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"untie him and let him go free!" A reflection on the life and death of the Reverend Robert J. o'shea

By Bishop Edward K. Braxton

The death of Father Robert J. O’Shea brings renewed sadness to the heart of our Diocese, while we are still mourning the untimely death of Father Thomas Stout just one month ago. Father O’Shea served the Church as a priest faithfully for forty-six years. He brought the joy and hope of the Gospel into the lives of so many people during those years. With the sensitivity of a good shepherd, he cared for his parishioners from the day that he baptized them to the day that he anointed them and gave them Holy Communion at the end of their lives. Many of those to whom he brought Jesus Christ through Word and Sacrament, during nearly five decades of ministry, join me and his brother priests in praying for him today. We give thanks to God for the gift of his humble, selfless service.

Dear Father O’Shea died on the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists Fathers, whose charism is to help us to meditate on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ and see this mystery as a profound expression of God’s love for all people. The Passionists teach us to unite the pain and suffering (passion) that we experience in our daily lives to the redemptive passion of the Lord. Father O’Shea endured the passion of diabetes and its distressing complications during all of his adult life. More recently, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease as well. Yet, I never heard him complain, even once, about this heavy cross of suffering. His quiet, cheerful, uncomplaining manner always suggested to me that he had a profound sense that his personal passion was caught up in the passion of Our Savior. He was extremely weak during his most recent stay in St. Elizabeth Hospital. When I visited him, he was usually sleeping. Seeing his frail condition, I suspected that death was near. My prayer for him, on the night that his singular spirit left this world, found expression in the words of Christ Himself. After He summoned Lazarus from death to life, Jesus of Nazareth said, “Untie him, and let him go free.” May God, Our Almighty Father, untie Father O’Shea from the burden of pain and suffering, and let him go free. May He let him partake in the fullness of life promised by Christ Himself to those who take up their cross and follow Him.

The deaths of several priests in recent months remind us all to live each day fully prepared for death in the hope of eternal life. These loses also remind us to pray and work for vocations to the priesthood each day. I invite all of our people to join me at the Cathedral of St. Peter at 9:00 on Saturday October 31, 2009, for a Mass for the Dead (in anticipation of All Souls’ Day, November 2) during which we will pray for Father O’Shea, Father Stout, Monsignor Driscoll, and for all of the deacons, priests, and bishops of our Diocese who have died.

Requiescant in pace!