Speaking Personally: Where charity and love prevail
Tue, 09/30/2025 - 2:21pm
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The death of a humble servant of God shamed that vapid idea right out of my head.
It is a humbling experience to be chronicler of Willow Springs the week after Father Sherman Wall died. I’m no one important – just the current steward of an inconsequential newspaper. How can I string together any words to adequately honor a man like Fr. Wall?
His obituary appears here. It will give you the facts of his life.
Here, I will attempt a description of his legacy.
On Friday, my family and I attended the funeral of a man who came to Willow Springs as a priest the year I was born. It was a packed event, though not nearly so well attended as it should have been.
For decades, in Willow Springs, charity wore a Roman collar and flat-top haircut. Everyone knew Fr. Wall and knew his reputation for indiscriminate generosity. Fr. Wall founded MUNCH, a food pantry and thrift store that continues today to bless hundreds of families in need.
In 2021, at the age of 91, Father accepted the Chamber of Commerce’s award for Citizen of the Year for his fearless work during the COVID years. He would retire later that year after a fire and robbery at the church office, moving to the home of his religious order in Belleville, Ill. For 36 years, an unheard-of tenure, Fr. Wall served in Willow Springs.
Father’s is a legacy of relentless love of your neighbor. Catholic or not, churchgoer or not, his hands were open, busy, or folded for everyone. You could almost feel his prayers chasing after you, like a blessing you would receive – whether you liked it or not.
Before I watched six priests carry Fr. Wall’s coffin out of Sacred Heart after the funeral Mass, I had planned to use the column this week to talk about the productive conversation downtown business owners had in the recent planning and zoning committee meeting. I intended to praise the members of the community and downtown property owners for having a productive, if somewhat confrontational, conversation that moved the needle in Willow Springs. I may tell that story some other week.
But this week, I heard a church full of mourners sing a farewell hymn to Fr. Wall.
Reflecting on Fr. Wall’s life makes me impatient with the idea of conversations that move the needle. Don’t get me wrong. I was part of that particular conversation, but all my words and spilled ink will fade to nothing without actions.
A man like Sherman Wall did not talk about moving the needle.
He just did it.
Father Wall lived a life of unceasing acts of service. His acts of charity and self-sacrifice were not public record. They did not appear in these pages as news. Yet, Father Wall changed Willow Springs for the better, day by day. He did not do it with productive conversations. He moved the needle with love.
Don’t let me give you the impression that Father was in any way soft or coddling. On the contrary -- he could be quite stern, often exacting. From him, love arrived not in a ruffled package, but in a utilitarian envelope – straight to the point, containing just what was needed.
Confronted with the profound impact of Fr. Wall’s life on this community, on his brother priests and superiors, and on his church, “conversations that move the needle” seem like flighty, insubstantial things – even to a world-class yapper like me. Father’s life of prayer, service, and love inspires me to action.
His death inspires me to urgent action. I spend so much time observing elected officials and government agencies that I actually thought a good conversation in a municipal committee meeting was a great leap forward for this town. The death of a humble servant of God shamed that vapid idea right out of my head.
How could I forget that our work here is ultimately not for Willow Springs, or anywhere else? For Father Wall, his goal was to glorify God and lead souls to heaven.
“Where charity and love prevail, there God is ever found,” as the song goes.
Father Wall devoted a life to small acts of service that added up to a towering legacy of generosity. His final blessing to me is a conviction to act more and talk less. I have say, from Fr. Wall, a swift kick in the right direction is a fitting adieu.
Anima ejus, et ánimæ ómnium fidélium defunctórum, per misericórdiam Dei requiéscant in pace.