A good life lived

Here is the text of the homily I prepared for the funeral we celebrated this morning in memory of a long-standing and well-known personality in the city.

Funeral homily for Ronald (Butch) Degagne

Today is Monday of Holy Week.  Throughout this week, we will recall the final days of the earthly life of Jesus and we will re-tell the details of his final few days.  We will also see in the coming days how everything that Jesus did and said was focused outward (toward the good of others) or upward (in prayer to the Father).  This morning, we are here in this church to pray for our brother Butch, and to reflect for us a moment on the ways in which he, throughout his life, also strove to focus his efforts outward and upward.

Butch grew up in what might be termed today as a large family.  At the time, families of ten children were not unheard of at the time.  Even before they entered any schoolhouse, children learned some valuable lessons about life: the value of sharing, the importance of taking on responsibility, and the importance of getting along with one another.  Saint Matthew refers to this as the virtue of poverty of spirit, and Jesus says that those who learn this virtue will be rewarded: theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:3).

As an adult, Butch met and married the love of his life.  With his wife Anne, he had the great joy of witnessing the birth of his two children: Rhonda and Ron.  When we celebrate baptisms, we are reminded that parents are the first and best teachers for their children in the ways of faith, but while parents might teach their children the lessons they themselves once learned (about sharing and taking responsibility and getting along with one another), I’m also convinced that children end up teaching their parents as well: about such virtues as gentleness and patience.  Jesus says that our reward for gentleness is that we will have the earth for our heritage (Mt 5:5).

When I first began to tell people in this community that Ronald Degagne had died, no one seemed to know about whom I was speaking, but as soon as I used his nickname: Butch, everyone knew immediately who he was.  For almost fifty years, Butch’s Gateway Garage has been a part of the fabric of this city.  The life of a mechanic has never been an easy one: there are long hours involved and you need to be quick with your hands as well as with your mind.  Along with his long-time associate Rick, who he loved as a brother or a son, Butch spent many happy hours at the shop.  While he tinkered away with various automobiles, he learned other lessons too: like the virtue of hungering and thirsting for righteousness (cf Mt 5:6), and peacemaking (cf Mt 5:9).

Life was not easy for Butch.  He was still very young when he lost the love of his life, and tragedy struck again when Ronda’s earthly life ended.  We never recover from the pain of losing the people we love.  In fact, such loss always leaves emptiness in our hearts and wrinkles on our faces as though we never stop mourning for what was and what could have been, but Jesus says that even in the depth of grief, he is there to bring us comfort (cf Mt 5:4).

Butch loved his family very deeply.  Admittedly, he was a feisty fellow at times, but under the gruff exterior beat the heart of a man who was generous to a fault and kind-hearted toward anyone who needed his help.  He was very proud of his children Ron and Rhonda, but his special joy was to spend time with his precious grandsons.  After Rhonda died, he did everything he could to help Josh, Zack and Matthew to have the love and support they needed; and this same love, he willingly shared also with Evan, Nathan and Carson.

What advice can we find today to help soothe our aching souls?  The words of Saint Paul's letter to the Thessalonians might help: be quite certain ... about those who have died (1 Thes 4:13), he told them.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died  in Jesus (1 Thes 4:14).

Having laughed and cried in this world, having known the joy of loving and of being loved, having crossed through the deepest valleys of doubt, Butch now stands atop the mountain of the Lord.  Breathing deeply the air of heaven, he is now participating in a banquet of rich food (Is 25:6), a banquet of which we have a foretaste here at this table.

Receiving this special food that is capable of comforting our aching souls, we trust that God will wipe away the tears from our cheeks (Is 25:8), help us too to look outward, responding to the needs of others, and upward in prayer toward heaven, and fill us with the gift of hope.