Thank you, Cardinal Ouellet

B.C. Catholic has posted my personal reflections on what it's been like to cover Cardinal Ouellet for the past five and a half years. Here's an excerpt.

He welcomed transparency, and I felt free to be my authentic, albeit imperfect, opinionated self. Even though I gave him opportunities, he never said an unkind word about anyone.

As I gradually got to know him better and observe him over time in a variety of circumstances, I witnessed how beautifully he models what St. Paul described as being a love letter from Christ to the world. Yet the cardinal's humility and transparency did not invite anyone to put him on a pedestal.

Over the years, he did not hide the fact that he found some circumstances challenging and painful. He admitted he depended on prayer, his own and that of the faithful, to sustain him. He seemed to often experience a sense of grief over how so many of his fellow citizens, especially in Quebec, had lost all sense of God.

Despite his many natural gifts and keen intelligence, he waited for the Holy Spirit. I never found him taking credit for any accomplishments or exhibiting pride in his own resources. His response was more often awe at God's grace.

In my Anglican tradition we have married clergy, and the priest's family is at the heart of the parish. There is beauty in this. But Cardinal Ouellet's living out his priestly celibacy opened my eyes to the gift of self all Catholic priests make when they give up the good of a happy marriage, children, and grandchildren to allow themselves to devote their lives wholly to Christ's spouse, the Church.

He modelled celibacy in a way that evoked Chesterton's description of chastity like a flame, a flame of love, that does not come from killing off one's passions but from offering them up to God, rising above them, and through God's grace mastering them without sacrificing their vitality.

In a society where fathers are often absent either emotionally or physically and so many young people crave a father's love, he embodies it, revealing what manly tenderness, firmness, and courage looks like. In a sacramental way, he imparts the Father's love like that of the father in the parable of the prodigal son, an extravagant, lavish, forgiving love that rushes to greet the wayward son with skirts flying.

After I have seen him celebrate the Eucharist Cardinal Ouellet has struck me as ecstatic, not with the ecstasy of trance or stupor, but of an unselfconscious abandonment to divine love, so that it is indeed Christ Who was living through him, freely imparting grace and a holy love that transforms lives.

What a beautiful thing it has been to see and experience this up close. But more than that, he awakens in everyone I know who loves him a desire for heaven, a hunger for more Jesus in their lives. At the same time, he has filled us with Christ's living water and shown us how to continue being filled so we can replenish the thirst of others.

I am not the only one who will be forever thankful.