Another Saint? https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/01/praise-god-for-a-life-well-lived/ Praise God for a Life Well Lived Ryan Realbuto was shot and killed after showing us what’s most important. The last thing Ryan Realbuto did in his life on earth was praise God. He prayed a holy hour — silent time before God. He did this the Thursday before the New Hampshire primary and the day before the March for Life — just before the 23-year-old was shot in Washington, D.C. I have no idea whether Ryan was planning on going to the March for Life that I was in D.C. for, but he had moved there from upstate New York after graduating from St. Bonaventure College to join the Capuchin Franciscan Volunteer Corps. Think about St. Francis Assisi — he may be associated with blessings of animals, but he was about so much more. He wanted to be radically available to anyone in need. He wanted to live the Sermon on the Mount. So it was with Ryan, by all accounts. He was shot by a man who wanted money. I’ve been known to be naïve in such situations. People say they need things they may or may not need. In this case, there was a car and multiple men, and they were clearly up to no good. There’s another neighborhood in D.C., Anacostia, where gun violence is routine, the last time I checked; St. Thomas More Church in that neighborhood still had the remnants of a gunshot in one of their windows. Uber drivers tell me they don’t go there. And yet all they need is encounters with others who live virtue and want them to flourish. Isn’t that what we all want for one another? People in Anacostia cannot be forgotten. Ryan wouldn’t have forgotten, by all testimonies about how he lived his life. He was “a kind, gentle person with the purest, purest heart,” his aunt told a local news outlet. “He could not even formulate a mean thought. Let alone verbalize it or act on it on any human being. He was so proud to serve, he was so proud of his work, to serve others.” She added: “He was pure. He was innocent. He was love.” Could that be said of you and me? “He scrubbed dishes in a soup kitchen, did yard work at a foster home, repainted the chapel at a home for women, and helped high-school kids figure out their future jobs,” the National Catholic Register reported. How many of us even think about children in foster care? How many of us do more than argue about abortion? He cared to improve life for both, even at his young age of 23. What more can we do in honoring his life? I have no doubt he lived to show us what is most important. The day after he died, I spoke on a panel at the David Network, a now-annual gathering of conservative Ivy League students. When you read “conservative,” please don’t make assumptions. Most of them I talked with wanted something better than the politics we’re living through again. And they had questions about how they could live their lives in transformative ways. Those weren’t prideful questions, but humble ones. What makes a difference in the world? A former (Democratic) congressman, executive administration official, and I all had the same answer: Get married and have children. Live virtuously. Ryan’s mother is heartbroken. Period. Added to her pain is the loss of the cross he wore daily — lost between the shooting and the medical attempts to save his life. The news of his death, however, has reminded people how to live. Serve the poor. Love one another. It’s not the strategy that consultants get paid for, but it is what matters most. We were marching in defense of innocent human life in the hours after Ryan died Friday morning. Many of us had no idea about the shooting until we read news stories over the weekend. Some of my young colleagues went to church with Ryan. “An old soul” is how they described him. Perhaps that’s why he lived such a short life: because he had wisdom beyond his years to impart about charity and love prevailing beyond anything in the nation’s capital we can come up with politically or policy-wise. We meet people every day whom we will never see again because of senseless violence. We stand in line at drugstores with people who are picking up pills that will kill them or their baby. In a recent New York Times opinion piece, a man made the case for his sister’s assisted suicide, for the “right” to such a death, even while he described how she wept, not wanting to leave her family, just before taking the drugs that would kill her. In Alabama in recent days, a man was executed after a failed attempt for a heinous crime, but who are we to take a life? Life is to be protected from conception to natural death. As people were gathering for the March for Life, a friend shared how her father-in-law had just had a close call, and if she and her husband had not been advocates for him, he might not have survived. Medicine. Culture. Walking down the street. We’re called to reverence life. Some Christians believe that those who get to Heaven can intercede for us — nudge God on our behalf. I pray that Ryan Realbuto is in that position as soon as possible. Not to be selfish, but we need him.
