The Silent Saint

Today, March 19, is the Feast of St. Joseph, the Silent Saint. Since he has always been one of my faves, I think it's only right to give him a quick shout out. I was inspired to do so after watching a video of NBC sports personality Bob Costas deliver a eulogy at the funeral Mass of the greatest St. Louis Cardinal of them all, Stan "The Man" Musial, two months ago. If you have nineteen minutes, but no more time to spare than that, you would be better served to skip my post here and find Costas' speech on YouTube. It is one of the best eulogies I've ever heard.

Musial was known not only for his tremendous baseball skills which made him a first ballot Hall of Famer -- only thirty-nine players have been so honored since the inaugural induction in 1936 -- but for the humility and genuineness he displayed throughout and after his career. To illustrate the point, Costas tells a short story about the 1995 funeral Mass of Mickey Mantle, at which Costas also delivered a eulogy. As Costas tells it, sitting in an ad hoc VIP section in the front pews was a throng of baseball celebrities, including Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Commissioner Bud Selig, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, and Willie Mays, to name a few. Mid-way through the Mantle eulogy, Costas looked out at the crowd and there was The Man, standing off to the side near the back of the church. This impressed Costas not only because it was apparent that Musial did not feel the need to be in the place of honor with all the other dignitaries, but also because Musial, unlike the other men in the VIP section, had no direct nexus to The Mick. They played in different leagues in different cities, and were polar opposites as far as life styles were concerned. At age seventy-five, Musial had taken a plane from St. Louis to Dallas for the sole purpose of paying honor to a baseball legend and giving comfort to the Mantle family. (Note: The eulogy Costas gave at Mantle's funeral is also available on YouTube.)

I recently ran across a similar anecdote about Bob Dylan while reading a lengthly feature which appeared in the Star Tribune on February 3, 2013. Writer Jon Bream relates how, when Dylan attended the graduation of his oldest child, Maria, from Macalaster College in 1983, "he stood off in the shadows, under a tree." It was his daughter's day, and he knew he'd become a distraction if he was spotted by others in attendance.

There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of stories about the new pope, Francis I. One recounts how when the conclave of cardinals was assembled in 2005 to elect the successor to the then-recently departed Pope John Paul II, there were enough ballots cast for Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires to place him a close second behind German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who, although he had the most votes, did not possess the requisite seventy-five percent majority. When it was time to conduct another vote, rather than actively campaign for more votes Cardinal Bergoglio suggested to his backers that they throw their support behind Cardinal Ratzinger. They did, and as a result Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI on the very next day. Cardinal Bergoglio's humility was not forgotten by his peers earlier this month, when they elected him to succeed Pope Benedict.

Back to St. Joe, a humble man who perhaps was among the very first persons for whom the saying, "It's not always about you" was modeled. (Of course, who had a better reason for realizing that truism?) He is called the Silent Saint because, even though he is one of the most renowned and important saints in the history of the Church, he is never quoted in the Bible. When you think of it, that is pretty amazing considering all the other New Testament figures (including the doubter, St. Thomas, and the traitor, Judas) who are quoted. Something tells me that is just the way Papa Joe would have wanted it.