About twenty seven minutes into an evening Mass in Guayaquil, Ecuador, a large wooden crucifix fell from behind the altar and struck Father Patricio Sánchez. The priest died, leaving his congregation and family to mourn a sudden and terrible loss. The Mass was being live streamed, and footage of the tragedy spread across the world.
I found myself wondering about the people who watched. How many had been following the service as Father Sánchez spoke? How many arrived afterwards, drawn by the news that a crucifix had fallen and a priest had died?
I do not know the numbers. But I do know something about the way we watch.
A priest speaks about God’s love, forgiveness and eternal life. We scroll past. A crucifix falls during his Mass, and our fingers suddenly stop moving. “Have you seen this?” we ask, sending the video to one group after another.
Somewhere, I imagine an angel looking at a screen and calling out, “Lord, the people are watching the Mass!”
“Wonderful,” says the Lord. “Are they listening to the message?”
“Well, Lord, most of them seem to have come in rather late.”
“How late?”
“About twenty seven minutes.”
“And what brought them there?”
The angel looks down at his screen. “The crucifix fell.”
I wonder whether the Lord would sigh. For two thousand years, the cross has carried a message of sacrifice, forgiveness and freedom. Yet for many of us, the moment it became something to look at was the moment it crashed to the floor.
Our phones understand this weakness very well. Offer us a quiet reflection and the little machine seems to whisper, “You can read that later.” Show us an accident, an argument or a man falling off a chair, and it urges us, “Quick! Watch it before somebody sends you another!”
We obey the phone with a devotion that would impress any preacher.
Of course, curiosity is human. A shocking event catches our attention, and many people who saw the news must have felt genuine sorrow for Father Sánchez and concern for those who loved him. The question is what we do after that first moment. Do we pause to pray for them, or do we pass the video along and wait for the next startling clip?
At Mass, the crucifix reminds believers of Jesus, who gave His life for us. The service invites us to remember His sacrifice, receive His love and carry it into the world. It is a message about how we might live, even when nothing dramatic is happening on a screen.
Perhaps that is the difficult part. A falling crucifix takes only a moment to watch. Listening to what the cross tells us may take a lifetime.
Father Sánchez was at the altar to share that message. As we remember him and pray for those who mourn him, perhaps we could give the message a little of the attention we gave the tragedy.
The crucifix fell, and the world looked.
May we also look again at the One upon it…!
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