I was praying for him at the consecration at Mass. When my beloved pastor raised the chalice, I placed this dying priest in it, or so I thought. Fr. Ferdinand Boehme of the Diocese of Lincoln had been two weeks without food and water. Throat cancer was ravaging his body. His death was imminent, and I was suffering in my heart just being aware of his suffering.
Back in the day, Fr. Ferd, as his friends called him, would have been passed over if he were in a crowded room, unnoticed even among his peers. So meek and shy a man, you wonder how he ever became a priest in the first place. But through the years, how many parishioners benefitted from the tender, quiet solicitude he offered them in their need?
It was his encounters with the Blessed Sacrament at his college Newman Center that led Ferdinand Boehme to the priesthood. This kind, unassuming priest devoted himself to humble service in whatever parish assignment was given to him.
He ardently embraced the daily Eucharistic Adoration encouraged by the diocese for all priests. Fr. Boehme’s response to the Lord’s plea, “Can you not watch one hour with me?” was a resounding yes, I can. Fr. Ferd remained a faithful witness to the Lord in His request. It gripped his priesthood from the beginning, and his soul quietly flourished in the Light of the Blessed Sacrament. Parishioners knew if they could not find him in the rectory, they would find him at the tabernacle.
Fr. Boehme once told a brother priest, “Our faith is so real. I have encountered Jesus so many times in the Eucharist…I have had so many personal encounters with Him.”
When Fr. Ferd was diagnosed with aggressive thyroid cancer, his heart yearned for one thing: to die in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in the care of a priest who could administer the sacraments to him. He wanted to unite himself wholly with the Passion of His Lord, offer himself as priest-victim back to the Divine Victim who offered Himself for him.
A brother priest provided his own residence for this purpose. A hospital bed was set up adjacent to his private chapel in view of the tabernacle. Fr. Ferd spent his final weeks there, resolved to give himself fully to the Lord. He requested that no morphine be given to him so that he might die with intentionality, with prayers of adoration, and in full possession of his thoughts, offering himself to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament as His priest-victim. He said Mass every day until he could no longer stand at the altar. In the final two weeks of his life, he quietly prayed from his bed facing the altar as his brother priest celebrated the Mass and gave him the Eucharist.
The final day of his life, Mass was offered, and Fr. Ferdinand Boehme received drops of the Precious Blood. The rosary was intoned and, at the announcement of the Mystery of the Resurrection, Fr. Boehme died.
To my joy, I found out that, when I had placed Fr. Ferd’s soul in the elevated chalice in my pastor’s hands, he had died just when that Mass was starting. Perhaps my offering was the first Mass of intercession for his deceased and joy-filled soul. I sat there full of relief that his suffering was over. I was overjoyed because this humble priest fought like a gladiator in the face of suffering and death, and he was victorious in Christ. What a breathtaking victory!
I felt a rush of elation come over me for the victory of this priest. Do you have any idea of the effects of throat cancer, the ravages, and the pain? To endure it as a Catholic priest for souls, for the Church, and for the love of Jesus crucified? We scream at sporting events, bouts, and contests of every stripe, but the victorious death of a victim-priest of Jesus Christ? Who would even know about it?
I was so full of joy for Fr. Ferd! But then my heart went on full Catholic mode…
Knowing of his ardent devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, I quickly asked for his help to obtain funds to produce a children’s book on Jesus in the Tabernacle that I was longing to create. The project was stalled because I needed several thousand dollars to hire a professional illustrator.
By God’s grace, Fr. Ferdinand Boehme answered that prayer, miraculously, within four hours.
I believe because the project was about leading children to the tabernacle where Jesus is truly present, a theme that was his quiet passion, that Fr. Ferd acted with a swift, resounding YES!
Thank you for your priesthood, Fr. Ferd. Thank you for the powerful priestly witness of offering your painful death to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. May your triumphant sacrifice bear the fruit in new adorers of the Lord! As you requested, we will all pray for you.
Diocese of Lincoln, I think you have a little saint on your hands…
Editor’s Note: For a heartfelt story on the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, check out this author’s new children’s book, This Little Light of Thine, available from Sophia Institute Press.
