In honor of St Jaime Hilario, FSC, (1898-1937), I wanted to put up the following short video. Some of my own education happened at a Brothers of the Christian Schools institution and today I attend Mass regularly at St Mary's College of California. So today's feast day (on the Christian Brothers' Calendar) is poignant to me. I especially resonate with Jaime's story of having to leave the minor seminary because of a developing hearing loss and yet, remaining convinced that God was calling him to a vocation to consecrated life. Similarly, I resonate with his inability to teach in the classroom because of his disability and his responsiveness to a different way of living his call.
In his determination and despite his growing disability, he was admitted to the Christian Brothers and, in time, was professed and consecrated. He died as a martyr during the Spanish Civil War when, among others, Catholic teachers were executed. Martyrdom means witness and every Christian is called to witness to who God calls them to be and to the Gospel that empowers this call, even to the point of death (red martyrdom) and beyond. Brother Jaime, whose hearing loss had made classroom teaching impossible and thus, could have saved his life, was an amazing witness. He gave his life to honor both his vocation as a religious of the Brothers of Christian Schools (FSC), and the God who called him to follow Christ in this way.
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