Bishop Javier Echevarria

Death came to our beloved Opus Dei prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarria, 84, on December 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to whom, together with the founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, and predecessor, Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, he was most devoted.

When the news was conveyed to me early morning of December 13 while I was preparing for Mass, I must admit that I froze for a while in disbelief and shock. I knew that a week before that, he was brought to a hospital in Rome for what was said was a “slight lung infection.”

I offered special prayers for him when I read that news, but I never suspected his death would just be a few days away. Though his health was deteriorating these past years, with his posture more and more bent, I never heard him complain and he continued doing his work. His smile never left him.

It took me some time before I could recover and view the whole event in the context of faith. I remember St. Josemaria considering death as Sister Death. Death, according to him, is not a hunter who hunts us down in our weakest moment, but rather a gardener who harvests his flowers that are already in bloom to take them home.

Yes, God has called Bishop Javier home. He is now where he, just like anyone of us, came from and where we actually all belong, unless we refuse to get there. He has already done his part according to God’s providence. We can apply St. Paul’s words to him: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4,7)

I know the Prelate to be a strong and tough man with a most gentle demeanor. Always smiling, always serene and never complaining about anything though most keenly aware of the problems and issues of the times, he worked hard to carry out his fatherly duty to all the members of Opus Dei, ever faithful to the spirit spelled out by the Founder.

Before becoming the prelate, he carried out many tasks entrusted to him by the founder and his predecessor, tasks big and small, usually difficult and delicate. He lived very well these words of Christ: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11,30)

In spite of the heavy load of work he had to carry everyday, he always managed to be solicitous of everyone, eager to spend as much time as necessary to talk to someone who may even approach him unexpectedly. He was a very discreet person who knew how to work hard while passing unnoticed, a trait he learned from St. Josemaria.

His intense fidelity and identity with the founder can easily be seen just by viewing the films of the public get-togethers with St. Josemaria. Bishop Javier’s eyes were always locked on the founder. He was prompt in answering the impromptu questions the founder would ask him in the course of the get-together and quick to provide what the founder needed.

I would like to remit here some words of the Auxiliary Vicar, Monsignor Fernando Ocariz, who was with him at the moment of his death. “I was able to give him the Anointing of the Sick,” he said, “and he received it joyfully. He died soon afterwards—serenely as his life had always been, a life of service, of self-giving to others.

“Our hearts are filled with sorrow but also with serenity, because we know he will be helping us from Heaven. As you know, he lived with two saints: with St. Josemaria, for many years, and then with Blessed Alvaro. And he learned from them to be very faithful to the Church, to love the Church, the Pope and all souls. He was a good and faithful priest and bishop, close to everyone.”

When asked about what legacy Bishop Javier would leave to Opus Dei and the Church, Monsignor Ocariz replied: “Fidelity to the spirit received from St. Josemaria…This fidelity is not a matter of mechanical repetition, because, as the founder himself used to say, the important thing is to preserve the nucleus, the spirit. The ways of speaking and doing change over time, but fidelity to the spirit is preserved.”

Let us pray for the repose of the soul of this holy and faithful bishop who also said that the faithfulness all Catholics should have for Christ and the Church is inseparable from fidelity to the Pope.