Pa The Hockey Player retired long ago. At a young age, for whatever reason, our Lord carried our Pa onto a different path. Pa The Hockey Player was left behind and what emerged was Pa The Husband, Pa The Father, Pa The Grandfather, Pa The Brother, and so many other titles which can be summed up in one simple phrase: Pa The Role Model. Pa was a teacher who taught by example. He showed us how to live our lives by simply living his. He was a rare man who simultaneously possessed great strength and great gentleness. We can imagine that these qualities are difficult to balance, and like all of us, Pa was not perfect. But he showed us that we don't need to be perfect. We need only try to live like he did, to keep the things which are important in life at the forefront of our thoughts and actions. What was important to Pa, and what should be important to all of us, was family and faith. He was a man of strength and integrity who would stand up for his family. When I was a younger adult, he imparted this lesson very firmly upon me: that a man needs to have the strength to do this. I pray that I will find this strength when I need it in the coming years as I raise my family.

He was also a man of enormous faith. Now let me be very precise about what I mean here, so that there is no misunderstanding. Some people think that faith means a belief in something without proof. The stronger the belief, the stronger the faith. "Doubting" Thomas was the disciple who would not believe in the resurrection until he touched the wounds of Jesus with his own hands. For those who think that faith is belief without proof, Doubting Thomas is the quintessential example of faithlessness. But when I say Pa was a man of great faith, this is not the kind of faith I mean. There are some people in this world who have the kind of faith that Doubting Thomas lacked -- some who can honestly profess their belief in the tenets of their religion -- yet still, in the words of a popular musical group, they fret for their latte or their hairpiece or their Prozac or their SUV. They lack the kind of faith that Jesus calls for in the Sermon on the Mount when he says,

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?"

When I say that Pa was a man of great faith, this is the kind of faith I mean. It is not a belief in something without proof -- a belief held by the intellect -- but, rather, a feeling held in the emotional part of our being. It is a feeling that resides in the heart or spirit or wherever such things live, a feeling which is the antithesis of fear, worry, and anxiety. It is a form of fearlessness which is born not out of brashness and bravado, but out of humility and simplicity. It fosters a respect for what is important in life and acts as a filter, preventing us from giving undue importance to the trivialities of our existence. This kind of faith -- this deeper and more robust kind of faith -- lived in Pa in great abundance.

I believe that Pa, whose Chippewa name was (excuse my assuredly incorrect spelling) Na-May-Ga-Po, which means "Little Religious Boy," met his passing without fear -- that is, with great faith. He said so himself in the final days. So today, let none of us be so distracted by Pa The Hockey Player, who lives in our memories and our photos and our newspaper clippings, that we fail to recognize the true legacy of Max Oshie: a man who, by the example of his own life, taught us about the importance of family, faith, and love.