It was the morning of the 28th of October in Guadalajara, Mexico. At the usual time of his awakening, he was found to be deeply asleep, asleep in the arms of the Father. There was no grimace of pain, nothing indicating any agitation. We were deeply moved as we looked upon Father Ignacio’s beloved face that was so well known to us. An eternal peace enveloped him and his serene expression showed us that he was already at rest in the Homeland that he had always, always longed for.
We meet today to accompany him on his journey to the Father. We feel that that there are songs of happiness in heaven at the arrival of a man who gave his life for others following the example of his beloved Jesus Christ and that he is enjoying the fullness of his eternal rest.
But his earthly life was not one of rest. On the contrary, he was a tireless traveller witnessing to the God of Love, traversing continents to bring the Good News to humanity. The divine experience he had early on in his life marked him and accompanied him until the end of his days. He was an example to each one of us who saw in him a man seduced by Jesus Christ, wrapped in the tenderness of God’s love.
His strong introspective and contemplative tendencies that he began to cultivate and fuel from his youth, were inherited from his father’s side. His father, a tough and venerable Basque patriarch, spoke of Jesus Christ with a reserved tenderness and remaining in ecstasy before nature’s splendour, would exclaim in his expressive Basque language: “Ze ederra!” “How beautiful!”
All was not in vain as upon his arrival in Chile in 1959, he would discover the Andes Mountain Range. For him, it was love at first sight. He would head out every weekend taking the road to Farellones, and find refuge in the foothills of the Andes. At that time when the Workshops were born in Santiago, Chile, it was his example that awakened in us that potential, that overwhelming force of longing, latent in the human spirit, that erases monotony, empty ritual or activism, leading us along the paths of prayer.
We could not persuade him at all during these last two years to stay home and work quietly on the final and official documents of the Re-founding of the Prayer and Life Workshops. We were not successful. We were continually hopping on and off planes. Tireless worker that he was, and probably sensing that his end was near, it was during these Weeks that he would invite us to lock ourselves in to work day in and day out on the documents and we did it. We, the International Coordination, ended up tired. He was not.
He insisted again and again: I have to be close to the family of Guides at this crucial stage of the Workshops, so that they understand that the news that they carry to the world is based on an intimate, personal prayer, holding the hand of Jesus. That this is how we will achieve permanent conversion; that everything else is mere words. He kept repeating to us: it is only insofar that we do this for Jesus Christ, will it be enough for the world to change. At the end of my life, I am convinced that only prayer that is face to face with God prepares us to be faithful to the Gospel and allows us to move towards christification.
His inner strength was admirable. A resolute man, as he described himself, he entered wherever a door was opened to him. He founded the Prayer and Life Workshops, which are offered in 43 countries by 17,000 Guides on the 5 continents. He has also left us a vast spiritual legacy in his 16 books, and a posthumous one that we will have later on. To which we add Conferences, Retreats, Encounters- Experiences of God, audio and DVD recordings on various topics.
His great friend and collegue, Father Camilo Luquin wrote in 1985:
“Ignacio, a Basque Capuchin, resident of Chile since 1959, now a fully mature man, 56 years old, belonged to those groups of young people, insomniacs and “idealists” , and therefore, he was inclined to daydream, cultivating utopias in the secrecy of his conscience, timidly hinted at, sometimes, through his poetry.
It was as if, sensing his destiny, that is, his future prophetic mission, the newly ordained priest, Ignacio, wrote in 1954:
“ Light flickers in eyes that were dead,
New voices return from exile,
Pulsating hearts rise from the bottom of the sea,
And resurrected arms are raised powerfully towards heaven.”
And indeed, many dull eyes would light up and many stiff arms would acquire a new strength through God’s grace and be mediated through the priest, Ignacio Larrañaga. We, the Guides of the Prayer and Life Workshops, are witnesses to the innumerable testimonies that attest to this. He, recently ordained, shy and introverted, with the air of being always afraid, and without intellectual pretensions was not able to know it then, that one day, he would be able to gather crowds to listen to him, leaving people captivated.
On all the flights that I accompanied him, he always had his Bible open on the Psalms. He didn’t take a break or a holiday. He felt a great urgency to communicate to the world that God is Love; that He loves us unconditionally. He wished that the world would suffer less or that it would be a little happier. He taught us to share cups of joy wherever we went.
I met him in 1984, when the Prayer and Life Workshops were started in Santiago, Chile. I was struck by his imposing figure, his seriousness and his way of speaking that was measured and deep. I was impressed by his fervor and enthusiasm when he spoke of Jesus Christ, his penchant for solitude and silence, always pointing out that anyone who wanted to take God seriously would only be able to do so in silence to then be able to move the multitudes with conviction.
Through the Workshops he made available to us a complete path of evangelization spanning 15 weeks to help us discover the free and unconditional love of God for each one of us. In this way, as pilgrims of faith, we were able to abandon ourselves into the hands of the Father with infinite confidence, recovering the beauty of life by means of inner reconciliation. And to achieve an intimate, deep encounter, in silence in His Presence. All this while simultaneously returning to the whirlwind of life, always keeping present the dazzling figure of Jesus Christ before us.
Today he is not physically with us, but his parting words, ALWAYS PRESENT, that were repeated to us over and over again will resound in the hearts of the Guides all over the world because today we take up our batons in the relay race. We are not alone brother and Sister Guides. We have his prayers of intercession and nothing will hold us back from doing things better than we did yesterday. We feel that we owe him so much, because he provided so much for us. And it has already been proven.
In Mexico, in the Culmination Week in Guadalajara, the Guides continued the Week with mixed feelings but they did what he would have liked: the Week went ahead and ended as all the others. And the two remaining Weeks will go on in the same way. In Cuba, today, the 61st Week is already starting and next Friday we will be travelling to Puerto Rico, which will close the program that we began together. New strength has been reborn in us and we will continue in our commitment as active Guides.
Father Ignacio, we want to make our words those of St. Francis’ when he died, which you repeated to us daily during the days of Re-formation of the Workshops: We will begin again to serve the Lord, because we have done little or nothing up ‘till now.
And we will do so, dear Father Ignacio, we will not let you down. You are more alive today than yesterday in us, Guides of the world. Your arrival will be light that will guide our footsteps towards a better world and we will be able to sing alleluia when we are together again in our eternal Homeland.
Are we afraid? No way!
Sadness? No way!
You are with us….
Santiago, Chile, November 3rd, 2013.
