DOMECQ Joseph (Father)

The book of Wisdom has just underlined an essential point of our Faith; death, a necessary passage tond true peace, perfect happiness and eternal life.

Joseph has been weakened by sickness in recent years; his health deteriorated and he had to use a cane with which he did have done well. He struggled for many months to save his appearance as a strong man, but his sickness ate him every day a little more and the heart did not provide him with necessary energy to fuel his will and his vivacity which he showed in his life. [...] It was not easy for him to accept his fragility and vulnerability. And yet even this stripping was necessary to him to accept this letting go, indispensable to accept the limits of our humanity which is our lot to all. [...] The Lord has blessed with graces him to make this trying experience but, despite all speed, of “the external man who goes to ruin but the inner man who renews himself from day to day”, as St. Paul said.

If the book of Wisdom sheds lighton this trying hour of death, the Gospel brings out the fruits that Jo Domecq produced in his life as Betharramite religious priest. He had many qualities but also faults, like you and me; he had his limits, his resistances, his contradictions, like all of us. He might have suffered from his brothers; he too could have hurt his brothers. All this is in the hand of God-a merciful hand capable of making effective the reconciliations that would not have been concluded at the human level.

Our brother knew to deploy the gifts and personal capacities of which he was not deprived but which the Lord had granted him widely. As religious of Betharram, it is of course the Heart of Jesus who was his source of love. Because attached to this Heart of Love, as the branch is to the vine, he was able to spread love around him.There are many who have benefited from the compassion, kindness, indulgence and mercy of God. Thanks to his closeness to humanity and his priestly ministry. He knew to prolong the impetus of the Incarnate Word, came into the world not to judge him but to save him, by bringing consolation, comfort and encouragement to the wounded of life and to those who are particularly hardened in this life. Many of you have testi ed to us that thanks to his human proximity and religious, you could pass through the dark hours. He had a remarkable empathy towards suffering and tests to allow them to overcome the obstacles that are inherent in human life.

As Jesus had been imbued with the loving heart of his mother Mary,  Jo was very close to Mary here in Betharram in this sanctuary for 8 years and in Sarrance for 12 years. In this rejuvenated sanctuary, thanks to the sense of beauty he had and the team of collaborators and volunteers he had been able to surround him, it is in our turn the grace of tenderness, mercy and the compassion that we all have to ask for our communities, our families, our movements, our parishes and our neighborhoods; that we be more actors of sharing, peace, serenity and solidarity.

We do not forget that our brother dedicated the rst 25 years of his ministry to young people; in the rstplace, at St Michel Garicoits Vocational Center, from which I am one of the fruits, as chaplain, teacher and bursar of the college of Betharram, then in Pau as chaplain of public institutions, the movement MEJ, the pastoral care of the young people of Béarn, summer camps and assembly outings during weekends. In the aftermath of the Synod of Young People, we should remember how much this ministry which was dear to him needs to be pursued in the Church and by the congregation despite a less fruitful and deserted context. The mountain had been for him a training school very useful to young people and adults to experience sacrifice and effort, overcoming of their fatigue.

For Jo, now it is the time of harvest. In discretion, we know that he will not make long speeches to the Master of the vineyard whom he meets. Humility, it is the best way to bene t from the mercy of God, which is capable to forgive all our human failings. He can count especially on two of his predecessors who inspired him, here at Betharram St Michael Garicoits andin Pau, St. Mary of Jesus Crucified.