Our hero Joe Hintz has died.
We first became acquainted with Joe when he was a frequent lector at St. Peter Roman Catholic Church in Greeley.
He had a job, a family, an infectious smile, and a dog named Toby. Joe had hundreds of friends, people who loved him dearly. He may well have been St. Peter’s best-known parishioner.
As a child, our hero lived in a little North Dakota farming community; it was apparent when he started school that he was a quick study.
It was scholastic studies that brought Joe to Greeley, to further his education at the University of Northern Colorado.
Joe and Sharon Hodges married, and daughter Sydney and son Jeremiah came from their union.
Sydney has become quite good at playing the violin; Jeremiah is an adroit altar server and shows signs of taking after his dad as a lector.
All of this sounds rather commonplace, doesn’t it? Family. Job. Church. Dog. So what was it that made Joe such a hero?
A lifelong diabetes sufferer, Joe lost his eyesight to the disease. Toby was his guide dog. Toby died about a year ago, a crushing blow physically and emotionally to Joe.
Wait. You’re saying, “A blind guy was a lector?” Yes he was a lector, and a good one. You’d hear Joe read and know that his faith gave him the strength to face his challenges.
He was somehow enabled to memorize the assigned scripture reading and then climb to the ambo, face the assembly and “read” in a strong distinctive voice, with hardly a bobble. It must have been a difficult undertaking. Lectors with eyesight don’t do any better than he did.
Everything was a struggle for Joe. He was a huge success despite these challenges. It wasn’t just that he overcame blindness to perform the duty of a lector. It was that he overcame blindness in every way possible.
I once saw Joe walk into a sidewalk signpost, having missed detecting it with his white cane. I also watched helplessly from my nearby seat as Joe stumbled climbing the three steps into the ambo, narrowly escaping a fall.
Whenever I would greet Joe, he would smile and say, “Hello Tom.” He recognized me by my voice.
Joe faced far more challenges than are required of most of us. And yet, his droll sense of humor never left him. He died at 51 of complications of diabetes, too soon for such a heroic man.
Last summer I saw Joe and his two children walking one evening in a shady block in downtown Greeley. He had one child on each arm, and the three were enjoying a cool stroll in the dusk.
I plan to cling to that memory, as well as the mental picture I have of him reciting Bible readings.
Where’s the good news in all this? Joe is no longer afflicted with blindness, with diabetes, with kidney disease. He’s with God, with Jesus whom he so loved. He fought the good fight and he won.
-0-
Word of the week: Diabetes. It’s from Latin and Greek, diabetes, a siphon or to pass through a siphon. It is a disease characterized by an excessive discharge of urine. Hence, a diabetic is a person who has diabetes.
We first became acquainted with Joe when he was a frequent lector at St. Peter Roman Catholic Church in Greeley.
He had a job, a family, an infectious smile, and a dog named Toby. Joe had hundreds of friends, people who loved him dearly. He may well have been St. Peter’s best-known parishioner.
As a child, our hero lived in a little North Dakota farming community; it was apparent when he started school that he was a quick study.
It was scholastic studies that brought Joe to Greeley, to further his education at the University of Northern Colorado.
Joe and Sharon Hodges married, and daughter Sydney and son Jeremiah came from their union.
Sydney has become quite good at playing the violin; Jeremiah is an adroit altar server and shows signs of taking after his dad as a lector.
All of this sounds rather commonplace, doesn’t it? Family. Job. Church. Dog. So what was it that made Joe such a hero?
A lifelong diabetes sufferer, Joe lost his eyesight to the disease. Toby was his guide dog. Toby died about a year ago, a crushing blow physically and emotionally to Joe.
Wait. You’re saying, “A blind guy was a lector?” Yes he was a lector, and a good one. You’d hear Joe read and know that his faith gave him the strength to face his challenges.
He was somehow enabled to memorize the assigned scripture reading and then climb to the ambo, face the assembly and “read” in a strong distinctive voice, with hardly a bobble. It must have been a difficult undertaking. Lectors with eyesight don’t do any better than he did.
Everything was a struggle for Joe. He was a huge success despite these challenges. It wasn’t just that he overcame blindness to perform the duty of a lector. It was that he overcame blindness in every way possible.
I once saw Joe walk into a sidewalk signpost, having missed detecting it with his white cane. I also watched helplessly from my nearby seat as Joe stumbled climbing the three steps into the ambo, narrowly escaping a fall.
Whenever I would greet Joe, he would smile and say, “Hello Tom.” He recognized me by my voice.
Joe faced far more challenges than are required of most of us. And yet, his droll sense of humor never left him. He died at 51 of complications of diabetes, too soon for such a heroic man.
Last summer I saw Joe and his two children walking one evening in a shady block in downtown Greeley. He had one child on each arm, and the three were enjoying a cool stroll in the dusk.
I plan to cling to that memory, as well as the mental picture I have of him reciting Bible readings.
Where’s the good news in all this? Joe is no longer afflicted with blindness, with diabetes, with kidney disease. He’s with God, with Jesus whom he so loved. He fought the good fight and he won.
-0-
Word of the week: Diabetes. It’s from Latin and Greek, diabetes, a siphon or to pass through a siphon. It is a disease characterized by an excessive discharge of urine. Hence, a diabetic is a person who has diabetes.
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