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Los Milagros de Cristo
by Ann Ball and Robert Morales
You could hear the sounds all over the neighborhood --a loud crack, a pop, then sizzling. The stench of burning flesh greeted those who ran from their houses to stare in horror as a young lineman dangled by his safety belt from a high wire while 7,200 volts of electricity shot through his body that summer morning in 1974.
“As I untied the number 6 wire, I felt the surge going through my body. All I could hear was a loud humming, and I could see myself outlined all in blue. I was hanging upside down; my medal of St. Martin de Porres was dangling in my face. ‘God!’ I prayed, ‘Let me see my family just once more and then my life is yours. Do with me whatever you wish.’
“When I awoke later in the hospital and saw my wife’s loving face above me, I learned part of my left arm and my left foot had been amputated. I had to start over and learn to eat, dress, and walk again. Most important, I knew I was reborn. God gave me a second chance, and I had to learn about him. I lost an arm and a leg, but I gained something much more important.”
Return to the Church. Although his parents had raised Robert Morales in their Catholic faith, as an adult he came to believe that Christianity was just for children and old people and attended only when cajoled into it by one of the members of his large extended family.
Shortly before the accident, Robert’s aunt talked him into visiting a church with her. She stopped in front of a statue of St. Martin de Porres and insisted that Robert touch it. When Robert put his hand on the statue, it seemed as if his hand was stuck there with glue for a few moments. “I tried to pull my hand away, but I couldn’t,” he says. The incident gave him a strange feeling, but he had no idea what was to come. He did, however, accept and wear the gift of a medal of the saint. Today, he considers Saint Martin as his patron.
After the accident, Robert and his wife Roberta began attending Mass. But now, the previously unintelligible ceremony became more real. When the priest raised the host after the consecration, Robert understood the words, “Take up your cross and follow me.” He had received the gift of a growing faith in God and came to believe it was up to him to tell people that God is real.
A Miraculous Image and a New Calling. “Returning from a doctor’s visit on September 27, 1974, my wife commented that it seemed as if a cross was appearing on the back of my wheelchair. At home I looked at it, and could see the imprint of a cross and a dove imprinted on the leather. God has often spoken to men in dreams, and after this image appeared on my wheelchair, I dreamed of an altar. Three times I had the same dream. At last, with the help of my family, we built a small altar where visitors are encouraged to come and pray. We called it Los Milagros de Cristo, the Miracles of Christ. We built it in thanksgiving. It was only after my physical strength was taken that I found the true source of my strength.”
The chapel opened in 1981 with the permission of Bishop Vincent Harris, then bishop of the Austin, Texas, diocese. It was a gift from the Morales family to the community—a place of prayer and thanksgiving. The wheelchair with its inexplicable images has a central place at the front of the small chapel. Statues of the Infant of Prague, Our Lady of San Juan, and Robert’s patrons, St. Martin de Porres and St. Francis of Assisi, are displayed along with floral tributes and other offerings left by the faithful. People of all faiths began to come to pray and to rest and to hear Robert tell his story.
“Many people asked me questions which I did not know how to answer. I wanted to share my Catholic faith, to give Jesus to the people, and yet I didn’t know enough about my own faith to answer their questions. So I went to the bishop and told him my problem. He had me enroll in classes. I studied and became a lay catechist. Now I am certified through the Diocese of Austin.”
The Morales family began helping their neighbors out in small ways. They collected school clothes for needy children, sought out day-old bread for the hungry, and invited their neighbors to join them in Bible study groups. Once started, it became a family crusade. Robert began organizing neighborhood improvement meetings, hosting weekly rosaries, and working with the youth of the area. In a dramatic appeal to the Austin city council, he escorted a young woman who had been beaten by members of one of the gangs in the barrio, in order to convince the city to form a gang task force. A group of singers joined with the Morales family to form a music ministry. Others began a ministry of visiting prisons.
What Is the Real Miracle? Today, Robert Morales works as a lay catechist for his parish of Cristo Rey in East Austin.
“Now I prepare the people of our area for the sacraments, especially the children whose parents cannot or will not take them to church, and some who, because of a criminal record or other reasons, are afraid to go to the church. We study and learn of the love of God. When they are prepared, I take them to the priest at Cristo Rey, who gives them the sacraments.”
The Morales family’s grassroots efforts at bettering their neighborhood and helping their neighbors were eventually organized under a nonprofit status as the St. Francis of Assisi Evangelization Center. Sitting in front of a wall which displays numerous certificates from the Diocese of Austin, Robert is enthusiastic when he talks about the project. “We hope that the fruit of the work of this Center will be to lead people to a more active participation in the faith life of their own local parish. We have a team called El Grupo Los Milagros de Cristo; each of the lay evangelists has his own God-given talent ready to serve the body of Christ in the people of our area. My wife and I have lived in the East Austin community all of our lives. We hope to expand the Center for the betterment of our community and to continue the Lord’s work here. We have pledged our lives and our material goods to this effort. Let it be known, he still lives!”
Visitors to the Altar Los Milagros de Cristo are impressed, of course, with the miraculous images on the back of the wheelchair which seem to have no natural explanation. But after listening to this faith-filled witness tell his story, you may well feel prompted to ask him, “Well, Robert, the real miracle isn’t the wheelchair at all, is it?”
And he will give his big, infectious grin and tell you, “No. It is the hearts, the change in the hearts and the souls for Jesus.”
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