seminary, most of my reading that I was free to do on my own was about Christ: His divinity, His humanity, and how these two fit together.

Unfortunately, in recent years and for peculiar reasons, there has been a loss of profound awareness of the divinity of Christ and of its real meaning. When you lose this, you also lose His humanity. His humanity doesn't make a lot of sense unless He is divine. This is very clear from the many references to His divinity in the New Testament, and not only in the Gospels.

When we approach Christ, He is the great bridge between the human race and eternity and God. A suspension bridge has two great towers; one is as essential to the bridge as the other, and the tension between them is what keeps the roadway solid and passable. Christian dogma of the divinity of Christ, worked out in the early ecumenical councils, is like a great suspension bridge. Damage one tower and you ruin the whole bridge.

The best way to communicate the truth of faith to people is by devotion because they are personally and emotionally, as well as intellectually, involved in what they believe. I have learned many things about Christ from little old black ladies in the inner city who only read the Bible, but they knew Jesus - or, as they called Him, the "sweet Lord Jesus."

Our Lord has many titles and I suppose there is a name for every emotional bond and grace He provides. Regardless of what title or name you say, I encourage you to grow closer in your walk toward Him. Daily prayer is not merely a nice spiritual exercise, it is as important as sitting down for your morning coffee and bagel.

As you continue to grow closer, ask Him what He wants you to do. We all have jobs to do as long as we are here. It was obvious that after the 2004 accident, and subsequent long recovery, my work here was not yet done.

It has been a great joy to continue to serve the mothers and babies of Good Counsel.

Thank you for visiting our web site and I hope the things you find here may encourage you to get more involved and to support our work.