Interesting Article (May the Angels Lead Father Theodore into Paradise)

From: www.courier-journal.com

Posted on April 29, 2009

The Rev. Theodore Heck, believed to be the world’s oldest Benedictine monk, died at age 108 today at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Southern Indiana.

Heck, who died a month before what would have been his 80th anniversary in the priesthood, was a former professor and rector at St. Meinrad’s college and seminary. The monastery said he was the oldest monk in the monastic orders following the tradition of St. Benedict.

In a monastery interview posted on YouTube, Heck said in 2006 he still enjoyed the monks five-times-a-day gatherings for prayer.

“As long as I can hear and I can pray, I’m glad to be with them,” he said.

“Everybody needs a family life of some kind,” he added. “Here we are kind of a spiritual family of young men and older men living together in harmony.”

A native of Chariton, Iowa, Heck was born on Jan. 16, 1901 and was later raised in Missouri and Indiana.

Photo Courtesy St. Meinrad Archabbey

He enrolled in the high school seminary at St. Meinrad in 1918, professed his vows as a monk in 1923, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1929.

He earned a doctorate in education at Catholic University of America and taught for more than 50 years at both the high school and graduate seminaries at St. Meinrad. As rector, he oversaw the accreditation of St. Meinrad’s undergraduate and graduate programs.

The high school and college programs have since closed, but the graduate School of Theology continues to operate.

At age 70, a time when most people have wrapped up their careers, he began a 17-year term as pastor of St. John Chrysostom Parish in New Boston, Ind.

The funeral will be Saturday.

Benedictine monks make vows committing themselves to lives of prayer, obedience, celibacy and stability, or staying rooted in their community.

Homilies from the Cloister

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"Hear now, while I declare what he has done for me."


Psalm 66 addresses both "all you who fear God" and "you peoples." Everyone who can hear is an audience for those who pray this Psalm. We who pray Psalm 66 in spirit and in truth want to declare what God has done for us. When we appeal to him in words, even while we are making intercessions, praise is on the tip of our tongues. We bless the LORD who refused not our prayer nor his kindness. The joy of salvation is contagious, and like King David, Saint Philip cannot hold back. The Spirit moves the Deacon Philip where he wills and the good news reaches all the towns until he reached Caesarea. Jerusalem rejects the early church and the hungry world embraces the followers of Jesus, the bread of life. Jesus, too, proclaims to the crowd that whoever believes in him has eternal life. Everyone who has been taught by God comes to Jesus and is nourished by the bread of life. Everyone comes-even Ethiopians, eunuchs, and the people of Azotus.

Saint Philip is obedient to an angel of the Lord, to the Spirit of God, and to the request of a stranger. The stranger seems to be a Jewish convert, an Ethiopian eunuch, who wants to understand the meaning of one of the Suffering Servant Songs in the prophecy of Isaiah. With this passage as an opening, Philip enters into the stranger's heart and proclaims the good news of the cross and resurrection of the Faithful Suffering Servant, Jesus the Christ. His interpretation, evangelization, and catechesis is so powerful that the eunuch pointed to some water along the side of the road and asked, "what is to keep me from being baptized?" Both continue down the Way, in Christ, the eunuch goes back to Ethiopia, to declare God's great kindness, and Saint Philip continues to invite all the earth to cry out with joy. The revelation through the Law and the Prophets enables us to see the fulfillment of God's design. The Word of God reveals a universal hunger and thirst and the Word Made Flesh satisfies completely all those who come to him-the bread of life.

Jesus quotes the prophets who declare that God shall teach them all. All who listen to the Father and learn from him come to Jesus and believe in him. This universal outreach points out the difference between the ministry of Moses and Jesus. Moses is God's Friend, and yet the Lord God places him in a crevice and covers his face so he does not gaze upon the Lord, lest he die. Moses is close to God, but he never sees the Father. Jesus is the one who is from God and has seen the Father. The manna in the desert fed the people Moses led, but they died. The bread that is Jesus comes down from heaven, for a man to eat and never die. The Word Became Flesh and dwelt among us to give over his flesh and die so that we might live now in the joy of salvation and forever in the kingdom of his glory. Such is his promise to us and to all who have heard the Father and learned from him. The question remains in John's gospel how is Jesus to give over his flesh for the life of the world? Jesus, the bread of life begins to respond. He will give his flesh, this revelation points to both the altar of the cross and the table of the Passover Feast. Jesus' self-gift so transforms us that we can not hold back; indeed our joy is contagious, and we cry out, blessed be God who refused me not my prayer or his kindness! Such joy attracted people to Saint Philip and it will attract people to us so that we can give our testimony about the reason we have to be hopeful. We have seen the Face of God in Jesus and have died to ourselves so that we can live forever. It is this faith that ignites a life of charity, and it gives us hope to live from day to day.