The man was Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari, pastor of the Perpetuo Socorro parish, a church named for Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Video of the service shows the cross coming down while he stood at the front of the sanctuary. Worshippers in the pews can be heard calling for an ambulance, and the broadcast cut off within moments.
Emergency crews reached the church and carried him to a local hospital. He was later confirmed dead from the blow. Church authorities issued a statement of condolence, and a memorial service was held Sunday, led by the archbishop of Guayaquil.
Neither the church nor local officials have said why the cross came loose from the wall. No explanation has been given about faulty fittings or structural damage, and the question of how it was mounted remains open. One local outlet has said the priest was preparing for a wedding ceremony, but that detail has not been confirmed elsewhere. The video has since spread across social media in several countries, and thousands of viewers have left comments.
The hour nobody marks on the calendar
I have thought about that sanctuary all week. A man rose that morning, put on his vestments, and walked to the front of a church he knew well. He had done it a thousand times. Nothing on that calendar said this would be the last.
My friend, that is the plain fact under every ordinary day. We plan the week. We plan the year. We do not plan the hour we leave. A falling beam, a stopped heart, a car on a wet road. The Bible never softened this, and neither should we.
It strikes hard that the cross itself came down. I will not make more of that than the facts allow. Nobody knows why it fell, and a grieving parish does not need a sermon built on speculation. A man has died. People loved him. Honor that, and speak gently.
But I will say this. The cross on that wall was never meant to be a decoration. It was a reminder of the hardest and kindest thing God ever did. The Son of God hung on a Roman cross, in public, for sinners who had not asked Him. He did not do it so we could feel comfortable. He did it because death was coming for every one of us and somebody had to beat it.
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)
Number your days. Not to frighten yourself, but to wake up. Wisdom begins when a man quits acting as though he has unlimited time. Some of you have put off the question of where you stand with God for years. You were busy. You meant to get to it. The people in that sanctuary on Saturday meant to get to many things too.
Here is the good news, and it is very good. Death is real, but it is not the last word. Jesus stood at a grave in Bethany, and He did not offer a philosophy. He said to a weeping sister:
"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:" (John 11:25)
Notice the words: he that believeth in me. Not the one who is the most religious. Not the one with the longest record of good works. The one who trusts Him. A sinner can lay his whole weight on the finished work of Christ today, in the kitchen or the car or the hospital waiting room, and be made right with God.
The family and the congregation in Guayaquil are bearing a heavy loss, and they deserve our respect and our sympathy. The rest of us who watched or read about it have been handed a quiet question. If this were your last day, would you be ready to meet Him?
Do not leave that question for later. Later is not promised to anyone. Today is the day of repentance, and the Savior is near.