All Saints Episcopal Church, Montecito, CA
October 15, 2006
Brother Laurence, OHC
"Behold the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Rev. 21
WE have come together this lovely Fall afternoon to celebrate and honor the life of our friend and brother, Allan Edward Smith. This is a time to be joyful and not sad. I have been asked to tell a few stories about this larger than life compassionate man since I have known him for 46 years and have lived with him for 27 years, 7 in Liberia and 20 at Mt. Calvary.
I first met Allan in 1960 at our house in West Park, New York. I was on my way to Liberia to teach science at the Holy Cross Mission and had to stop at West Park for a few weeks, Allan was very hospitable to me and invited me to go shopping with him. When we returned to the house, I offered to help him carry in a heavy bag of groceries since he was having back trouble. When we were finished Allan looked at me and said, "Arthur, you are truly a Saint." He said it with such conviction that for a short time I actually believed him.
It was over a year later when I was again to meet Allan. After his Life Profession, Allan was sent directly to the Orders Mission in the hinterlands of Liberia. He was not happy about being sent there. He claimed he had this bad back. Allan could be quite grumpy at times. When he finally got to Bolahun he was not a happy camper. The Superior, Fr. Lincoln Taylor had sent Allan to be an evangelist and to train the catechists. For three weeks Allan moped around complaining about his back, the mosquitoes, and the heat. One day I heard Fr. Atkinson, the Prior, stomp down to Allan's quarters, bang on the door, and announced to Allan that he was expected to go on trek the next day with our chief catechist, George Lahai. He was to go to a town called Gondolahun where we had a school and a fairly large group of Christians. Allan went It was a long 25 miles trek through deep bush. He was gone for over two weeks and we were worried. When Allan returned from that trek he was like a new man. From then on it was hard to keep him home.
In 1966, I returned to Liberia after making my Life Profession with Holy Cross, and Allan had become the Prior. As we said in Bandi, he was the Mesangi, or Chief of the Mission.
Allan thrived in Liberia. He loved the people, especially the poor and handicapped. I would like to read to you what Kit Cone a former radio operator and maintenance man at the Mission wrote about Allan. "One of my fondest memories of Father Smith, a large and powerful man, was his devotion to a young man named Sylvester Tamba, who had withered legs. Sylvester, a student at the high school, came up the hill to the monastery even, afternoon. He used a stick to support himself with his torso just inches off the ground as he laboriously made his way up the steep hill. Then he lay on one of the wooden benches on the monastery porch, and- month after month- Fr. Smith would devote 45 minutes every day to working the withered legs back and forth, back and forth, stretching the muscles so the boy could learn to walk. Sylvester was one my students and later he did learn to walk and graduated from high school and later from Cuttington College, an Episcopal college in Liberia.
Allan suffered a great deal from anxiety He wanted everything to go just right When the pressure got too great he would go fishing or go into town for a beer with the Lebanese traders. After ten years of bearing the burden of Misangi, Allan's blood pressure rose to 200 and the Superior recalled him to the United States. The Rev. Abeoseh Flemister who knew Allan well wrote this "Fr. Smith's legacy will live forever in the lives he transformed through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" Allan always told me that those years in Liberia were the greatest years of his life He never forgot those gentle, intelligent, and kindly people of Upper Lola County, Liberia. There is little doubt that the lives of these people hastened the salvation of Allan and all of us who were privileged to learn from them and to serve with them.
Br. Allan is one of the last of the OHC brothers to be completely immersed in the old Rule of Fr. Huntington. The old Rule says, "We are to bear in mind that the vow of obedience is the Portal of the Religious Life." During the ensuing years following his open-heart surgery in 1975, Allan had ample opportunities to pass through this Portal of obedience. During the next ten years Allan was sent by the Superior to our houses in Nassau. The Bahamas, to Holy Savior Priory in South Carolina to West Park, N Y, and finally in 1984 he was set to Mt. Calvary where he served faithfully to the end of his days.
Yes, Allan was a good Benedictine monk whether he admitted to the adjective or not. He was slow to accept the Rule of St. Benedict into his life but slowly he did. He seldom missed attending the monastic offices or the Holy Eucharist even as he became weaker and weaker. As he worked his way up the steps and to the chapel, he would have to stop and rest three or four times. Even when he could no longer make it to the chapel, he would say the offices alone in his room. Allan was also faithful and ardent in intercessory prayer. If any of you asked Allan to pray for you he would not pray your name once a day but three times a day for weeks on end. Br. Christian Swayne wrote this about Allan "Allan was, in my observation, one of the salt of the earth members of The Order of The Holy Cross. He was cooperative, obedient, but usually solidly in the background, living the Life I will miss him more than I realize for that quiet reliability."
About ten years ago Allan entered into a new phase in his life with Christ. He discovered the Kairos ministry to prisoners. Chuck Holt, an active Associate, asked me if I would join the team of Terminal Island #12 for which he was to be the rector. Since I had been involved in several Cursillos, I anxiously accepted. I then asked Chuck if he thought Allan could join the Team. Here again Allan was shy and uncertain since he had not done a Cursillo, Chuck immediately contacted the national Kairos counsel and was able to get a dispensation for Allan. The doors were again opened for Allan to enter and serve God in yet another part of His vineyard, the inmates of the federal prisons at Long Beach and Lompoc. After that first Kairos in Long Beach, Allan seldom missed being on the Kairos teams in Long Beach and later at Lompoc prison. Allan became a new person through his prison ministry and all of us at Mt. Calvary also took a greater interest in the awful prison conditions in the state of California and the country. During this time Allan was called the "crying Monk". It was in the faces and lives of those many incarcerated men that Allan learned to know God more deeply.
I have just one more story to tell you about my relationship with Allan and his relationship with God. For 15 years Allan has taken myself, friends, and members of our community up the winding road to Figueroa Mountain to observe the beauty of the spring wild flowers, which blanket the mountainside. If we got there at just the right time we Could see the intermingling of the orange California poppies with the violet pungently fragrant lupine. I remember how he knew exactly where each wild flower would be, He would say." There will be phlox up to the right and further up will be a field of shooting stars". The last time we went up Br. William had to drive since Allan was too weak and Allan became terrified when I was behind the wheel. How he loved the Mariposa lily. We looked in the usual place but only spotted one wilted lily. When you were with Allan you stopped along the road, got out of the car and searched until you found the designated flower. Allan could spot a tiny flower 100 yards away. Baby blue eyes, phlox, shooting stars, Chinese houses were some of Allan's favorites. But it was the chocolate lily that Allan loved the most. The last time he went up the lily was mot to be found. We had come too late. Allan was so disappointed. Allan always felt the presence of God during those wild flower excursions. During these times his anxieties disappeared and he was at peace.
Our fiend and brother in Christ, Allan Edward Smith, Faada Smeet, Big Al, The Crying Monk, is now with his closest friend and Savior our Lord Jesus Christ. He is still very much present in the minds and hearts of all of us gathered today and in the hearts of the many thousands he has touched during his life on earth. He no longer has to fight the battle of life in this world but has gone to his true home across the river with his Redeemer. Death no longer has dominion over him.
Where Allan is now he will meet his beloved Liberians with whom he shared his love for God. George Lahai will be there with his carriers to take Allan on another trek. Sylvester Tamba will greet him standing erect on both legs and without a limp.
There will men who had known the Crying monk in the prisons at Terminal Island and Lompoc. They will embrace and they will hear the touch of Angel's wings and see glory in each face. And Allan will weep. Death will be no more; neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.
And one thing you can be sure of Allan and Jesus will take a walk into the mountains to see wild flowers. Jesus will show fields of flowers that Allan never dreamed of with their colors intermingled as in a rainbow. And best of all he will see field after field of Mariposa lilies and chocolate lilies, which he so adored. This will surely bring torrents of tears of joy to Allan's eyes and Jesus too will weep.