It was breathtaking to be at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on the morning of January 18. The Christmas tree was gone from Rockefeller Center, but the church was packed yet again, this time with a strong showing from the NYPD, the new mayor, and other civil leaders. It was the fifth anniversary of the death of Steven McDonald, who was a remarkable witness to forgiveness and radical love. As a young newlywed shot on the job by a troubled teen, he forgave the shooter and even offered him room in his home once he was released from prison. The young man died, but I suspect that McDonald offered his sufferings for his eternal soul.
McDonald was paralyzed by the bullets — he had to learn how to speak again. His son, Conor, who spoke powerfully at the end of Mass, never knew him any other way. Cardinal Timothy Dolan opened his homily talking about groaning, borrowing from one of the readings. We groan about ongoing Covid and violence and the vicious divides in our country. And yet the memory of McDonald and how he chose to live his life after it was so dramatically altered is a ministry to us in our sadness, anger, confusion. He “quieted our groans, loosened our paralysis, by his radiant example,” Dolan said.
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