ALS-Stricken NFL Star’s Pledge To His Son Reveals A Tiny Taste Of God’s Love For Us

A Million Unheard Souls contributor, Amanda Rose, draws a beautiful, poignant distinction between ALS-stricken NFL star Steve Gleason’s pledge to his son, and the passionate, urgent, undying love our heavenly Father has for each one of us. 

Former NFL player Steve Gleason was 34 years old when he was diagnosed with ALS. He and his wife Michele decided that his disease wasn’t a good enough reason not to have a child together and so just six weeks after Steve’s diagnosis Michele became pregnant. ALS is a fiercely degenerative disease, and with a life expectancy of 2-5 years given to him, Steve knew that he would not be around to see his child grow up. So he started a video journal as “a gift to you my child, who I have not already met.”

That video journal gave birth to the documentary “Gleason” directed by Clay Tweel. I didn’t expect profound words of wisdom from the wild looking young man, face inches from the home video camera, a baby crib in the background. But Steve Gleason managed to get my attention in that very first scene.

“My Number One Purpose…”

Steve expresses so well a loving desire that God has planted within the hearts of so many parents, a love patterned after God our Father’s love for us:

My number one purpose and focus is to share with you who I am and to give you as much of myself as I can, while I can. My intention is to pass on who I am, as much as I can, to you. And I think that if I can do that in a good way, it can be even more valuable than having a father who’s around 30 or 40 years.

I can still picture Steve’s face earnestly looking out at me from the screen, talking candidly to his unborn child. Every time I remember the urgent tone to Steve’s voice, I’m floored realizing that the love God has for us is immeasurably greater, and that God urgently wants to give himself to me. Wow.

God Shares Who He Is, Too

That’s the heart of our Catholic faith – God passing on himself to us. God our Father passes himself on to us, revealing who he is, through every word written in the Bible. So many words describing the details of his love, of his faithfulness to those who worship him, his tender mercy, his desire to be loved by us in return.

And God shares himself with us through his son Jesus. God’s love was in every drop of blood shed by his Son, every nail that pierced his precious body. God wants to give us as much as he can of himself, and he gives even more to us at every Mass. He comes to us humbly and vulnerably, offering his own body, blood, soul and divinity to you in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.