Straight out of Alabama State University, Biggs enlisted, married his college sweetheart, and completed training to become a missile officer, holding the keys to nuclear weapons. His service took him to such places as North Dakota, Alaska, California, and Colorado. As the young couple adapted to military life, Biggs and his wife, Jasmine, grew their family. Rufus, Jr., was the first addition, followed by a daughter, Nakeshia. The Biggses rounded out their family when they welcomed twin boys, Courtney and Christopher.

In 1995, Biggs retired from active duty as a major and returned home to Birmingham. He and his wife were raised Baptist, but the strain of military life prevented the deacon from making church life a priority. With a fresh sense of clarity, the newly retired serviceman longed to have his children baptized. He went searching and attended various churches until one man by the name of Talmedge Foster, a fellow American Legion member, invited him to Mass at Our Lady, Queen of the Universe.

Having never stepped foot in a Catholic Church didn’t seem to intimidate him. On the contrary, somehow Biggs, almost instinctively, was able to follow along with other parishioners. “I was just fixated,” he remembers. Not before long, Biggs and his children were attending R.C.I.A classes.

On Holy Saturday in 1996, five members of the Biggs family were welcomed into full communion with the Catholic Church. At the time, Father Vernon Huguley was pastor, and he made a habit of asking the newly confirmed if they had any ideas on how they could serve the parish. Out of nowhere, Biggs eagerly spoke up and said, “I want to be a deacon!”

“Whoa,” replied the pastor. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you’re a neophyte.” So, he applied the brakes on the idea, but the “on fire” Biggs didn’t lose his desire to serve the Church. When the diocese opened a new application phase for the diaconate program in 2008, he brought the notion home to his wife. Still a practicing Baptist, she was unable to commit to fully supporting her husband in the ministry, which is a requirement of all married applicants, so once again, the enthusiastic Biggs tapped the brakes.

Life, however, continued to progress along until the day Biggs received a call that seemed to make the whole world stop cold. His daughter called frantically saying she couldn’t awaken her mother. After being rushed to the hospital and put into a medically induced coma to no avail, a difficult decision had to be made. “I had to get my kids together and make a decision to take her off of life support,” recollects Biggs. “That was hard in and of itself because I blamed myself.” After 37 years of marriage, Jasmine Biggs passed away in 2012.

With four adult children and one grandchild reeling from the despair of losing their mother and grandmother, Biggs personified strength and maintained his position as the rock of the family. “That was very difficult for me,” he admits, “but I always had hope and believed that the good Lord would take care of you even in difficult times.”

The widower immersed himself into teaching, even accepting a job in Aberdeen, Mississippi while still owning a home in Birmingham. Staying close to his parish family allowed a door that was once closed to be thrust open. When the diocese announced the opening of another application phase for the diaconate program, Biggs was able to finally take his foot off the brake pedal and move forward in faith, applying to and ultimately being accepted into the program.

On Dec. 1, 2018, Deacon Biggs and 23 other men were ordained as permanent deacons by Bishop Robert J. Baker at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham. “My daughter placed the dalmatic on me,” he remembers with a slight smile. “Even when my kids were telling me I should be sitting back, relaxing, and enjoying life, I wanted them to understand that faith can propel you every day to get up and take on tremendous responsibility, even when you think you can’t.”

The good deacon’s life would again come to a standstill on July 27, 2021. He was spending time with his daughter’s son, Cameron, when the boy’s stepfather called. “I just shot Keshia,” the man on the other end of the line said nonchalantly. Deacon Biggs and his grandson ran to the car and sped over to the house his daughter shared with her new husband and their six-month-old baby girl. When they arrived, police tape was already blocking the front door. He was told what he in his heart already knew: his 41-year-old daughter had been pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head.

To this day, the murderer is free to walk the streets as he awaits his day in court, but astonishingly, Deacon Biggs is quick to point out, “I forgave him.”

His sense of peace wasn’t instantaneous, but as a father, he knew he had to be a “bigger person” for his kids. “If I profess to say I am a deacon, go around spouting out, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ and don’t display that, then what good am I?” he asks.

For many, the thought of vengeance would be irrepressible. “I would want to kill him” is something Deacon Biggs hears time and again, but he counters those sentiments with wisdom obtained through his relationship with the Lord. Hard feelings for another “can eat you up.” “I have turned it over to the good Lord,” he explains, “because if I take it away from Him, go and hurt this person, then I’ll be hurting myself.” That hurt would be a direct result of a lack of faith and hope. “If you let yourself despair,” Deacon Biggs continues, “you will put a chasm between you and God.”

In short, suffering, disappointment, and heartache are going to come “knocking at our door” and at our most vulnerable times, but as Pope Francis stated at his announcement of the Jubilee 2025, “Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.”

At the funeral for his daughter, Deacon Biggs was invited to preach the homily. For those in the pew, one set of instructions stood out. “We have to stay prayed up,” insisted the grieving father, “because if you are, then you are able to withstand the blows of life.” Of course, there will be pain and hurt, and, at times, it will seem as if the Lord is not listening. After all, our time is not His time, but as the good deacon points out: “You have not because you ask not. … Have the whole armor of God on you when trouble comes your way. Yes, it’s gonna come. There are gonna be people who you love that are gonna leave you. There are things that you can’t foresee, but if you are already prayed up, it doesn’t take much for God to turn the page on your life and say, ‘Well done, My good and faithful servant.’”