"I'll talk about Father William Furlong as a historian, lecturer and Jesuit.

And I say historian, lecturer and Jesuit as one who seeks the ultimate foundation of reality, in this case of a person.

If I tell you: "This morning I took three laps of the lake," I'm making history.

"This morning I took three laps of the lake", I can have all the vivacity as possible, I can repeat, but - narrating - I never get tired, I get tired, do not sweat. I tired this morning when I ran three laps, but probably no one knew.

So I want to tell - and maybe I need to tell - "This morning I took three laps of the lake." This is making history. Because there is not enough an event or series of events. The important thing is to tell there story.

So the P. Furlong, the famous historian is, above all, one speaker - that is, a builder rhetoric from reality.

But if we take a step further we can say: Not that the Father William Furlong, in addition to being a historian - a speaker of the story - was religious. Was reversed: first and foremost was a religious and a Jesuit priest.

His work with young people, their work in schools, in Catholic Action, in search of vocations in the many spiritual retreats, there are more than the simple expression of a great truth: Father Furlong was a man of God. And this man was God who made history ... and who makes family history.

And what unites all of this is public speaking, because - as José Luis Avila says in a note on P. Furlong - "Do not just convert souls, but became more what he played."

This is the Jesuit who was devoted to the study of history, this is the nerve Jesuit historian. And in the middle in the center - the most formal - be joining his Jesuit with his interest in the history of oratory.

The speech that seeks to awaken the noblest that can exist in one person, particularly a young man - and he worked mainly with young people - is the same speech that tells the story, where also the only thing that matters is the noblest.

He told me Father Miguel Angel Moreno when I was in the 2nd year of novitiate making their U.S. led by Father Furlong told the novices a phrase that caught my attention - and in fact not forgotten - "The only page of the Gospel that deserves to be ripped is the rich young man, because he said no to Christ."

This statement paints the full-length Father Furlong and lets us glimpse the nuances of his oratory.

The tireless worker, enthusiastic and inspiring preacher has no eye for the low ...

And here comes a way of conceiving and making history - such as family history, of course - where they talk about the past is the result of the same enthusiasm for winning new vocations for the future.

And so, the story hardly enter into anything that sounds desedificante, pages that deserve to be torn from the book of history.

It's true - says Father Avila - many times the Father Furlong seemed to live more comfortably with the characters of the past who was studying with his contemporaries, but it is also true that knew how to reconcile with his time when in a historic embrace with Father Arrupe recovered the faith and hope in the contemporary world. "

Today sees the light of the twenty volumes left unpublished. Maybe re-read a page back to awaken in us that nobility to which I looked at the Father Furlong. "

Rv. Father Jose Luis Narvaja sj.