In preparation for my arrival in this parish, I was presented with a copy of the parish pictorial directory: the one that was prepared about 10 years ago now. Father Peter encouraged me to scan the pictures and to read through some of the history of the parish so that I would be familiarized with the life of this parish, with some of its history and with just a bit of the important people and events that have contributed to making it such a wonderful community today.
As I flipped through the pages of that book, I read about the priests who have had the privilege to serve here, like Father Edward Lyons. I never had the privilege to meet Father Lyons: he was long gone from this earth by the time I happened on the scene, but Carey and his family knew him. Don and Aura Conway and their children were part of the St. Peter’s family when Father Lyons was the pastor. Carey used to serve for Masses, and I’m told that he even left his mark on the place (in a manner of speaking).
Friends and acquaintances remember him as a student at Sacred Heart school, just steps from these doors. For many years, the Conway family have been associated with St. Peter the Apostle parish. Even though life has now taken them away from North Bay, this is in many ways still their home, and so it is fitting that we gather here to pray with and for Carey today.
It’s a privilege (you know) to pray our loved ones home when the time comes for their earthly journeys to come to an end. Our faith teaches that when this moment comes, each of us will be welcomed into eternal life. This promise was made to Carey on December 19, 1948, the day he was baptized at the Pro-Cathedral of the Assumption. With his parents and godparents to guide him, he was nourished in faith each time he received the gift of the Eucharist in this church and elsewhere.
At some point during his journey, Carey also spent a year of discernment at the Dundas novitiate but priesthood was not to be. Instead his concern for the environment and his thirst for learning took him to many other locations where he had the privilege to play a part in forming the minds and hearts of others.
Questions and concerns about the certainties of faith are often reserved to the quiet of personal prayer. From this place of silence and certitude, Carey perhaps knew the truth spoken by Job in today’s first reading: I know that my Redeemer lives. This is a truth that we know because we have heard it from the lips of the prophets and the apostles – those who were privileged to have known Jesus here on earth. It is a truth that we have professed and lived even to this day. We gather here in this church because like the disciples, we too are coming to believe that anyone who fears God and who does what is right is acceptable to him. The witness of Jesus’ life, his example and his words encourage us as they have for all the disciples who have gone before us. In this world, we are witnesses to the life that Jesus came to bestow. Together we stand dressed for action, with lamps lit … waiting for the day when the Master will return. None of us knows the day, or the hour when the Son of Man will come to take us home, but we know that when that time comes, we will be reunited with Carey, with Don, with Brent and with all those who have preceded us to the House of the Father in heaven.
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