Six Years Later, the Healing Continues

When Eva Rivera started to pull forward and out of the driveway, she felt a bump and then another bump. She thought, "Maybe I ran over a trashcan? Maybe I ran over one of the children's bicycles?"

But then she saw through the windshield the look of horror on the face of Luis Lopez Sr. and knew the matter was far more serious. Eva had run over Luis' child who, in a split second, had dashed in front of the tall front end of her Chevrolet Suburban.

Covered in blood, unconscious, his eyes rolling in the back of his head, the 1-year-old boy, named after his father, was rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital. At one point, he temporarily had no pulse. The outlook was grim.

All the while, Eva kept replaying in her mind the series of events that led up to the accident.

She had made her weekly visit to the Lopez family in Taylor, Texas, to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with her goddaughter, Luis' wife, Jesusa, who had recently expressed an interest to grow in her faith. Eva herself had embraced the message of Divine Mercy back in 1996 after she witnessed her mother die a peaceful death while her cousin prayed the Chaplet. She went on to join a Divine Mercy prayer cenacle and help start cenacles both in Texas and in her native Mexico.

As the young Luis lay in critical condition, Eva prayed, "Why God? Why did this happen? I'm doing Your work,'" she recalls. "But I stopped myself and said, 'OK, whatever is Your will, I will accept. The only thing I ask is don't let me lose my faith. I'm trusting You. Don't let me lose my faith.'"

In this, Eva said she sought to model herself on St. Faustina - to whom she was drawn for the Polish saint's faithfulness and prayerfulness in the face of her many physical and spiritual sufferings.

All the while, Eva and young Luis' distraught parents asked friends and family to pray the Chaplet for Luis.

Jesus promised St. Faustina, "When they say this Chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the Merciful Savior" (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1541). "I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy" (687).

Over the years, Eva had seen many miracles associated with the Chaplet - miracles of conversion or of great peace given to suffering souls at the hour of death. But with young Luis, she would witness what she believes was a physical healing, certainly one that left his doctors dumbfounded.

On June 12, 2011, five days following the accident, still unconscious, Luis lay in his hospital bed, tubes tied into him to keep his damaged liver functioning. His aunt was holding his hand and singing "one, two, buckle my shoe ..." when she felt a squeeze on her finger. Luis had awoken. He was fine. One hundred percent fine. The following day, he was discharged.

Six years later, he's a smiling, happy, intelligent 7 year old who will enter second grade this fall. He wants to be a priest when he grows up.

This past June, Eva, Jesusa, Luis, and Luis' Aunt Anita, fulfilled the promise Eva made to Jesus following Luis' recovery: They made a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to give thanks to God. But there was a second reason for the trip: Eva wished to fulfill her godmotherly role in the life of Jesusa, who, since the accident, has been experiencing a crisis of faith.

"My hope with this trip," Jesusa said, "is to get back on track and to be an example for my family to not lose your faith, and that no matter what happens in life, to know that you always have God with you."

Two weeks after the trip, Eva said in a phone interview that Jesusa and her family are back praying together, which they hadn't been doing.

"Everything is in God's time," Eva said. "The Holy Spirit is at work."

There was another landmark result of the pilgrimage: For the first time since the accident, Eva was able to summon the courage to visit the Lopez home, the scene of the accident.

"For six years, I couldn't do it," she says. "Six long years."
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