Biography
Fr. Ed Hays has been a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City since 1958. Twenty years ago he was asked by his Archbishop to start a House of Prayer, and so Father Hays founded a community of men and women whose lifestyle is one of contemplative prayer and service. The community, called "The Forest of Peace," offers an environment of prayer and solitude to guests of all religious backgrounds. Fr. Hays is the author of ten books on spirituality and prayer, including four books of original parables. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Michael Standing By" 
In the Orient, spiritual teachers ask the question, "What is the most amazing thing in the world?" A clue to the answer is in a story I would like to tell you. It's a special kind of story -- a parable. The parable takes place along the Shannon River in Ireland in the mid-1800's.

Here in America that was the time of the California Gold Rush. In Ireland, however, it was the time of the Death Rush. Ireland was an island of misery where people were rushing to leave it. The potato famine, starvation, disease and immigration reduced the population by two million in a few brief years! While most of the landlords evicted their tenant farmers, casting them out to join the long lines of the hungry and starving, the Knight of Glin was different. He was known for his great kindness in helping tenant farmers to book passage to America. This time of misery and sorrow is the setting of the parable.

In western Ireland in county Limerick, one day a messenger came running up to the small, white-washed cottage of Michael and Margaret shouting, "Michael, his Lordship, the knight of Glin wants to see you at once."

"Oh, Michael," cried Margaret, as he put on his cap and coat to leave with the messenger, " 'Tis bad news his Lordship will be tellin' you, that we're next to be evicted. We'll be forced to join the long lines of all the other homeless. Oh God, what will happen to us?"

Two hours later, however, Michael returned home jubilant. He told his wife that his Lordship, the Knight of Glin, had offered to pay his passage to America! The arrangement was that Michael would go first and after getting settled in America, he'd send for Maggie and the kids.

"When will you be leavin', Michael?" she asked.

"That's the only hitch, Maggie, dear. You see with the ships so crowded and passage so difficult these days, it's necessary, his Lordship said, that I be, 'standing by.' He said that he wouldn't know in advance when my ship passage would be available, that I should be ready to go at a moment's notice, so it could be within the very hour, or tomorrow."

Michael and Maggie set to work at once and packed an old battered suitcase so that he would be ready to leave whenever his Lordship's messenger might come. Michael, not wanting to miss his turn, never left the house without his suitcase. The first time he entered the village pub carrying it, and was asked where he was going, he responded, "I'm standing by; I'm on my way to the Land of Promise, America, and I might get the word to leave this very hour. I wouldn't have time, ye see to go home to get me' bag, so I'm carrying it with me."

The days grew into a week, but Michael never went anywhere without his old battered suitcase. Mindful that he might receive word any moment that passage was available, he treated every visit with neighbors and friends as if it was the last one. From the day he began to carry his suitcase, his favorite adjective became, "precious." After viewing a rainbow over the village, or finishing a simple evening meal with Maggie and kids, he would exclaim, "Ah, precious, what a treasure."

The weeks quickly grew into a month, but Michael lost none of his excitement about immigrating to the "Land of Promise," as they all called America. Whenever he would be invited to a wedding, or asked to do something next week, he would always respond, "Well, God willin' I'll be there. You know, I'm standing by."

As a result, the villagers of Glin began calling their neighbor, who always carried a suitcase, "Michael Standin' By." He didn't mind the humorous name, in fact he told Maggie it only helped him to stay alert, ready to leave at a moment's notice.

Four weeks to the day that his Lordship's messenger had come to their small cottage, a neighbor, Thomas Meehan, came by asking if Michael could help him put up hay. The day looked like rain and the hay was ripe and ready. Michael grabbed his suitcase and told Maggie, "I might not have another chance to do a favor for me friend Tom, I best go at once."

He kissed her goodbye, with the same intensity that he had done ever since the suitcase had become his constant companion. As Michael climbed on to Meehan's wagon with his suitcase, the other men greeted him with good natured joking, "Welcome aboard, Michael Standin' By, 'tis to the hay field not the Land of Promise we be goin' today."

But he only smiled and laughed, looking back at Maggie standing in the doorway of their small cottage, he waved to her as he kept repeating to himself, "precious, precious."

In the middle of the afternoon, as dark rain clouds swept down low over the hills along the river Shannon, Margaret saw Tom Meehan's wagon loaded with hay pulling into the yard. When she opened the door, Tom with cap in hand, was standing there and he said, "Maggie, I'm sorry, but...."

She held her hand up, "Tom, I know what you're goin' to say." She was smiling. "Michael's no longer standing by, is he? Well, he was more ready to go than any of the others on His Lordship's waitin' list."

"Right you are, Maggie, he was more ready to go than any man I know." As he said that, he turned slightly and stepped aside. As he did, she could see the hay field workers carrying the body from the wagon to the cottage.

What is the most amazing thing in the world? The most amazing thing is that you and I can watch others grow old, become sick...and die, yet never believe that YOU or I will die! Oh, intellectually each of us acknowledges that, "someday" we must die, -- but that "someday" is far off in the future.

Consider for a moment. How many funerals or wakes you have attended in your life time? How many times have you stood at an open grave to bury a friend or family member? Yet has even one of these experiences of death ever been the cause of a significant change in your life? Have you ever returned from a funeral eager to enjoy life more, to love friends and family more deeply? If you're like me, the answer is truly amazing -- No!

We are involved in a cultural conspiracy to deny death, especially our own. Sad to say, that denial daily pick-pockets us, robs us of at least 50% of the enjoyment of life -- since we believe we have an endless supply of it. The inability to respond to life as a "limited resource" is, perhaps, the major reason that so many fail to find God in the midst of our lives. Jesus, who had a very healthy awareness of His own death, said that finding the Kingdom was like discovering a hidden treasure. The age of God, He said, was like someone who found a hidden treasure in a field. They hid it again, rushed home, sold all they owned and bought the field. Life, and the search for the Kingdom, then, is a treasure hunt!

Remember the books you read as a child, the ones where the old pirate maps had an "X" that marked the spot of the buried treasure? What if...what if an "X" is painted in invisible paint on YOUR house? A treasure worth a fortune is hidden at our fingertips -- life itself. Is not God life? But since we seem to have this endless supply of life, we are blinded to its preciousness. Our vision would be healed instantly if, like Michael in the parable, we lived as if we were always on stand by. It was that unique position of standing by that transformed for him everything that was common into the precious.

Daily life, sadly, since it is so common, fails to be for us a precious treasure. A daily mindfulness of death is the corner stone of any good spirituality since it holds enormous power for personal conversion and change. It also holds the power to remind us not to take for granted one another, moments of beauty and every opportunity to do good to others.

If we are to see that invisible "X" painted on top of all things and persons, we will need a reminder. You could use an old suitcase or a cross, the Western world's greatest symbol of death and life, but regardless of the reminder, an awareness of death has the power to open your eyes to the presence of God where Jesus said we would find it, HERE, among us.

The old Afro-American spiritual, "Ain't Got Time to Die," sums up rather well our frantic life style that allows us NO time to savor our "precious" treasures, or to find God in our world. So, TAKE TIME TO DIE, at least to think about your death, and you will find to your wondrous surprise, how everything changes by that one simple, spiritual discipline.

Regardless, if it's an old suitcase, or history's most famous symbol of death -- the cross of Christ -- let it be an alarm clock to awaken you. Daily, take time to reflect on your death, and the death of those you love, and you'll find, I promise you, the Treasure! Coming to the end of this reflection, I have both a warning and a wish.

The warning -- whatever the "reminders" you choose, be on guard! So potent is the poison of pretending "you're-not-goin'a-die," that they will soon loose their power to awaken you.

The wish -- may the parable of Michael-Standing-By and your efforts to be mindful of your death, help you to see the "X" that marks the place of the buried treasure, -- written large over EVERYTHING!

Interview with Edward Hays
Interviewed by David Hardin

David Hardin: Ed, I think we all grew up learning not to talk about death. You said that we have to look at that in order to live full lives. A lot of people say, "I don't want to talk about it." Should we be talking about it more with our family, with our friends? How do we get at that?

Edward Hays: You are right, Dave. In fact, the Irish have an expression, "I would rather die than talk or think about death." The paradox is that a consciousness of one's death opens you up to how precious and valuable is the life of this day, of any day, of any time.

Hardin: Another thing I have noticed about death is that when someone in our family or someone close to us dies and the relationship is not in good shape, the person who is still around feels terrible. They never got the closure. Does this tell us something about how we should live?

Hays: I think so. There is an expression about hoping or praying that somebody has a happy death. I think the happy death is to die without regrets and if you could live each day without regrets. I think part of the wisdom of Jesus is not to let the sun go down on your anger, to resolve conflicts as soon as possible and to make the most of each hour, each moment.

Hardin: In your story, I was so glad that Michael said goodbye to his wife. He kissed her goodbye. Of course, going off to America in those days was a little bit like having a person die because you never knew if you would see them again.

Hays: Correct.

Hardin: At least they had the closure of knowing that it was all right.

Hays: It is like how much good is there is most of our goodbyes. We say, "See you later," always presupposing you are going to see them later. But if we said "goodbye" each time to our wife or husband or friends, if it was really "goodbye," then we would do it far differently, like Michael in the parable.

Hardin: You do so much of your teaching in parables. Why is the parable a good way of teaching?

Hays: Because it can be listened to at three or four different levels. Children, adults, anybody -- it's a magic way to a doorway.

Hardin: The child in us can listen along side of the adult in us.

Hays: Once a story begins you are hooked. You can't stop listening

Hardin: That's wonderful. Thank you so much for being with us.