Brian Mathiowetz's Eulogy

Good Evening!
I have been asked to share a moment or 2 with you tonight. I am humbled to attempt to put into words what we all feel. To define our own ‘expressed FELT need’ at this moment.
I have read most every post to Fr Greg’s caring bridge site and I am moved by how many of you…of us…have such deep personal love for this man. Many of you have been in his inner circles since the early days of San Lucas.
I happen to be a second generation ‘San Lucas’ family member. My father was instrumental in procuring the first fire truck fundraiser in 1972…and then sending it off for its journey to San Lucas…to fight the savage fires so destructive to the corn stalk and thatch houses that prevailed at that time. Not only did it fight fires…it served to deliver water to villages as well. He and my mother were visiting Fr Greg when the great earthquake of 1976 hit. It was some days before we heard from them to know they were safe.
Fr Greg always asked about our construction business. He always AFFIRMED us and what we do each day. He would say…’you are doing a great thing, providing all these families jobs, so they can feed and educate their children…it is exactly what we are trying to do in San Lucas…keep it up’. He knew a job was better than anything else he could give to them.
Last night in New Ulm, our grandchildren ran to the front of church to see Fr Greg…just like they do in San Lucas…our 4th generation of San Lucas Support.
Now I would like to share something I received yesterday from my Daughter in Law, Lori Mathiowetz. I think it summarizes everything….
Lori…
When we think of Fr Greg Schaffer, quite naturally we think of the many things he “did” for the community and parish of San Lucas Tolimon Guatemala. Perhaps we think of the clinic, the school, the Juan Ana coffee program, or, the Women’s
Center, or the hoped for second level construction on the Bodega, that he was so proud of.
But we can’t deny that part of us cringed this week, reading the many stories, or hearing the news broadcasts of his death when they referred to him as a “missionary” ...for those of us who had the chance to meet him or hear him speak, can testify to the fact that he made it well known upon introducing himself: “my name is Fr Greg Schaffer and I am NOT a missionary, I am a diocesan priest from a rural diocese in southwestern Minnesota.”
We know that he did not necessarily announce this because he had a disdain for missionaries, but rather, because he did not attribute the many projects in the community as valuable in and of themselves. They were not his “real work,” though they are in fact, good and important to support.
Fr Greg will be remembered for his deep love for his people. The projects were valuable because they reflected the dignity of his people. They were the result of a lifetime of listening to the ‘expressed felt need’ of his people and answering their need in love. He often said “poverty is more than just not having enough to eat----- it’s physical, its psychological, it’s spiritual.” Typical missionary programs struggle to “manage” human need.
And Fr Greg knew that. He learned it through trial and error in his early days with programs like President Kennedy’s “Food for Peace Program” trying to GIVE the people what they need. And when they told him “Padre, don’t give us food, help us buy land so we can grow our OWN food,” He listened.
And when a man in the community proposed the statement: “if you spend your entire life looking for food and trying to protect your family- are you anything more than an animal? I keep my family in a hut you wouldn’t keep an animal in!” He listened.
He saw what this kind of poverty did to his people, and in love, he answered their plea. But not with handouts. This would simply undermine their dignity and even further entrench them in poverty and dependence on those more fortunate than themselves.
He listened, and what he heard was “don’t do it for us-make it possible for US to do it OURSELVES!” Fr Greg liked to say: “Jesus never denied anyone that came to him.” Neither did Fr Greg Shaffer.
When faced with the economic injustice, and even the years of overt violence in Guatemala, he did not succumb to anger or give up, with true Midwestern work ethic, he tread on. Nor did he get caught up in bickering or semantics, or theological debates, for Fr Greg, it was always about the beauty and the dignity of his people. He taught us that we must look at one another and see the face of God, but he did not teach it as a theological doctrine: he taught it as a truth that he lived. He believed it.
This truth had taken root in his very heart, and wasn’t up for discussion. It was his lived reality. And so we “learned” this from Padre, not because he lectured us on it, but because he lived it. We learned it by watching his actions, the way he embraced his beloved parishioners, the way every child received a kiss on the forehead, the way, no matter who you are, you couldn’t help but be drawn into his stories and his laugh and his magnetic personality.
The reason we all felt so compelled to be around him, to just listen to his voice, was because of this deep love for ALL humans. Just to look into his eyes, made us feel so alive, so connected to him and to all those whom he spoke about. The idea of standing in “solidarity” with the people of Guatemala seems quite natural because, quite simply, they were already a part of us…through him.
We live in this state of mutual interdependence and it’s not something that needs to be explained with words. It just simply is. How else could he communicate this to us other than through the way he lived?
And so today, our hearts ache for our loss. Especially for the loss felt by the parishioners of San Lucas el Evangelista. And yet, there is this spark. This sense that he will never be gone from us. Oh, perhaps his presence or his voice can no longer be experienced. But this man, this life…THAT cannot ever die.
He lives on in each and every one of us, his stories cannot die, his work cannot die, his love cannot die. This is what it means to be the “body” of Christ: that we live on in those whom we come into contact with.
And so there is this spark, I can feel it inside my heart even now. It feels a little bit like the glimmer in his eye when he would smile and say “hey gal! hey guy ! how are ya?” It feels like Fr Greg.
And that cannot die. We will not let it.

Thanks Lori…



We will now be challenged much like the early disciples were challenged when Christ left them. We can feel their anxiety, loss, fear.
But just like they moved forward, we can and will move forward to keep Fr Greg’s energy continuing…and therefore building the Kingdom and pushing back against the process of poverty.