By Linda Schaefer
Contributing Writer
Archbishop Paul Coakley celebrated Mass at Holy Trinity Church on the feast day of Blessed Stanley Rother, Tuesday, July 28 and it was well attended by members of the martyred priest’s family and parishioners from Holy Trinity as well as from the surrounding communities.
In his opening remarks, the archbishop focused on the legacy of Father Stanley’s influence in the world since his death on July 28, 1981 at the hands of assailants in Guatemala where he served as a missionary priest. He focused, first on the reputation of the humble priest, “He had a pastoral charity and sacrificial love that has spread throughout our country and throughout the world. A day doesn’t pass, a week doesn’t pass that you will hear from somewhere, from someone some words of appreciation of what this priest, this humble, ordinary priest from Okarche, Oklahoma, from Holy Trinity Parish has come to mean to so many people,” Coakley said.
In spite of the challenges and dangers he faced during the political upheaval in Guatemala in the early 1980s, Father Rother remained faithful to his flock at St. James the Apostle parish in Santiago. “A shepherd does not run at the first sign of danger,” Coakley said. He attributed the heroic virtues of this humble shepherd to his roots in Okarche. “That kind of holiness, of self-sacrifice was a long time in maturing…it began right here in this church, right here in this community, right here in this school, right here in this parish church.”
Father Stanley Rother extraordinary legacy is most clearly portrayed through his humble roots in Okarche. “Stanley growing up here in this community was formed by the virtues and examples of ordinary people and ordinary families.” Coakley attributed the determination of the young priest to his extraordinary determination to be faithful to his vocation and calling. “The Lord asked a lot from Father Roth, first when he heeded the call to become a missionary. He threw himself into it with a whole-hearted generosity…The Lord was preparing him for that supreme sacrifice, and it came 39 years ago. As Coakley said, the martyrs of the church are the seed of the church. “He gave up his life for his flock in the imitation of Jesus, because a shepherd does not run at the first sign of danger.”
It was evident after the Mass, that the Rother family is still well represented in Okarche. There was a particularly poignant moment when a young woman rushed up to the 81 -year- old brother of Father Stanley, Tom Rother, and asked if she could give him a hug. Tears cascaded down this young lady’s face, as if in touching the brother of Okarche’s beloved martyr, she herself was touched by Blessed Stanley Rother.
Archbishop Coakley said, “That is what we are celebrating this evening and what we are continuing to witness in the life of Blessed Stanley Rother – the fruitfulness of his life. It certainly did not end the day of his death. You can really say, that is when it began because faithful until the end, the Lord has continued to do marvelous things through him by his witness, by his example and now through his heavenly intercession for all of us.”
