The Power of One Person

Those words were penned originally as an epitaph for Bishop John Cheverus, the first bishop of Boston. Those words sprang to mind for me last week as the word spread through the Xaverian Brothers family of the death of Brother Raymond Hoyt, C.F.X. after a courageous battle of a year and a half with A.L.S. more commonly known as ‘Lou Gehrig’s Disease.’ It was somehow ironic that when the impairment of speech, swallowing and loss of muscle control made it necessary for Brother Ray to leave his beloved Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, he took up residence with the community of retired Xaverian Brothers at Saint John’s Prep in Danvers. Saint John’s Prep’s most well-known alumnus today is certainly Pete Frates who is still fighting a monumental battle with A.L.S. and has increased the consciousness of A.L.S. research and treatment throughout the world with the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge.’ I purposely used that word ‘ironic’ because when I was invited to celebrate Mass four years ago at the Founders Day Mass at Xaverian. I spoke to the students that day about Pete Frates before his name became recognized around the world! I had known Pete since his freshman year on the baseball team at Boston College. I am a long-time Boston College Baseball fan and readily became a huge fan of Pete Frates as well. I took pride in Pete’s accomplishment like a son I would never have as a priest.

I wanted to relate on that occasion how Pete had received the devastating diagnosis of A.L.S. a year earlier as a man of profound faith. He knew what that cruel disease would do to him; eventually taking away his ability to move a muscle, speak a word or even breathe on his own. Yet right from the beginning, Pete accepted the unfairness of his fate with the courageous words of a man of faith, “Somehow God is going to bring something good out of this.” His words were prophetic and now I look back to the day I shared them with the students at Xaverian, and realize Brother Ray heard them too, years before he would receive his own devastating diagnosis.

I realized when I prepared that homily that it might strike some people as a ‘downer’ not appropriate to the happy occasion commemorating the founding of the Xaverian Brothers by Theodore Ryken in 1839. The message I wanted to share on that Founders Day was that Pete could face his cruel fate with courage because of the gift of unshakeable faith he had received from his family and from the Xaverian Brothers, who are committed not only to the development of the intellectual and personal gifts of their students, but most importantly to their formation as men of faith through the working of God’s grace in their lives. Brother Ray was definitely an instrument of God’s grace at Xaverian. He was a graduate of the fourth class to graduate from Xaverian in 1970. He entered the Xaverian Brothers the same year and following his profession and service at a number of Xaverian schools, he returned to his ‘first love’ as a teacher of English and French and then vice-principal of his alma mater.

At the weekly meeting of our youth group the day after the stunning news of Brother Ray’s death, two of our young men from Wrentham who attend Xaverian related his impact on their lives. They told me how he took special responsibility for the freshmen and sophomores and their smooth transition into high school. One of them related how Brother Ray somehow kept track of everyone! Brother Ray stopped one of these students in the corridor during freshman year and mentioned that he seemed to be struggling with one of his courses. The young man was amazed, first of all that Brother Ray even knew that he was struggling, but more so that Brother Ray was ready and eager to help him get back on track. I am confident that stories like this one have been recounted over and over again during the past weeks by students and alumni of Xaverian Brothers High School. Brother Ray was that person that you want every young person to have in their corner who will be there for them in times of joy and sorrow, achievement and disappointment. I reflected back on my own younger years and recognize those special people, some of them priests and sisters, who shaped the course of my life by their concern and the influence of their example.

Maybe the occasion of Brother Ray’s passing is a good time to pause and pray that those people will be there for generations to come; priests, brothers, sisters, teachers, coaches and youth ministers who exert the same kind of positive, enduring influence that Brother Ray provided for this generation. This same positive influence was a blessing for the young men and women of Bishop Feehan High School for half a century. The students, alumni, parents and faculty of Bishop Feehan felt the same sense of loss and profound gratitude for Sister Pat when she passed away two years ago. Please pray that those who are called to follow in their way in vocations committed to the character development and faith formation of our young people will recognize that call and respond generously to that sacred vocation.

Brother Edward Driscoll, CFX the General Superior of the Xaverian Brothers quoted Henry James in his reflection on Brother Ray’s life, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.’ I am grateful that Brother Ray’s influence will not stop in the lives of the young people he influenced. They will bless our parishes as the leaders of the Church in years to come.