I admit I like a little drama, and I guess that’s not so unusual. My love of doctors, nurses, hospitals, and the whole medical world, on the other hand, might not be so normal.
Nonetheless, there it is, and the combination has recently paid off. Add in my frequently ill-timed sense of humor, and you have a perfect recipe for joy in the face of a not-very-exciting cancer diagnosis.
It started with a routine mammogram which led to a follow up which led to a needle biopsy. Thankfully anesthesiology is a brilliant and advanced science, so I felt no pain. The doctor “prescribed” take-out, so we had a delicious dinner I didn’t have to cook, and I was no worse for the wear.
A few days later I found out that the biopsy showed cancer, but just a little bit of cancer. It’s a small, friendly (“non-aggressive”) tumor which an excellent and experienced surgeon will remove on August 27th, the feast of St. Monica as well as the Franciscan feast of the Seven Joys of Mary. I’d heard of her seven sorrows, but never been a big fan, so I was delighted to hear that Our Lady’s Seven Joys get their own day, and now she’s going to share them with me.
All of which brings us to a miracle for Marcel.
Servant of God Marcel Van is the Vietnamese little brother of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower. He was born in 1928 and only lived thirty-one years, dying at noon on June 10, 1939, in a Communist prison camp in Hanoi.
Marcel (his name in religion, but he’s also called Van, his birth name) was charmed by Thérèse’s Story of a Soul when he was fourteen, so he asked her to be his big sister in Heaven. She was happy to say yes, just like she does for us, but in Marcel’s case, she told him yes out loud. If this happens, you need a wise spiritual director, which luckily Marcel had.
Fr. Anthony Boucher, a French Canadian Redemptorist missionary in Vietnam and Marcel’s novice master, instructed him to write down everything. The results can be read in Marcel’s Autobiography and his book of Conversations (with Jesus, Mary, and Thérèse of the Child Jesus). My favorite is Conversations. As for the Autobiography (wonderful too), I recommend starting where Marcel meets St. Thérèse, and then going back to the beginning.
I’ve written and spoken about Marcel on Catholic Exchange and elsewhere, as well as naming my blog after him. What I want to do now is give his cause a jumpstart because, frankly, he’s like one of those racehorses who wanders out of the gate and forgets to whoosh down the track at top speed.
You see, Marcel is a Servant of God, which means that he has a postulator and vice-postulator and a whole crew of people trying to prove that he’s in Heaven. I know from experience that he has plenty to teach us about God’s infinite love for us and how to be happy by following St. Thérèse’s Little Way. His writings have been my main spiritual food for seven years, but when recommending him to others I always run into this (understandable) snag. I say, “Marcel Van!” and my reader or listener says, “Saint?” I say no, and the other says, “Blessed?” I say no, and the other tries, “Venerable?” I laugh and say, “Well, we all gotta start somewhere!” But progress is slow.
Granted, it often takes centuries for a person of renowned holiness to be canonized. Recently, Pope Francis approved the miracle for beatification of Ana de Lobera y Torres, a beloved companion of St. Teresa of Avila and friend of St. John of the Cross. Ana has been in Heaven since 1621, so that’s four hundred years of waiting to be noticed by the Church on earth.
On the other hand, St. Teresa herself, having left this exile for Heaven in 1582, was proclaimed a saint only forty years later at an event I wish I could have attended. She was canonized with four other big hitters: the Spaniards Ignatius of Loyola (d.1556), Francis Xavier (d.1552), and Isadore the Farmer (d.1130), as well as that hilarious Italian, St. Philip Neri (d.1595).
Forty years—even twenty-seven years—can seem like a long time, especially in our modern era of instant gratification. Think about the glorious recent histories of Pope St. John Paul II and Mother Teresa. When our Holy Father died, the immediate cry was “Santo Subito!” Make him a saint now! The Church heard and responded, and after a whirlwind process that included every careful step (see the marvelous book Why He is a Saint by JPII’s postulator Slawomir Oder), he was canonized only eight years after those initial cries.
As for Saint Mother Teresa, I met her once, not through a vision or locution, but simply in San Francisco because we were both there at the same time and a couple of kind people arranged it. I was very moved by the meeting—we even held hands for a moment—and now she is a canonized saint!
Her cause took a little longer than John Paul II’s, with her canonization coming nineteen years after she went to Heaven, but this is still rather zippy. (Incidentally, the fastest canonization ever was the wonder worker, friend of the poor, finder of the lost, Doctor of the Church, and Ark of the Testament, St. Anthony of Padua who died on June 13, 1231, at the age of 35 and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX less than a year later on May 30, 1232.)
Returning to Marcel, I find that his case looks more like Ana’s, though I shouldn’t be impatient since it’s only been sixty-five years since he went Home to God and only twenty-four years since his cause began in the diocese of Ars, France, spearheaded by the indefatigable Anne de Blay, president of Les Amis de Van, “The Friends of Van.”
I always have to laugh, though, because his first postulator was Cardinal Francis Xavier Van Thuan. While Marcel is still a Servant of God (meaning no visible progress has been made to the next step in his cause), Cardinal Van Thuan, having passed away in 2002, now has his own cause and has shot out ahead past his Vietnamese compatriot to become himself Venerable (meaning his heroic virtues have been examined and proclaimed).
So here’s Plan A:
If the doctor’s up for it, I’ll have routine surgery (a lumpectomy) for my routine breast cancer. I’d love a lot of pink swag and a free trip to Disneyworld (or better yet Paris and Lisieux), but I have a feeling they don’t offer these for outpatient surgery.
Plan B is:
Since my buddy Marcel needs a miracle, I’m willing to give him mine. A miracle accepted to advance a cause is typically an instantaneous, medically inexplicable, permanent healing. It must be documented regarding both the medical pathology (we’ve got that covered) and the intercession attributed to a particular holy one for his intercession. That means we are praying to Marcel exclusively and publicly, and we’re asking him to ask God to remove my tumor before surgery so that they find no cancer, preferably before they make an incision. I get another photo op the day before (on August 26th), so there’s time to find no lump before the surgery. Our larger prayer is for Marcel to ask God to miraculously, instantaneously, and permanently cure my breast cancer, and that way we can provide him the miracle he needs for beatification.
If you need miracles too (and who doesn’t?) please know I’m praying for you as well.
Prayer for the Beatification of Servant of God Marcel Van
Infinitely good Father,
You have given Marcel Van the mission of changing suffering into joy.
Inspired by the saints and comforted by the maternal solicitude of the Blessed Mother,
he totally surrendered himself to Your Love.
O sweet Jesus, grant that we may be inspired by Marcel, joyful through love, to follow him along St Thérèse’s Little Way with simplicity and an unshakeable confidence in Your Love.
Holy Spirit of Love, attracted by Marcel’s weakness, You set him on fire with Love.
Grant, we pray, that the Church may one day soon proclaim his sanctity, and please give us the grace we ask of You through his intercession, namely Suzie’s complete, instantaneous, and lasting cure from cancer.
We ask this through Jesus’ adorable and powerful name.
Amen.
“Draw me, we will run!”
Photo by Angiola Harry on Unsplash
