During a trip to Avila as part of his coworker year program.

May, 2009. Atlanta, GA. Eight years ago, I was unable to walk.  My father would have to help me into the shower because I could not do it on my own.  I was crippled.  The experience was humbling and enlightening; life-changing to say the least.  Before, my life was all about sports, fun, and toys… until I was in that motorcycle accident.

I was a young professional, doing well from my worldly perspective.  As brand manager for a multinational firm, I split my days between Mexico City and Miami.  I would spend my free time and my paychecks on the good life, extreme sports, traveling, working out, partying, and let’s call it “dating” for all the wrong reasons.  I went to mass on Sundays too, and I had just joined Regnum Christi as my Church group du jour.  So I was a good Catholic by my self-deceiving standards. 

One particular summer, all I cared about was that I’d made the cut for the Marlboro Adventure Team.  I was training off-road when I lost control of my dirt bike and I fell.  My foot was trapped and twisted in the pedal as my motorcycle kept going.  I could literally feel the sound of my knee ligaments snapping one by one like chicken wings during happy hour.  When my friend tried to help me stand, my knee would bend backward, forward, and sideways; like a drinking straw.  The first week I came back from the hospital, I had a lot of time to anguish about not being able to walk again. 

I prayed and I made this childish promise to God: “Please give

	Standing outside a historial landmark restaurant in Madrid, El Botín, during the coworker trip to Spain and Italy.

me back my leg and I’ll give You a year of my life as a Regnum Christi coworker.” After two years of surgeries and serious physical therapy, I recovered full mobility against dire medical prognoses.  I was given the cross of no longer being able to play sports—ever.  The matter was a big deal to me and I couldn’t help but falling in depression.  Little did I know this was a blessing in disguise; the mustard seed of the life-long conversion tree.

I was healed; and I moved on to my dream job as a television executive with almost three times my previous salary. I was just getting into my old lifestyle—or even worst—although still going to my retreats and young-men’s formation events.  And I was there, being congruent with these incongruities of mine, when small signs started to build up.  One day, the host for a late-night show of which I was in charge, irresponsibly blurted out a very lewd remark on national TV, targeting some 1.4 million children viewers according to my rating reports.  I realized how unprepared I was to face the tremendous social responsibility that my work entailed.

I prayed to God for a few pointers on how I could take care of what truly mattered, and I was reminded of my promise.  God hadn’t forgotten our little pact and I finally accepted His invitation to give him a year of my life at the age of 33; eight years after my accident.  A year of my life suddenly seemed like nothing next to all the blessings I had received from the moment my conception.  Truly, “what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

It’s been almost two years now of entirely entrusting myself to the Lord, and He has done “too many signs in my life to be able to write them on this book…”  He gave me the clue for a solid marriage: faith. 

	In St Peter's Square during the coworker pilgrimage in December.

He gave me the solution to all my problems:  hope.  He gave me the formula to happiness:  make others happy. I asked Him, “teach me how to pray,” and He is at it.  He also taught me how the more you pray, the simpler prayer and life become.  I said to Him, “you can cure me if you want,” and He took care of everything and gave me inner peace for the first time.  My life will never be the same, nor my path to the Father’s house. 

Just a couple of years ago, I was trying to fill my life with adrenaline and noise, until my screeching halt taught me that I needed to learn the value of true inner silence.  Today, whenever I am standing on the sidelines and wishing I were playing, I remember how fragile life is; and how thankful I am simply for being able to walk.  “You made us for You, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest with You.”  My knees hurt at night and they feel 40 years older than me.  I lack one ligament and the rest are pinned together by three pairs of titanium screws.  But these are not nearly as painful as our Lord’s three nails. 

Thank you, Lord, for letting me sneak a peek at the inestimable value of your cross in my own life.  Let me never forget this lesson of your love, and let me carry this cross for as long as You want me to. 

***

The Regnum Christi Movement is currently seeking a coworker with camera and video production skills to work in the area of media. To view an example of Enrique Samson´s video work in his own testimony, click here. If interested, contact us at info@legionaries.org.