Father Mychal, Mystery and Easter

It's still the Easter season. Catholics have fifty days to ponder the great mystery at the heart of our faith - ten more than the more famous forty days of Lent. And the core of that mystery is how such great life can come out of such terrible death. This mystery is, indeed, as Jesuit priest Christopher Devron explains here, inexhaustible. And the life and work of Mychal Judge, brought before us primarily because of the sacrifice of his death, is a new chapter in the Easter miracle. The new documentary, "Saint of 9/11", is a revelation primarily because it fills in the rest of Judge's astonishing life of service: to the poor and homeless, the victims of terrorism and of AIDS, the warring Irish and the courageous fire-fighters of New York City. His death, in retrospect, was the culmination of a life of sacrifice for others; of humility and abounding generosity. Jesus walked among us. And until he endured the final sacrifice, most of us didn't even know.