Today, I would like to write about my beautiful sister Mary Franca. She celebrates her “spring” today as she leaves this earth and enters into life where there is no more winter, autumn, summer. The Lord has taken her with him to celebrate her “eternal spring” bringing to full transformation 59 years of earthly sojourn!It was an unexpected departure but at the same time, a well-prepared one. See her radiant photo here which I took after we celebrated her reception of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction last March 5 with her brother Mariano, a diocesan priest himself presiding and with the presence of another brother, Guido and his wife Patricia. Who would have known that she had only a few more days to live after this!
As I reflected with the jubilarian sisters last Sunday about Franca’s life, I remembered saying how God “measures” our time without really letting us “into the secret” about its duration. At 24 Franca was already missionary in the USA. In her mid-thirties, she was Regional Superior and at 40, General Councillor. And she has continued to serve our religious family in the general level for almost 20 years. Her life was “full:” overflowing, pressed down, shaken together! An authentic disciple of Jesus Master, she personifies giving oneself to the full and she will remain an inspiration to all of us even in the last moment of her life, her acceptance of suffering and her going through the path of purification.
It is very painful to see her leave and I know that it will take time for me to get used to her kind of “presence” in our midst. But my greatest consolation is the knowledge that she is in the realm where no more suffering or pain could reach her. She is finally in God’s embrace! Thank you, dear Franca, for your sisterly love and your faithful discipleship!
