Shared Memory

While a novice at Holy Resurrection Monastery, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people whose paths I would not ordinarily have crossed. The monastery attracted the mundane, the curious, the bizarre and occasionally the truly holy. The encounter with Obadiah that Arturo relates here is one of my most treasured memories from the monastery.

I remember being absolutely astounded by the thought of this man pedaling that ramshackle bicycle across 50 miles of desolate Lucerne Valley and up several thousand feet of elevation to Big Bear Lake. My spirits were at an all time low and I was just 3 or 4 months away from leaving the monastery. I knew at the bottom of my heart that my vocation, if it had ever existed at all, was on life support and I felt like a failure, that I'd let God down, that I wasn't keeping up my end of the deal. Life was miserable drudgery and I couldn't pray without weeping at the futility of it all. But as Arturo and I loaded the basket of Obadiah's bike with goods we'd baked and frozen burritos we'd microwaved, I knew that we were in the presence of something special and unexpected. To this day, I'm not sure if he was fool for Christ or an angel that we'd entertained unaware. But when I imagine what it must be like to be holy, I think of Obadiah - a man that you could see shining with the love of our risen Lord.