By Father Timothy Gollob
Special to The Texas Catholic
Right after the event which was called Super Bowl XLIX there were many TV, radio and newspaper articles about what had happened during the 60 minutes of the contest. Especially noteworthy was the final half-minute of the game.
With amazing quickness, one sports magazine came out that same week with a play-by-play analysis of the action. On the front cover of that issue was a picture of the Patriots quarterback and the giant headline “On to Immortality!”
That an athletic event could capture our attention is not hard to believe. That many would talk about it for years to come is very possible. That it would be remembered for all time is a facetious fable. Mortality is what we are made of. It is good stuff and makes excellent meditation material.
I say this because I have just recently received the notice of the death of my dear classmate from our Roman days. He, Father George Lange, was a New England chap who talked like a Yankee and lived like a humble priest. He and I were the champions of the doubles tennis tournament at our summer villa in the Alban Hills near Castel Gandolfo.
Along with the death notice came a prayer card asking for Masses to be celebrated for the other members of the class of 1958, who have finished their mortality and have put on the immortality promised by the Lord.
After finishing our studies in Rome, we numbered 51 living and kicking, preaching and teaching, and fishing young priests who came back to the United States to do our ministry.
George is the 25th to have his corporeal dust put down into Mother Earth. The next to go will put us as a class over the halfway mark. I think that we have done a lot of remarkable things and we are all remembered at least for a while by friends and family and parishioners….but the best (real immortality) is yet to come!
Father Timothy Gollob is the pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Oak Cliff.
